Summary of January 2007 Below Normal Temperatures and Rainfall
Coldest Month on Record with a alltime record low set on Jan 14th!!

The New Year and January 2007 started with cooler than normal readings and dry weather. The first cold front of the year arrived on January 5th and in its wake overnight temperatures plunged down to readings that were slightly above freezing. Then a warming trend began on the 6th with the 8th and 9th in the low to mid 70s. The warmest high of the month occured on the 9th with a temperature of 75.6°F. This warm spell would not last long as temperatures began to cool off on the 10th.

About this time a very cold and dry arctic air mass was begining to plunge down the intermoutain west from Canada. We began to feel the effects of this polar air mass on Jan 12th. The cold air mass the coldest since December 1990 began to settle into Arizona on the 13th and 14th.

On January 14th this arctic outbreak caused several alltime coldest records to be shattered at Pepper Ridge North Valley. The mean temp on
Jan 14th was 32.9°F the all time coldest day at Pepper Ridge. The temperature fell below 32°F at approximately 12:35am and it stayed below freezing until 9:30am or about 9 hours of sub freezing temps, including 7 hours and 25 minutes below 28°F mark from 1:25am till 9:00am in morning. The low was reached at 7:47am with a all time record low of 22.0°F at this station, in fact the old daily record low was shattered by 15 degrees!! The high on this date tied the alltime lowest maximum at this station. The high was 44.6°F just barely ellipsing the old lowest maxiumum mark of 45.3°F of Dec 6th, 1998. (see graph at the right)

Another cold night followed on the 15th with the temperature falling below 32°F at 9:20pm on the evening of Jan 14 and it stayed below the freeze mark until 8:55am on January 15th, a total of 11 Hours and 35 minutes!! the temperature was again below 28°F for several hours from 1:25am until 8:25am or 7 hours below the hard freeze threshold. The low this morning was 24.6°F, the second coldest night on record at Pepper Ridge. (see graph at the left)

Sky Harbor the offical recording station for Phoenix recorded 29°F on both nights, these readings were not offically record lows. This was the first time since Dec 1990 that there were offically two subfreezing nights in a row recorded at Sky Harbor.

The night of January 16th would have been a another long sub freezing night,as low temperature had reached 32.4°F at about 12:40am but a breeze raised the temperature by + 10°F to 42.6°F by 7am, however it was still cold enough for the daily record. (full record details are listed in the hightlights box below)

Temperatures began to moderate on January 17th but the warm up was brief. The third storm to the year arrived on January 19th! This storm delivered the first precipitation on 2007 with 0.32 inches on the 19th. A second storm imediately followed on the 21st, this storm brang colder temperatures again and rain and snow to parts of Phoenix,Scottsdale and Mesa. Pepperridge only received rain earlier in the day as the late afternoon snow event missed us by passing a few miles to the east of this station. The same storm system also dropped about 2 inches of snow in Tucson. The pictures below are of the Tucson Foothills looking north towards the Santa Catalina Mountains. (Pictures were provided by the courtesy of the Ghost) Temperatures began to recover towards the end of the month as 70 degrees was reached on January 25th. Another storm arrived at the end of the month with cooler temperatures and delivered modest amounts of rain.

By the end of the month we had recorded the coldest January on record at Pepperidge with a average of 49.1°F. Officially at Sky Harbor it was the coldest January since 1979 with a mean of 52.9°F or -3.2°F below the January average of 56.1°F. Sky Harbor's Average High and low for Jaunary were 63.6°F and 42.2°F. Here at Pepper Ridge it was the coldest month on record. In fact the period of December 2006 through January 2007 was the coldest 2 month span on record at PepperRidge!! We broke and set several record lows on 12 days during the month. The dates were; Jan 7th, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd and the 31st. Details of these records are listed below in the January 2007 highlights box. The biggest record was set on Jan 14 with a alltime record low of 22.0°F

Below is a summary of January 2007

January 2007 Highlights average mean temp 49.1°F
The Normal Average Mean in 54.1°F
So Jan 2007 was (5.0°F) below average

Hotest January Mean Temperature 58.8°F in 2003
Lowest January Mean Temperature 49.1°F in 2007*

* Alltime Lowest January on monthly mean temp on record!!
Old lowest January Mean Temperature was 50.8°F in 2001

Average Max Temperature was 61.6°F
The Normal Jan Average High is 67.4°F
So Jan 2007 was (5.8°F) below average

Average Min Temperature was 38.6°F
The Normal Jan Average Low is 42.7°F
So Jan 2007 was (4.1°F) below average

Hotest January Average Max Temperature 74.6°F in 2003
Lowest January Average Min Temperature 38.6°F in 2007*

* Alltime Lowest monthly average low temperature on record!!

Hotest January Max Temerature 83.5°F on Jan 31st, 2003
Coolest January Min Temerature 22.0°F on Jan 14th, 2007**

**All time record low at Pepper Ridge North Valley!!

Jan Precipitation was 0.69 inches Tied with 2003 for the 7th Driest on record.
The greatest 24hr total 0.32 on Jan 19th

The January Precipation average is 0.88 inches
so the month was - 0.19 below normal.

Wetest January on record 3.18 inches in 2001
Driest January on record 0.00 inches in 2006

Number of Visitors Since March 15, 2005

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