Frost/Freeze — Greater Phoenix Area, Arizona

2013-01-12 to 2013-01-16 · Greater Phoenix Area, Arizona

Event narrative

A very cold airmass settled in across the desert southwest from Saturday January 12th through Wednesday January 16th. The cold and relatively dry conditions led to widespread freezing and sub-freezing temperatures across the greater Phoenix metropolitan area. The low temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor fell below freezing on 4 consecutive days, with the coldest morning low of 29 degrees recorded on January 15th. The colder outlying areas of the Phoenix area fell into the low to mid 20s each morning, and the extreme cold caused many pipes to burst, and led to citrus crop losses as well as the death of many frost sensitive plants and trees such as ficus and lantana. The freeze event led to the issuance of a continuous freeze warning for the Phoenix area beginning Friday night January 11th and running through Wednesday morning on Janaury 16th.

Wider weather episode

A deep and very cold area of low pressure developed across the desert southwest during the middle of January 2013, which led to widespread freezing and sub-freezing temperatures across the lower deserts. Freezing temperatures developed on the morning of January 12, and continued for 4 days. The coldest morning was on January 15, the final day of the freeze outbreak, and the temperature that morning at Phoenix Sky Harbor fell to 29 degrees. The freezing temperatures resulted in significant damage across the deserts, in the form of burst outdoor pipe, crop damage and dead frost sensitive plants and trees, such a ficus and lantana. Freeze, and hard freeze, warnings were issued for the deserts of Arizona during this cold temperature outbreak.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 428666. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.