February 20, 2022 - Arizona Snowfall under the Snow Moon

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A winter storm swept across Arizona on February 16, 2022, bringing rain
to the East Valley and fresh snowfall to the high country. The storm
was perfectly time to coincide with February’s full moon, which began
at 9:56 a.m. local time in Phoenix, Arizona on that same day as
precipitation fell across the region. The name “Snow Moon” is given to
the midwinter Moon because of the heavy snows that typically fall
around this time, particularly in the northern and northeastern United
States. Because bad weather and heavy snow could make hunting
difficult—and greens impossible to find—this full moon has also been
called the “Hunger Moon”.

While precipitation was constant throughout most of the day, only small
amounts of rain and snow fell across the state. One of the most notable
events was hail that fell near Prescott for less than a half-hour,
according to local news. Prescott sits near the center of Arizona in
the high country of the Bradshaw Mountains.

On February 17, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this false-color image
that highlighted Arizona’s snow. This type of image uses a combination
of infrared and visible light which helps separate cloud from snow and
ice. Snow appears electric blue while cloud looks white or—if the cloud
contains ice crystals—may be tinted with a pale electric blue. Open
land looks brown; vegetation is bright green and deep water looks
black. With this combination, it is easy to see that patches of snow
topmost of the high elevations across the state, including north of the
Grand Canyon (seen at the top of the image). In the east, cold clouds
(white with pale blue tint) are likely the trailing edge of the storm,
which has dropped snow as it passed.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 2/17/2022
Resolutions: 1km (41.9 KB), 500m (155.7 KB), 250m (512.8
KB)
Bands Used: 7,2,1
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC



https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/individual.php?db_date=2022-02-20

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