As anyone who has ever been there knows the city of Phoenix, Arizona is one of the hottest, driest and sunniest cities in the United States and the world. Phoenix has an average daily temperature of 72.7 degrees, the city averages just 7.46 inches of precipitation a year and the sun shines 85% of the time in the city. But on rare occasions it does snow in Phoenix, Arizona.
Located in the so-called Valley of the Sun, Phoenix has an elevation of 1,086 feet and the city rarely sees any snow. The surrounding mountains and higher elevation areas in and around the city of Phoenix, though, do get annual snowfall but snow in the city of Phoenix itself is a rare occurrence
According to the National Weather Service the largest documented snowfall to ever occur in Phoenix took place on January 21 and 22, 1937, when one inch of snow fell at the Federal Building (now post office) located at Central and Fillmore. Over the two days up to 4 inches of snow was reported to have fallen in other parts of the city and some snow remained on the ground for up to two more days in shady areas.
Here are six other occasions when measurable snowfall occurred in the city of Phoenix, Arizona.
1. February 20, 2013 - up to 1" of snow fell over parts of Phoenix including covering some golf courses.
2. February 2, 1939 - .5" of snow fell in Phoenix
3. December 21 and 22, 1990 - .4" of snow fell in parts of the city
4. March 12, 1917 - .2" of snow fell
5. November 28, 1919 - .1" of snow recorded
6. December 11, 1985 - .1" of snow recorded
The coldest temperature ever recorded in Phoenix is 16 degrees. While it can get below freezing in Phoenix in winter at night it almost always rises above freezing during the day so Phoenix is very unlikely to ever experience any significant snowfall and certainly would never have a period of time when snow remained on the ground for more than a few hours or days at the most.
But as shown above it does snow in Phoenix on very rare occasions.
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