Potential for Oak Creek Flooding...Fw: Approaching Storm Warning

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SEDONA – (January 14, 2010) – The Sedona Fire District has been made aware of a series of approaching storms that are anticipated to affect Northern Arizona, including the Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona, beginning Monday, January 18, 2010 through Friday, January 22, 2010.

The National Weather Service has advised of the potential for hazardous weather including snow and rain at higher elevations, a wind advisory and rainfall in the lower elevations throughout the week that may cause localized flooding in Oak Creek and the Verde River basin.

The first system, slated to hit Monday evening, is predicted to bring rain at elevations below 6000 feet, 2-6” of snow from 6000-7000 feet, and 6-10” of snow above 7000 feet. This storm is predicted to move out by mid-day Tuesday.

The second system is predicted to arrive late Tuesday evening and last until mid Wednesday. With a colder air mass, this storm is predicted to produce rain below 5500 feet, 4-10” of snow from 5500 to 6500 feet, and 8- 12” of snow above 6500 feet.

The third system is due to arrive by late next week (Thursday evening). This is a warmer, more prolonged, windier and wetter system. At this point, the forecasts are slightly “fuzzy”, but this storm is predicted to bring rain early to the higher elevations, resulting in the potential to melt the snow deposited by the first two storms. This storm is then expected to cool, and produce snow again over the higher elevations. Preliminary predictions indicate this storm could produce 2-4” of rain over the higher elevations, however, before this cooling occurs, it will likely produce serious flooding in the Oak Creek and Verde River drainages. Additionally, this storm has the potential to produce wind gusts of up to 50 mph. Localized small stream flooding is also a potential, within Sedona/VOC.

For weather updates visit http://weather.gov/Flastaff.

Updates will be posted to the Sedona Fire District website www.Sedonafire.org for. For additional information contact the Sedona Fire District at (928) 282-6800.