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.