TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Thick snow is piling up in the Northeast while Southern Arizona is dry even for a desert. KGUN9 was at University of Arizona talking to a National Weather Service meteorologist about the dangers a continued dry winter could bring.

We have not needed an umbrella for a very long time except maybe for shade. Even by Arizona standards it has been an unusually hot dry winter.

It doesn’t take long for snow to go from white, fluffy and beautiful to a wet, messy, sometimes dangerous nuisance.

But here in Arizona, people are crying for at least a little bit of some sort of moisture.

Over at Harlow Gardens, Melaney Quinnrose is looking for plants with a better chance of surviving a drought.

“Yeah, it’s definitely been drier. We got a lot more rain last winter. I still had green stuff in my backyard last winter, and I don’t now.”

Cyndi Anderson is adjusting to keeping plants in Arizona after living in Washington state.

“I couldn’t believe in December just how quickly things can die, if you’re not on it.”

“So we’re running drier than normal right now, especially compared to last winter.”

At the National Weather Service Tucson office meteorologist Dalton Van Stratten says they’ve recorded no rain at all at the airport since November 3rd.

You can blame the drought on a climate effect way out in the Pacific Ocean. A surge of cold water called La Nina usually brings dry winters to the Southwest.

But our winter rains are important to build water reserves.

Van Stratten says, “If we don’t receive enough winter to restore the water in the aquifers, then we can have increased drought conditions so the soils will dry, the vegetation will dry, which will cause an increased concern for our fire weather season, which typically is in the mid to late spring time.”

But he says except for an occasional rain that breaks the pattern expect this year’s winter to stay dry.

An Arizona pastor was busted for secretly recording videos of women using his church’s bathroom after the camera fell out of a dryer, according to police.

Arturo Laguna, a pastor at the Casa de Adoracion in Phoenix, allegedly installed the recording device in the church bathroom last fall and recorded the women in October and early November, according to a police report obtained by Fox 10 Phoenix.

The perverted preacher was only caught after a mother discovered the camera while changing her baby’s diaper inside of the strip mall church’s women’s bathroom, cops said. 

Investigators later found screenshots of Laguna adjusting the camera inside of the bathroom. When police interviewed Laguna, he confessed to having put up the camera in October. 

Authorities searched the camera’s SD card and uncovered four short videos of adult women using the bathroom, according to the outlet.

The pastor was arrested in November and charged with multiple counts of voyeurism — a felony in Arizona. 

He was indicted last week and is scheduled to appear in court again on Jan. 9.

The Post has reached out to Casa de Adoracion for comment.

In October while he was allegedly filming the women, Laguna, who leads a largely immigrant congregation of about 100 people, spoke to the Associated Press about his faith community and the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

If we had opened the 2024 season knowing the Arizona Cardinals would be an 8-9 team I think everyone would have been on board.

The part that is extremely difficult to deal with is how they arrived at 8-9.

We will have plenty of time to go through that, but for now, we look at a couple of things.

1. The Arizona Cardinals improved from 4-13 to 8-9 in one offseason and let’s be honest the talent is still questionable at best.
2. They have a really nice base of players, and a lot of money to fill holes.
3. They will be drafting 16th in the 2025 NFL Draft as of now.

Oh yeah, that’s what this is about, the Arizona Cardinals enter the 2025 NFL Draft season with the 16th pick in the draft.

The San Francisco 49ers will pick 11th, the Seattle Seahawks will pick 18th, and the Los Angeles Rams will be TBD.

So, how has the 16th pick faired in the ‘20’s?

2020 – A.J. Terrell – Please ignore that he is one of the best corners in the NFL. The 16th pick stinks.

2021 – Zaven Collins – See! 16th pick stinks!

2022 – Jahan Dotson – Ok, maybe it does stink.

2023 – Emmanuel Forbes – I’m beginning to think it’s the teams making the picks.

2024 – Dallas Turner – See, I told you things were fine.

In all honesty, the players available at the 16th pick show that this pick can be of huge value. Now it’s up to Monti Ossenfort and company to realize that value.