Weather whiplash: Phoenix temperatures to nosedive as cold front hits region

PHOENIX – After record highs over the weekend, temperatures are expected to nosedive this week as a cold front moves into metro Phoenix.

“We’re going to see … a nearly 20-degree drop in temperatures from today to tomorrow,” Isaac Smith of the National Weather Service (NWS) in Phoenix told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday morning.

The mercury is expected to reach the lower 90s on Monday before an unusually hot October chills out over its final few days.

“We’re going to see a potent cold front pushing through the region later tonight into early Tuesday,” Smith said. “With that, it’s going to bring much colder air to the region along with a slight increase in rain chances along with increasing winds.”

The rain chances are slim, however, with a higher probability to the north and east of the Phoenix area. Little, if any, accumulation is expected in the Valley, Smith said.

There hasn’t been any measurable rain at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, which the NWS uses for the city’s official readings, since Aug. 22.

How will cold front affect Phoenix temperatures?

Even if doesn’t rain, the weather shift will be significant. The Phoenix forecast calls for highs in the lower to middle 70s Tuesday and Wednesday and the lower 80s the rest of the week, about 5-10 degrees below average for this time of year.

In addition, the overnight lows will be in the 50s, and possibly even the 40s, Smith said.

It’s going to be an abrupt change from when Phoenix set daily records for high temperatures on Friday and Saturday. It even reached 100 degrees on Saturday, a day shy of the latest triple-digit day ever seen in Phoenix.

Regardless of how much it cools off this week, this month will go down in the record books as the hottest October ever in Phoenix. Arizona’s capital city also experienced its hottest June and September this year.

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

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