Just a day after the Phoenix region registered a record 50th day with a temperature of 110 degrees or more in a calendar year, noticeably cooler temperatures have settled in for the weekend.
The high on Saturday is expected to be 101 degrees, and just 97 degrees on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service in Phoenix.
With the drop in temperature comes higher chances for rainfall in Maricopa and Pinal County for the weekend. The weather service has issued a flash flood watch through Sunday night with locally heavy rainfall in the 1-inch to 2-inch range. The heavy rain and strong thunderstorms could start as early as late Saturday afternoon and last into Sunday.
Forecasters said Friday night that Casa Grande could be in line for as much as 1.5 inches. The moisture moving into the region from the south is resulting from a pair of tropical disturbances off the Mexican coast, they said.
Chances for showers and storms will linger through early next week before drier conditions return by Wednesday. Temperatures will gradually warm up during the latter half of next week before likely returning to above seasonal normals.
With 50 days at or above 110 degrees, the region crushed the previous record of 33 days, set in 2011, according to records dating to 1895.
Arizona had the second-hottest May-June-July period and its third driest on record, since 1895, according to data compiled by the NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.
Only 2006 was hotter for the May-to-July period and only 1963 and 1993 were drier than 2020, the weather service said.
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