File:Arizona Snowfall under the Snow Moon (MODIS 2022-02-20).jpg

English: 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 top most 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.