Frost/Freeze — Southwest Maricopa County, Arizona

2013-01-12 to 2013-01-16 · Southwest Maricopa County, 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 much of southwestern Maricopa county, including the community of Gila Bend. A Freeze Warning was issued for the area beginning Friday night and running through Wednesday morning on January 16th. On Tuesday January 15th, the warning was upgraded to a Hard Freeze Warning, but the warning returned to a regular Freeze Warning for Wednesday. The colder desert area of southwest Maricopa county fell into the upper teens to mid 20s each morning during the freeze event; on Tuesday morning the Gila Bend airport fell to 19 degrees which represented the coldest of the 5 mornings. The extreme cold caused pipes to burst and led to losses of landscaping plants and trees, garden plants and vegetables, and citrus crops.

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 428947. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.