NEWS

Big rains in Valley now predicted for Monday

Randy Cordova
The Republic | azcentral.com
Weather

Heavy rains initially predicted for the Valley this weekend may not hit until Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

"The arrival of the real window of precipitation is Monday," says Austin Jamison, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The reason for the delay? The storm is coming from the northwest and has gone slightly off-shore, he says.

"There are different kinds of moving parts to the whole thing," he says. "It's not like when there's one nice, coherent cold front that comes, and then you're all done in one nice fell swoop."

That explains the intermittent drizzles that have been seen today in the Valley and will continue through Sunday. The "pesky and piddly" minor showers (Jamison's words) mostly have been in the western and northern portions of the Valley.

Expectations of heavy storms caused such events as Scottsdale's La Gran Fiesta to be moved indoors. At Glendale Community College, a 50th anniversary car show and celebration was canceled.

Jamison says they weren't premature in addressing the weather.

"It was smart to have the contingency to make the moves and be better safe than sorry," he says. "If you put Monday's situation on Sunday, everybody would have had problems."

On Monday, he expects a half-inch of rain to fall in the Valley. Monday also will see a drop in temperatures. On Saturday and Sunday, the high should be 72 degrees; on Monday, expect a high of 64 degrees.

Jamison says the damp weather is not surprising for this time of year.

"Any time from November to March is not unusual at all for us," he says. "This is a perfectly normal."

Reach the reporter at randy.cordova@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8849. Twitter.com/randy_cordova.