I know I don’t have to remind you of this, but it has seemingly been a long winter for much of the country. If you got sick and tired of the cold and snow, you either booked a vacation to escape some place warm or relocate for a few months to a warmer part of the country. One of those areas people tend to go to is the Southwest, where the warmth has been building up lately, and to the point of potentially breaking records this weekend.
The view out towards Huntington Beach, CA is simply wonderful. Folks are out and about in light clothes, enjoying the mild breeze and the sounds of the Pacific Ocean.
Further inland, out towards Phoenix, the sun is also shinning, but it feels a lot warmer. You can see the haze hanging over the city with the mountains somewhat visible in the background.
Strong high pressure has been lingering over the Southwest, allowing plenty of sunshine to come on down and temps to rise up. In some spots, they are seeing the warmest temperatures of the year so far. Check out the departure from average for Saturday.
As we go into Sunday, the warmth continues to drive up temperatures, well above average in some spots.
So lets take a look at the high temps for Saturday around the region. Temperatures in southern Arizona are looking to get to 90° possibly.
By Sunday, we are expecting much of the same around the area. Check out Denver, CO’s temps from Saturday to Sunday. They jump from the 30s to the 60s and go from -8° below average to 20° above!
Phoenix tied a record on Friday and looks to break the record high for Saturday and Sunday.
In Tucson, the average high is 69° and temps are going to go up a good 15°+ this weekend!
Over in Albuquerque, NM, temps are generally in the 50s for this time of the year and we are looking to stay in the 70s where records were last made. Sunday’s forecasted high temp of 73° could break an over 100 year record.
In Las Vegas, the heat didn’t break records on Friday, but it got pretty darn close. We look to flirt with record breaking heat today and tomorrow.
Wave of Warmth Through The Week
If you think the Southwest is going to hog all the heat for themselves, you’d be happy to know that is not the case. The warmth is going to spread eastward, towards the Midwest and into the East Coast as we go through the week ahead. Check out the link above for an animation showing the rise in temperatures over the country.
Have a great rest of your weekend!
Meteorologist Addison Green ~ Twitter: @agreenWNTV
