Forget “Punxsutawney Phil,” we are loving “winter” in the Valley of the Sun!

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Forget Punxsutawney Phil and his six more weeks of winter forecast, sunny skies chased everyone’s blues away this Thursday with highs in the upper 60s. A sunny and dry Thursday as high pressure slowly builds in across the Valley and the state. This ridge will bump the jet stream and the cold airmass to the north to bring back warmer temperatures. Expect lows tonight in the lower 40s to upper 30s in the colder Valley spots. Some clouds will filter over Arizona for most of the day Friday, and winds will be picking up across the area. Some gusts up to 25 mph are possible, but highs will go into the low to mid-70s. Overnight lows Friday night into Saturday morning look to be around the mid-40s.

It’s shaping up to be a fantastic first weekend of February as we welcome in all visitors for the WM Phoenix Open and all the activities leading up to the Super Bowl. Look for sunny and highs in the 70s all weekend long, which will be above normal for this time of year. We are tracking a new low-pressure system that will swing by the Four Corners region by Monday. It will bring cooler and breezy conditions to kick off tournament week and the possibility of light snow for the High Country. This system looks dry, but we will drop back into the upper to mid-60s for the first part of the week. Still a little far out to predict the conditions for the Open final round and the big game on Sunday, so stay tuned!

But if you thought January was unusually cold and wet, you were correct on both counts. We were much cooler than average, with 23 days below the average high. For rain, we ended up with over an inch at Sky Harbor, 0.16″ above average for this time of year with five days of measurable rain.

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