PHOENIX — This unprecedented, record-shattering heat wave is almost over!
Phoenix Sky Harbor has marked 20 straight days of record-setting high temperatures, and we could add one more day to that count before high temperatures finally fall below record thresholds.
Phoenix will top out at 101 degrees today. The record high stands at 100 degrees set most recently on this date in 2020.
Overnight lows have also set records most days this month for how warm they have been, but low temperatures will continue to fall in the coming days too, so that should keep them below the records for the rest of this week.
Valley highs will fall into the 90s starting Tuesday with an even bigger drop in temperatures coming later this week as a fall storm system moves into our state on Friday.
Phoenix could cool all the way down into the low 80s starting Friday as rain chances also go up around our state. There's a chance for scattered showers in the Phoenix area as early as Friday morning, with showers possible into Saturday before we dry out again.
Stay tuned for updates on this incoming storm in the coming days!
While it finally looks like we're going to catch a break from this unprecedented heat wave, 2024 is going to go down in the history books for all of the record-shattering heat we've experienced.
Phoenix has marked 141 days with highs at 100 degrees or hotter, the third most on record. While we may be done with these triple-digit temperatures for now, we can't rule them out completely over the next couple of weeks. While on average, our last triple-digit day is October 5th, we've seen highs in the 100s as late as October 27th. That happened in 2016.
We have at least seen the last of those 110+ degree days, but not before Phoenix marked its latest 110+ degree day ever on record on October 7th this year. Previously, the record latest 110+ degree day was September 19th, set in 2010.
The city recorded 70 days with highs at or above 110 degrees this year — also an all-time record! That shattered the previous record set just last year, which was 55 days.
Even with temperatures trending down, with La Niña building in the Pacific, it's likely that we'll continue to see warmer and drier-than-normal conditions through the fall and winter months.
Our drought has been getting worse lately with the hot and dry monsoon season we just had.
Phoenix only picked up 0.74 inches of rain this monsoon, which ties for the seventh driest monsoon on record. Our 30-year average (which is considered our normal amount of rain) is 2.43 inches. But, it's important to remember, that is a decrease from the previous 30-year average of 2.71 inches (from 1981-2010) as our Valley climate continues to get hotter and drier.
With an overall average temperature of 98.3 degrees, Monsoon 2024 was also the hottest monsoon ever recorded in Phoenix. That breaks the previous record of 96.9 degrees which we just set last year. All of the top 25 hottest monsoon seasons have occurred in the last 25 years.
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2024 Sky Harbor Official Rainfall to date: 4.54" (-1.05" from average)
Monsoon 2024 Sky Harbor Official Rainfall: 0.74" (-1.69" from average)
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Daily rainfall reports from all across the Valley can be found here.
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PHOENIX IS GETTING DRIER - LOWER RAINFALL AVERAGES NOW
Average Monsoon Rainfall in Phoenix (1981-2010): 2.71" of rain
NEW Average Monsoon Rainfall in Phoenix (1991-2020): 2.43" of rain
Average Yearly Rainfall in Phoenix (1981-2010): 8:03" of rain
NEW Average Yearly Rainfall in Phoenix (1991-2020): 7.22" of rain
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