Another cool day ahead Friday followed by a brief warm-up

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — With an area of low pressure passing to the east of us along the New Mexico border, it’s been a pretty blustery day around Arizona and the Valley. Around Phoenix, winds have gusted into the 20 mile per hour range and in the High Country, we’ve recorded some gusts above 40. The winds will start coming down gradually after sunset tonight as the storm east of us begins to move farther to the east, making it less of an impact for Arizona weather. Now we look at a slightly cooler day on Friday followed by a brief, small warm up for the weekend. Any outdoor weekend plans around metro Phoenix should be a go, although it will be a bit cool at times.

For the weekend, we’ll probably see lows around 40 for much of the Valley and highs in the mid-60s. Then we get another change next week as yet another storm moves in from the northwest. By Monday night into Tuesday, we have a chance for rain and snow across Arizona. It’s a little early for precise numbers, but the overall precipitation from the storm is expected to be moderate or less. For metro Phoenix, expect maybe one-tenth to a quarter of an inch of rain beginning as early as Monday night into Tuesday. For the mountains, two to six inches of snow is a conservative number at this point. It does continue a pattern we’ve been in for nearly two weeks since we’re hooked directly into the jet stream. Until we decouple and the jet drifts back to the north, we’ll continue with unseasonably cold temps and periodic rain and snow making storms. As of today, it’s the 13th consecutive day for Phoenix of below average high temps. That streak could easy extend to 20 days.

By the way, a very early look at the weather trend for the start of the Phoenix Open on Feb. 6 (with actual tournament play beginning on the 9th) is for cooler than normal conditions. No surprise there, right? The rain question at this point is literally just a flip of a coin. And since the tournament encompasses four days, we are concerned about rain appearing in the forecast. For the big game on Feb. 12 in Glendale, we’re not even hazarding a guess at this point. But the roof will mitigate any bad weather. It’s just the outside activities that could suffer.

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