Frost/Freeze in West Central Deserts, Arizona

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 much of La Paz county, including the communities of Bouse and Quartzsite. A Hard Freeze warning was issued for the area beginning Saturday night and running through Monday morning on January 14th, a regular Freeze Warning was in effect for the remaining mornings during the freeze event. The colder desert areas of La Paz county fell into the middle teens to lower 20s each morning; on Sunday morning Bouse fell to 16 degrees which was the coldest morning of the freeze event. The extreme cold caused many pipes to burst and led to losses of landscaping plants and trees, garden plants and vegetables, and citrus crops.

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.