A wind gust of 51 mph Wednesday was Tucson’s strongest officially recorded in February in the last 50 years, the National Weather Service says.
And although the winds brought down power lines across the Tucson metro area, closing roads and creating some havoc, the city’s strongest gust looks tame compared to the 85 mph one recorded by the weather service Wednesday off Interstate 17 about halfway between Flagstaff and Phoenix.
Wednesday’s strong winds were due to an abnormally strong system that was passing through. The storm system has since moved to the east.
The intense winds also caused power outages and trees to fall on Mount Lemmon. Due to the damage, Ski Valley closed on Thursday.
While it is too soon to tell if Ski Valley will open in time for the weekend, its operators are working to get everything back up and running and hope to reopen soon.
Interestingly, Tucson’s second strongest February gust of the last half-century came just a few days earlier, on Feb. 17, at 49 mph at Tucson International Airport, where the city’s official weather records are kept.
In fact, out of the 14 total February days since 1973 with gusts of 45-plus miles per hour in Tucson, five of them occurred this month, the weather service says.
The city’s records are:
1) 51 mph, Feb. 22, 2023
2) 49 mph, Feb. 17, 2023
3) Tie: 48 mph, Feb. 24, 1998 and Feb. 13, 1994
5) Tie: 47 mph, Feb. 14, 2023 and Feb. 19, 2011
Elsewhere in the state on Wednesday, the high wind gusts resulted in 66 flights being canceled and 45 others delayed at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport by 9 a.m.
Wind, combined with snow from the winter storm, also led the Arizona Department of Transportation to take the rare step of preemptively closing major roads in northern Arizona, the Associated Press reported.
After a stormy week, the weather in Tucson will warm up Friday and Saturday. Friday is predicted to have a high of 69 degrees and Saturday a high of 73.
The warm weather won’t last long as another storm system is expected to move in on Sunday, bringing some rain chances with it. While it may be a bit breezy, the weather service says the winds won’t compare to Wednesday’s.
Usually it gets warmer during the day. Yesterday it got cooler. What will today bring?
