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Late fall is here and the weather has turned very chilly in the eastern White Mountains. Alpine, AZ is at an elevation of 8050′ and is considered to be the highest agricultural community in the United States. This means cattle ranching - since there are very few items that will grow at this altitude other than root bearing vegetables such as carrots, onions, beets, potatos, etc.

Alpine typically receives 150″ of snow annually, in 2007 we were right at 150″, but for the previous 10 years we only averaged around 100″ - which is considered to be drought conditions. We’ve had two snows so far this season, a skiff on October 5th - and approximately 2″ on November 9th. Each “snow” yielded approximately 4″ above 9000′ elevation.  

Snow is a rare event in late fall/early winter in Alpine. The weather pattern usually keeps the moisture out of our region until February. February to May it can literally snow at anytime and has in the past. Memorial Day weekend 2008 yielded 11″ on the ground, which of course melted off by evening. However some of the more memorable storms are in March - two instances in recent memory yielded 40″ plus dumps that continued for a couple of days. These storms are usally wet and power outages are widespread - figure anywhere from 24-48 hours before the lights go on again. So, if you’re building a home in Alpine, Nutrioso or Greer -  it’s a good idea to install manual transfer switches on your main power panel. These switches are fairly inexpensive, less than $500, and will allow you to manually turn off the power from Navopache Co-Op Electric and utilize a generator system for power. A good generator can be had for less than $700.

For more information on Alpine Arizona weather, hiking, flyfishing or Real Estate, please visit:

http://www.AlpineNutriosoRealEstate.com