11-26-16  3:45 – A Winter Weather Advisory has been issued for portions of northern Arizona for late Sunday morning through Monday morning. Please see attached for details.

Narrative: Two waves of winter weather will affect northern Arizona late Saturday through early Monday. The first wave is expected Saturday night through Sunday morning. The second, more intense wave is forecast Sunday afternoon through Monday morning. The second wave is what the winter weather advisory is issued for.

The period of heaviest snow is forecast from 1pm Sunday afternoon – 11pm Sunday night. Please see attached snow table for detailed point forecast snow amounts.

11/21/16 – The Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests’ Springerville Ranger District will be burning slash piles on November 21, 2016. The legal description is T6N, R27E Sections 2, 3, 10, 11 & 12, and T6N, R28E Sections 8 & 17 as well as T7N 28E Sections 31 & 32. Scattered piles will be burned across roughly 500 acres of forest land. Ignition is planned for one day only and smoke impact is anticipated along Highway 273, Highway 261 and Forest Road 409. In the interest of safety, forest visitors are reminded to use caution when traveling in the vicinity of the pile burn as smoke may reduce visibility in the area.

Prescribed burning provides many benefits and is essential to maintaining healthy forest ecosystems. It provides habitat diversity, recycles plant nutrients into the soil and encourages new growth for a variety of plants used by wildlife and livestock. Prescribed burning of forest ground fuels also reduces the threat of large scale wildfire impacts to private lands. Crews will be on scene from ignition until there is no longer a threat of escape from the project boundaries. Prescribed fire operations are subject to cancelation due to unfavorable weather conditions.

For questions or concerns please contact the Springerville Ranger District at (928) 333-6200. Also, check out our website at: www.fs.usda.gov/asnf or follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/apachesitgreavesnfs/ or check out Inciweb at http://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5062/.

11/15/16 – The National Weather Service has forecast a tough and cold front which will generate gusty southwest winds beginning Wednesday and into Thursday. Expect gusts in the 25-40 mph range. A significant drop in temperatures is anticipated for Thursday and Friday with the coldest temperatures so far this fall on Friday morning.

A return to high pressure is anticipated by late Friday into the coming weekend, though forecast models indicate a return to unsettled conditions is possible early next week.