The fierce winter storms that hammered California with relentless rain, heavy flooding and mudslides and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people have reached Arizona and are expected to bring a mix of rain and snow across the state.
Rain began to fall Tuesday afternoon as the leading edges of the storm arrived. Heavy rain was predicted overnight and through Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.
The systems pushing into Arizona are fueled by El Niño and atmospheric rivers, long regions of water vapor in the atmosphere, much like a river in the sky. According to scientists at NASA, atmospheric rivers can move more water than double the flow of the Amazon River.
While Arizonans are not expected to see the same severe impacts by these phenomena as California, forecasts call for potentially heavy rain in Phoenix and Tucson and as much as 2 feet of snow in some high country locations, according to the National Weather Service forecast.
Southwest Arizona is expected to see precipitation totals range anywhere from a trace to 0.25 inches, with the central deserts getting between half an inch to an inch, and an inch or more in the higher terrain of south-central Arizona through Wednesday night.