HERE IT COMES

EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING/WATCHES ISSUED BY NWS PHOENIX
for Phoenix, Casa Grande, Gila Bend. Tucson could also soar above 106°.....and Yuma - well,
they're going to be in Dante's Inferno.

RECORD OR NEAR RECORD HIGHS WILL OCCUR MONDAY AND TUESDAY ACROSS THE
DESERTS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL ARIZONA. HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL RANGE FROM
106 TO 109 DEGREES...WHICH MAY BE BREAK CURRENT RECORDS BY SEVERAL
DEGREES. SOME SPECIFIC FORECASTS FOR MONDAY INCLUDE 108 AT PHOENIX
SKY HARBOR /RECORD 105/...106 IN CASA GRANDE /RECORD 109/...AND 108
AT GILA BEND /RECORD 109/.

TUS going for 99-104 Monday and 101-106 on Tuesday. I just got my temperature sensor mounted outside today so I can start reporting my local temps on my homepage in time. My wind sensor appears to have been damaged in the move and I had to replace the rainguage so it will be a while before I'm fully operational on my weather station.

Steve

Wow...and I just want it to hit 70 here. LOL!

Welcome back, Steve. Missed your pithy comments.

In mid to upper-80s even up this way the next few days. Feels good, actually.
The tomatoes and eggplant are groovin'.

Temp forecasts have been revised upward
now closer to 112° - Yuma will sizzle at 111° and very likely
to top that easily. At this hour, Goodyear (western Phoenix suburb) has
already topped 100°; Tucson is at 96°


RECORD OR NEAR RECORD HIGHS WILL OCCUR TODAY THROUGH TUESDAY ACROSS
THE DESERTS OF SOUTHEAST CALIFORNIA AND SOUTHWEST ARIZONA...INCLUDING
THE LOWER COLORADO RIVER VALLEY. HIGH TEMPERATURES WILL RANGE FROM
108 TO 112 DEGREES...WHICH MAY BREAK CURRENT RECORDS BY SEVERAL
DEGREES. SOME SPECIFIC FORECASTS FOR MONDAY INCLUDE 111 AT YUMA
(RECORD 109)...110 AT EL CENTRO (RECORD 108)...AND 112 AT BLYTHE
(RECORD 108).

Phoenix has hit 103 and is climbing.
Bullhead City is at 104.
These will all go higher today.

This is shaping up to be one of the all-time great May heat waves in the West...everyone from Seattle to San Fran to LA to SLC to Phoenix breaking records.

Ironically, these much-above normal temperatures will be followed by much-below across much of the same area later this week. According to the models, much of the desert Southwest will go from 12+ degrees above normal on Tuesday to 12+ degrees below normal on Thursday!

I looked outside, and saw the road melting. It is that time of the year again. The hotter we go, the greater the benefit we see for the monsoon (which I predict will be 'early' and above average).

Yuma hit 113F today and Tucson International 98F. I had 99F at the house.

Steve

HIGHS FOR SUNDAY MAY 19, 2008

Phoenix: 105° (record is 107° so we were off by only two-degrees)

Yuma: 113° which set a new record high for the date (previous record was 109°)

Both Phoenix and Yuma could break their records for Monday too:
(record high 5/19 for Phoenix: 105° - record high 5/19 for Yuma: 109°)


Yeah Weatherbee, a couple more days of the pre-microwave, then a cooldown.
You're predicting an early start/wet Monsoon? Great!

Records broken all over the state today:

Yuma hit 114° which broke previous record of 109°

Phoenix was 109° which broke its 105° record

Casa Grande reached 109° which tied its previous record

From the 00z Observations, the max temperatures recorded have been

Tucson 103F
D-M 101F
PHX 110F
YUM 115F

A tad toasty for sure.

Steve

Las Vegas shattered its records for May 19 and May 20.

The high temperature for 5/19/08 was 108 degrees. This breaks the old record high of 102 degrees set in 2006. Wow!!
This is also the earliest in the season that it has hit 108 degrees; the next earliest was 5/22/2000.

Also, the low temperature for 5/20/08 was 85 degrees. This destroys the old record highest minimum of 77 set in 2006. This is also the earliest in the season that the low temperature has been as warm as 85; the next earliest was 5/28/2000.

Wow send that east please, especially in July and August!

MORE ARIZONA RECORD HIGH TEMPS TUESDAY MAY 20 2008

Yuma: 112° broke previous record of 110°
Phoenix: 108° set a new record from the previous 106°

Tucson hit 103° which was two degrees shy of the 105° record
Casa Grande was 106° one degree below record 107°

That's it in the Arizona high temp record department for at least a week.
Models show several vort disturbances rotating in, possibly dropping temps
a full 30 degrees in some locations but those winds - Red Flag criteria again.
Nice to have a week's respite from the microwave which when it kicks in won't
give much relief until October. Enjoy the heat kids.

And for all of our Eastern brethren -- we'll send as much your way
as possible. Trouble is, the guys up north throw in those cold fronts
and the Gulf guys send up the moisture surges for some nasty dry lines.
Midwest should start crackin' soon: Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan,
Pennsylvania. Hold on to your shorts. As soon as we get back to blasting
the heat, you'll get the nasty stuff.

Winds are cranking up and the temperatures are already below what they have been the past two days but still in the 90's. SLPs in AZ are sub 1000 mb in places which is really low for May (and in fact, for SE AZ low for even the winter). Pressures dropped like a rock overnight.

Steve

Some peak wind gusts so far
TUS 45 mph
FHU 49 mph
DUG 58 mph
Safford 51 mph
Hereford (S of Sierra Vista) 62 mph

Sea Level Pressures locally in SE AZ are in the 992-995 mb range which is extraordinarily low for here in May and some sub 990 pressures have been reported in AZ. Local pressures in the Sierra Vista area are in the low 840 mb range (record low there is around 835 mb) which are below the numbers we reocrded in early May 1999.

Steve

Yes, this is a very deep trough for May. I expect some record lows will be set throughout the West, less than a week after many record highs!

The Pre-Monsoonal HEAT BLAST is here: highs in the 110°-115° range
with the HIGH moving over the southeastern corner of Arizona which
helps moisture move into the Southwest. Temps all over the deserts
of AZ will be close to or in the Excessive Heat Warning criteria for
Phoenix, Tucson, Gila Bend, Casa Grande, Marana, Ajo, Yuma.

SUMMER SOLSTICE SIZZLES

More record high temps expected today -
Yesterday's highs: Phoenix 114° Yuma 116° Parker 118° on Colorado River

Phoenix reported six consecutive days of 112°+ likely to extend to eight days
by Sunday (tomorrow). That would equal the second-longest block of 112°+
max temps in Phx since 1895. Back in 1990, Phoenix had the longest record
block of 112°+ highs for an agonizing nine days. Looks like we're going to
break that second longest block of days....this weekend.

Tucson's record today is 114°...predicted highs could hit 110-113°
Icewater anyone?

The summer baking season is here in full effect. When I mean baking, we all know that is about. We need to bake before we have our summer rains.

Safford, Yuma and Casa Grande dewpoints have already spiked into
the 40s which is good for jiggling the atmosphere loose. Phoenix has already
hit 112 today and we're just getting warmed up. Tuc is balmy at 108F.
Nice inflows from the East also!

Temperatures across Metro Tucson ranging from 108F to 114F and Bullhead was 118F last I saw so we can finally say it's hot in Tucson.

Steve