Phoenix area in for a warmup after starting year with below-normal temperatures

PHOENIX — After enduring a stretch of colder-than-normal weather to start the year, the Valley is in for a warming trend.

“By the latter half of next week, we might exceed the 70-degree mark for Phoenix,” Gabriel Lojero, meteorologist for the local bureau of the National Weather Service, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Friday morning.

After a second consecutive day with highs in the 50s on Friday, the forecast calls for temperatures to start rising.

“This weekend, we’re going see a gradual warmup, but still temperatures are going to remain below normal,” Lojero said.

“We’re going to see highs leach into the 60s … by Saturday and Sunday, and then the good news is that we’re going to warm up even further as we head into next week.”

Has January been colder than usual in the Valley?

Temperatures have been running about 5 degrees below normal since the calendar turned to 2024, Lojero said.

“We’re going have to wait and see how the rest of January turns out to be,” he said. “Given that we’re going to be in going into a warmup, that departure from normal is going to be smaller.

“There’s a potential that things could balance out a little bit as we head through the second half of January.”

Is there any rain in the forecast for Phoenix?

After light showers hit the Valley on Thursday, the holiday weekend should be free of rain, with mostly sunny skies. In fact, there isn’t any precipitation in the seven-day forecast.

2023 ended as the 15th driest year on record for Phoenix, with just 4.21 inches of rain measure at the airport, which the National Weather Services uses for the city’s official records.

There was hope the El Niño weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean would lead to a wet winter in the Valley, but the year is off to a slow start.

Rain has been detected at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on three days so far this month, with a total of 0.03 inches measured, 0.3 inches below normal.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Jim Cross contributed to this report.

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