For your complete forecast, watch the 12 News weather team.
James Quiñones, 12 News
Get ready because here comes our next winter system just in time for St. Patrick's Day. We will only have one more day of warm, dry and calm weather conditions until a powerful winter storm moves in this weekend bringing rain, wind, thunderstorms and much cooler temperatures. Right now it looks like we could see .25" to 1" of rain here in the Valley by the time the storm pulls out late Monday. Some of the higher elevations North and East of the Valley could see 1"-2" of rain. Heavy pockets of rain could increase the possibility of localized flooding. For the High Country we could be looking at 12"-24" of snow above the 7000ft elevation. Snow fall elevations will drop to 2,500 ft by Sunday night. This could affect areas in the North Valley such as Cave Creek and Anthem. The timing of this storm will hit Saturday afternoon for the high country and late Saturday night into Sunday and Monday for the Valley. Ahead of this system we will have lots of wind and the potential of blowing dust and sand. So wind advisory's are posted all across the state along with winter travel advisories for the high country as well. Highs will take a huge dive between Saturday and Sunday and rain chances will be the best they have been in quite a while. Expect an 90% chance of rain here in the Valley for Sunday and a 50% chance of rain on Monday. Right now as it stands we are almost 2 1/2 inches below normal for precipitation in Phoenix. So at this point we really need the rain and snow for the state to prepare for the dry season!
