PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A storm system located well west of San Diego is drawing a lot of moisture and clouds from the subtropics. We expect the next few days to be mainly cloudy with a slight chance for Valley showers as early as New Year’s Eve.
There is already a bit of light rain over in Southern California. We expect California and northwest Arizona to get most of the rain from this system, but any significant rainfall is not expected in Arizona.
Also, this is a very warm storm, so snow will only fall on the very highest elevations of the state, think Snowbowl and higher elevations. Flagstaff will only see rain.
The chance of rain on New Year’s Day in the Valley is around 50%, but, as mentioned, only light showers are expected. Most of the Valley will see ¼ of an inch of rain or less. Some of the upsloping areas, as the desert transitions to the mountains in the far north Valley, could see more rain. Of note, it’s only rained on New Year’s Day 18 days since recording keeping started in the late 1800s, so climatologically speaking, rain is pretty rare on the 1st. However, a few years ago, ringing in 2023, we got nearly a ½ inch of rain at Sky Harbor.
On this day in 1915, a huge snowstorm dumped a reported three feet of snow in Sedona and 5 feet of snow in Flagstaff over three days.
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