Saturday, May 3, 2014

Triple Digits, Santa Ana, and Blowing Dust

Staff Writer, Nathaniel Diaz
Weather / Air Quality
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Triple digits will hit this weekend as a high pressure system comes over the Southwest, including Southern California which will bring Santa Ana conditions. Wind will lessen as the temperatures go higher but with another low pressure system on its way, windy conditions will return by the start of the week.
Forecast Discussion: After a windy past few days, much quieter weather is expected through the upcoming weekend due to a ridge of high pressure moving over the region. PM-10 levels across the Phoenix area were up into the Moderate category, but have since returned to the Good range as yesterday’s haze has cleared out and winds have calmed. Currently, most of the observation network is reporting Good pollutant levels. We are not expecting too much fluctuation in these readings besides an increase in ozone under increasingly west to southwest flow. The bigger story will be hot high temperatures nearing 100ºF for both Saturday and Sunday. Looking ahead, an early week storm system could cause blowing dust issues on Tuesday along with a 15 degree cool down in high temperatures. More on this potential dust event with the next forecast update.

Source: AIRNow, Weather Channel