Gusty weather in the Phoenix area

You're watching the Fox 10 Weather Experts with meteorologist Erica Horvathin on Fox 10 News. Well, it's definitely been a warmer day today. Our temperature is climbing quite a bit across the deserts especially. And this is our 24-hour comparison. So yesterday we were in the upper 70s for our high. Today we hit a high of 88 degrees in Phoenix. And right now it's still 87 degrees. So it's a really beautiful day out there. The winds have started to pick up a little bit. And in the high country, we're at 50 right now in Flagstaff, 64 in Sedona, 59 degrees in Show Low. We warmed up because of a ridge of high pressure that's been building across the west, but we are still seeing slightly cooler than normal temperatures because there is an area of low pressure parked over the northern Baja Peninsula. We also have some other things going on that are going to lead to very windy weather over the next couple of days. First of all, the high pressure to our north and the placement of this low pressure here causes the winds to get pretty gusty because high pressure flows toward low pressure and they're very close together. So that's what's leading to some very strong winds over the high country. We also have this backdoor cold front, meaning a cold front that comes in from the east instead of from the west. And this has been trudging across New Mexico today, bringing very strong gusts, and it will arrive in Arizona tonight through tomorrow, bringing very strong winds to the desert terrain. So for now, we're already seeing 47 to 49 mile per hour wind gusts up around Sedona and Flagstaff. That is some serious wind. So be prepared for the potential of power outages and minor wind damage. Here's the cold front now. That's already bringing gusts of around 30 to 45 miles per hour across eastern New Mexico, and this is going to keep tracking westward as we go through tonight. So that's going to lead to some gusty winds as that pushes across the valley from the higher terrain out east and we'll see cooler temperatures behind that front as well as we go into the weekend. We're currently under wind advisories for northern Arizona. These will go through tomorrow evening in Coconino and Yavapai counties and until 11 a.m. for Mohave County. We're expecting those up to 55 mile per hour gusts through the duration of this wind advisory. So it's going to be a windy night and a windy day tomorrow. And for southern Arizona, the high wind warning for southeast Arizona is going to start tonight at 11 p.m. going until 5 a.m. Saturday. So a long duration of 55 to 75 mile per hour wind gusts. For areas closer to the valley. Most of these start tomorrow morning and go until tomorrow afternoon. That includes the valley and areas southwest of the valley. We're expecting up to 45 mile per hour winds. And for the Globe area and parts of eastern Pinal County, this will start tomorrow morning. It will go until 11 a.m. Saturday and we'll see 45 to 50 mile per hour gusts. So this is very serious, strong wind that we're going to be dealing with. And the winds are expected to start dying down in the valley Saturday afternoon. We'll see strong winds in the morning, calmer in the afternoon, Sunday's looking quieter. And for the high country, we're going to be seeing those strongest gusts through tomorrow night and then starting to lighten up a little bit as we go into our weekend. Now with this high wind, you can expect the chance for some property damage and downed power lines, which could lead to power outages. We could also see some blowing dust across the deserts and low visibility and difficult driving especially if you're going to be out on the I-10 or the I-8 will have either strong crosswinds or strong head or tailwinds so make sure that you're hanging on to that steering wheel tight and putting down any umbrellas or backyard furniture anything that could blow away for temperatures will drop to 67 tonight in Phoenix a high of 87 tomorrow afternoon so it's going to be another warm day very similar to today but will cool down on Saturday behind the cold front. Our temperatures dropping into the upper seventies in the valley and chances for rain will move in over the weekend.