Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Weather and Air Quality Forecast for the Next Ten Days

Staff Writer, DL Mullan
Weather / Air Quality
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 It's up and down for the next ten days. From 90's to mid 70's on Saturday, then a brief stint in the 80's and straight toward 99 degrees by May 1st. All the while, breezy to windy conditions will remain in the forecast as brush fire conditions are ripe throughout Arizona.
Forecast Discussion: It's going to be a little breezy later Tuesday night with some residual winds into early Wednesday and again Wednesday afternoon. We are not expecting any dust from this event, but local ozone concentrations will likely reach the middle to upper Moderate range at multiple Valley locations Tuesday. Atmospheric mixing will break up the ozone plume Wednesday resulting in lower overall concentrations. Conditions improve and temperatures warm once again Thursday and Friday to around 90°F. We're keeping an eye on the next system. This one will be much larger, bringing some potential moisture to the deserts Saturday. Again, southwest winds could push 20 mph at times, but dust does not appear to be an issue, especially if the system is accompanied with moisture. The biggest change will be temperatures. Phoenix may struggle to reach 75°F on Saturday. That would be about 13 degrees below normal. For now, expect air quality levels to improve after Wednesday, with ozone possible edging higher on Friday.

Source: AIRNow,