Major weather changes ahead for Arizona, including frost warning

On January 21, 2025By Littum

PHOENIX (AZ family) — A sunny but chilly Martin Luther King Day this Monday. Overnight temperatures were freezing in some of the remote areas of the valley, with a low of 39 degrees at Sky Harbor Airport.

This is seven degrees below average, and these cold mornings will continue through the week as we declare an initial frost alert for most of the metro area on Wednesday morning.

Overnight temperatures will be at or below freezing in many of the cold spots in the Valley, so protecting your pipes, plants and pets will be necessary on Wednesday. A Freeze Watch has been issued but is likely to be upgraded to a warning on Tuesday.

A freeze warning has been issued for tonight and tomorrow morning for western Arizona. This goes along with a Wind Advisory that is also in effect until late tonight. These windier and cooler temperatures are all due to a massive trough in the jet stream with a ridge of high pressure just to the west. This in turn causes high fire danger in Southern California.

We should expect some wind across the valley late today and tonight, possibly with blowing dust in western Maricopa County. Gusts of up to 50 mph may be possible tonight across northern and eastern Arizona.

These breezy and at times breezy conditions should keep us well above freezing tonight and into tomorrow morning. But after high temperatures only in the low 60s, our first frost watch will go into effect Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

With the colder air shifting east of the state Tuesday night, daytime temperatures should warm into the mid-60s Wednesday and back into the 70s Thursday-Saturday. Long-range models bring a chance of rain into the Valley by Sunday.

Confidence is still pretty low at this point, but confidence is high when it comes to cooler temperatures across the state Sunday and Monday next week.

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