FLAGSTAFF, Arizona (AP) — A winter storm packed with gusts and heavy snow that closed schools and highways in northern Arizona and New Mexico was about to leave the area late Wednesday. Unseasonably cold weather with chills was forecast to keep much of the Southwest frozen through Friday.
“Thursday’s high and Friday morning’s low will be unseasonably cold across the region,” Albuquerque’s National Weather Service said Wednesday afternoon. “The warmer and drier conditions should improve over the weekend.”
Several sections of Interstate 40 east of Flagstaff, Arizona, experienced multiple collisions and spin-offs after 1 foot (30 centimeters) of snow fell in the area Tuesday night through Wednesday. so it was closed on wednesday. There were no immediate reports of serious injuries.
The same was true for some sections of US Highway 60 in New Mexico, south of Albuquerque. In Los Alamos he reported 15 inches (38 cm) of snow cover, and schools were closed in Santa Fe.
A winter storm warning was set to expire Wednesday night for northern Arizona and New Mexico. However, very cold temperatures were expected from Wednesday night through Thursday from the Sierra Nevada mountains in the west to the New Mexico-Texas line.
Temperatures were expected to drop to -6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 21 degrees Celsius) in Truckee, California. In Ely, Nevada, near Utahline, lows were expected to drop to minus 10 degrees (minus 23 degrees) early Thursday.
In New Mexico, early Wednesday morning temperatures dropped to minus 28 degrees (minus 33 degrees) in Angel Fire and minus 6 degrees (minus 21 degrees) in Taos. A gust of wind blew 46 mph (74 km/h) in Albuquerque.
In Flagstaff, where schools were also closed on Wednesday, it will get even colder overnight through Thursday, with raw temperatures near 0 degrees Celsius (-17 degrees Celsius) and wind chills as low as -13 degrees Celsius (-25 degrees Celsius). was expected.
Even in desert cities like Phoenix and Tucson, temperatures were expected to drop below freezing.
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