Expect Rain In The Phoenix Area, Snow Up North

By Lauren Gilger, Steve Goldstein, Jill Ryan
Published: Thursday, January 21, 2021 - 1:02pm
Updated: Friday, January 22, 2021 - 9:26am
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We had a few drops of rain one day in December, but until this week, we’d missed out on real storms here in the Phoenix area for several months.

Now they’ve finally arrived, first on Tuesday, and then some sprinkles on Thursday morning.

At least two winter storms are on the way in the coming days, and they are bringing rain and snow to parts of Arizona over the weekend and into next week.

National Weather Service meteorologist Emily Thornton says these storms — especially the second one — are significant, but not uncharacteristic for the area.

“We’re going to mostly be seeing snow in the high country, but then as we move into the weekend and Monday and Tuesday, [we’ll] see snow levels drop almost down to around 2,000 or 3,000 feet by Tuesday," Thornton said.

Thornton also says storms like these can still happen even though it is during La Niña conditions, which usually means smaller and drier storms. The first storm is expected to produce mostly rain, and the second is expected to be colder.

And when the skies turn stormy, The Show turns to Matt Pace, meteorologist for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, for what we can expect from the weather. Pace joined The Show on Thursday to talk about the weather ahead.

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