Tucson experienced its 11th warmest and 15th wettest meteorological winter on record, the National Weather Service office here reported Friday.
The average temperature in Tucson for the period was 55.5 degrees, the weather service said in a post Friday to X, formerly known as Twitter. That ranks as the 11th-warmest average temperature in a Tucson meteorological winter.
The months of December, January and February make up a meteorological winter, compared the astronomical winter which this season runs from Dec. 21, 2023, to March 19, 2024.
Tucson’s official weather records date back to 1895.
The average high for the three-month period was 68.3 degrees and an average low for the period was 42.8 degrees, ranking as the 30th and 13th warmest averages, respectively, the weather service said.
The hottest temperature recorded this meteorological winter was on Feb. 25, when the Old Pueblo reached a high of 86 degrees. The “climatological normal” date of the first above-85-degree high for Tucson, the weather service says, usually occurs on March 5.
The lowest low of this winter period was on Jan. 9, when it was 28 degrees, according to the weather service.
It also marks just the third time a Tucson meteorological winter has recorded lows of 32 degrees or colder, only in January, NWS Tucson says. Only four such days here were recorded this January. The last time freezing temperatures were recorded in January alone was in the winter of 1962-1963, weather officials say.
The weather service says three daily rainfall records for Tucson were set this winter period: On Dec. 22, 1.25 inches of rain fell; on Jan. 21, about 0.8 inches fell; and on Jan. 23, 0.6 inches of rain fell. It marks the most times rainfall records were set in a winter season since 1997-98.
The month of February finished as the 24th wettest and 26th warmest on-record, the weather service said Friday.
February’s average high was 69.5 degrees and its average low was 44.7 degrees. The overall average temperature came in at 56.2 degrees, the weather service said.
Current forecasts have the region “leaning” to below-normal temperatures for the month of March, said Gary Zell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tucson.
The Climate Prediction Center places “equal chances” on total precipitation here, Zell says, meaning that there is an equal (33%) chance on precipitation levels being above-, below-, or near-normal for the month of March.
From April through July, Zell said, prediction center forecasts show the Tucson region might have above-normal temperatures. The precipitation outlook is currently indicating a chance for below-normal rain amounts, he said.
