SYNOPSIS: Yesterday’s forecast went flawless here at Arizona Weather Force, with storms forming in the focus spot areas, and outflow winds hitting the Phoenix and Pinal metro zones during the early part of the night, within the Arizona Weather Force Dust Storm Warning (Reference A Below). Tuesday into Tuesday night for more widespread precipitation, and Friday Havasu to Bullhead City needing a wind advisory or warning due to north winds so read on for details …
DISCUSSION: Today, the zone for hit and miss shower and thunderstorm activity will expand to the entire eastern half of the state. Expecting most of the concentration to be in two areas today. First one is Navajo and Apache County, and the second is around the Eastern Pima County zones, east to Cochise County again, including Sierra Vista, with a more favorable flow off the terrain to your west.
Isolated activity will be possible (not shaded) in the Yavapai forecast zone near or south of Prescott. This will also move eastward to I-17, with another isolated spot over or just east of Sedona.
The toss up will be any cells forming just east of Phoenix later on, and pushing into Fountain Hills and eventually into Gila County’s elevated areas.
The red-outline is my area of fun interest. Given that in the short range I do see a small area of upper divergence on or near Casa Grande, Coolidge, and Florence later on, there is a chance of cells moving east, across Pinal County in that small zone that will be capable of strong downburst winds.
TUESDAY: The most active day will be this day as cells ahead of a true Pacific cold-front forms in the afternoon, followed by the main cold-front for more widespread precipitation, especially the Mogollon Rim communities, (Rim Country). This will be a two part system with ‘monsoon’ like cells during the day, and a cooler front overnight into Wednesday morning, even for the metro zones from Flagstaff, Prescott, Phoenix, Tucson, and much of Arizona, minus Yuma. Now, it won’t be a lot for the metros, but the most will fall; again, within the Rim areas. Additional updates to this will be given when more information is crunched.
FRIDAY: Northern half of the Colorado River areas will see strong northerly drainage winds, common behind storm patterns, which causes the Santa Ana Wind Pattern as well in Southern California. Wind gusts over 30+ mph in Havasu likely with 50+ mph gusts in Bullhead City. Wind Advisory or Warnings will be issued or needed by Wednesday for your small section.
Reference A – Thunderstorm Watch and Metro Dust Storm Warnings Issued for March 29, 2026; Details – https://arizonaweatherforce.com/2026/03/29/thunderstorm-watch-and-metro-dust-storm-warnings-issued-for-march-29-2026-details/
Raiden Storm
Master General Meteorologist ( D14 )