Hotter days, thunderstorms expected in Tucson through the weekend

Temperatures in Tucson will be going up over the next few days, but thunderstorm activity will stick around too, the weather service says.

The high temperatures here are expected to be between 100 and 103 degrees Thursday and Friday rising to between 105 degrees to 107 degrees this weekend, said Kiera Malarkey, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tucson.

The weekend brings highest chances of thunderstorms here — from 30% to 50% in the Tucson area, Malarkey said.

However, she noted “there is still a chance (for thunderstorms) every single day.”

Thunderstorms have the potential to affect temperatures, like Sunday’s powerful storm did when it dropped the temperature from 100 degrees to 74 degrees.

“If a thunderstorm occurs, it usually brings really cool temperatures (and) cool rain,” she said. “It is pretty short-lived, depending on the time of the day, but then it can increase again.”

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Malarkey said the weather service monitors rainfall rates and thunderstorm development when deciding whether to issue a thunderstorm or flash flood warning.

“Thunderstorms can produce pretty heavy rainfall, (and) for thunderstorm warnings we’re looking at radar imagery and once the radar imagery indicates that the thunderstorm is mature enough and has potentially become severe at the surface, we’ll issue out a warning,” said Malarkey.

“When it comes to flash flooding, we’re monitoring rainfall rates, we’re getting live reports letting us know exactly how much is happening on the ground.”

The idea is to have an understanding of how much rain is falling and how quickly it has fallen in a certain period of time, she said. Generally, rain falling between a half an hour to an hour, will likely result in a flash flood warning, she said.

Photos: Monsoon 2024 in Tucson