Rick's World of Sedona Weather

Above image shows what 6 inches of snow near the end of February 2023 looks like from my driveway…

2023

Winter 2022-23

Winter 2022-23 starts on December 21, 2022. So the last 10 days of December 2022, are included in this journal entry.

December 2022 - followed November's cooler weather trend. The Stats will bare that out. Again, December felt more like January than the December we had last year in 2021.

Last year, the high was 72.1º, whereas the high this year was 65.9º. This was a 6.2º difference. The low last year was 21.8º, while this year the low was 18.2º. This was the lowest Temperature of 2022! The mean average for 2021 was 42.1. This year it was 40.5º. That is huge when you compare the same months year to year.

There were 21 days of sunshine in December. This brings the total to 286 days for the year. We had rain on 12 different days, bringing the total number of days up to 72. This was 12 days more than 2021.
Just like November, not one day made it into the 70ºs. Last year, 2 days were in the 70ºs and 5 were in the 60ºs. There were 11 days in the 60ºs last January!

We got 3 more inches of snow for a grand total of 8 inches! This is the second lowest yearly total going back to 2010. Our rain total was in the middle of the pack for the 13 year period.

January 2023 - The cooler weather trend continued for January following the last two months of 2022. The Stats will bare that out. In December of 2011, the average temperature was 37º. This January, the average was 37,1º. This is the 2nd coldest month since I started recording the weather. This is my 13th year recording weather in the Cottages At Coffeepot, Soldiers Pass, West Sedona.

Last year, the high was 63.8º, whereas the high this year was 60.4º. This was a 3.5º difference. The low last year was 18.4º, while the low was 17.2º, this year. The mean average dropped by 4.3º, year to year. This is a huge difference.

I will make one caveat. I have a different weather station than last year. I will continue to monitor the difference in temps. The weather station was replace in August of 2022.

There were 16 days of sunshine in January.

Why was it so much cooler this January (2023)?

We had rain or snow or both, on 14 different days. This is 10 more days than January of 2022. Our rain and snow totals were 2nd overall for any month I have recorded since 2010. We got 8.75 inches of wet snow and 6.28 inches of rain. That totals 17.68 inches of precipitation. This compares to a total or 25.61 of dry snow in February of 2019 and 3.27 inches of rain. When combined, the precipitation total is 21.27 inches.

I think all the precipitation and snow helped to keep temps lower for the month. The good news is that we are out of drought conditions for Sedona. In fact, most of Arizona is out of severe drought conditions.

Above image shows the high-water of Oak Creek at the Tlaquepaque Bridge. Heavy rain fall which cause some of the snowfall to melt contributed to this issue. There was some flooding and areas near the creek had to be evacuated.

Spring 2023

With Spring here, I was able to take off the cold weather protection off of the Jasmine bush on March 27th.

The cooler weather trend continued. This is the fifth month in a row with temperatures much cooler than the previous year.

The Stats will bare that out. I have been keeping stats since 2010 and I reference these numbers anytime I see what appears to be a potential record or anomaly. This is my 13th year recording weather in the Cottages At Coffeepot, Soldiers Pass, West Sedona.

This March the average was 44.3º. Last March (2022) the mean temperature was 49.5º. This is the lowest mean temperature in March since I have been keeping records. The next closest mean temperature was 47.7 in 2020. Even that number is a lot higher.
The high temp for March of 2022 was 86.1º. This started the blooming process. This March, nothing was in bloom. The process is just starting in April.

We got 12 inches of snow and 6.27 inches of rain in March. Oak Creek and the Verde River reached peak capacity with some area flooding. Roads were washed out. There were roads that were impassable which caused evacuations for a short time.

The image above shows the color of the bushes during this spring.

As April 2023 came in, the weather was still pretty brisk. We were wondering if it would ever warm up. Finally, during the second week of April, the temperature started to warm up. Within 2 days, we went from our first 80º temperature to 90.3º by April 11th. Since then, the temperatures have been very pleasant. We have yet to run the AC at all. The house stayed cool enough that we didn't have to run it.

During April, the average was 58.3º. This was a 14º welcomed change from March. It felt like spring was here! There were no days of precipitation and there were 28 days of sunshine.

This was the first month in quite awhile there were temperature changes through 5 categories. The temperature ranged from the 90ºs down to the 50ºs. It was a good mix.

There is one caveat. My weather station was replaced last August 26th. I will keep monitoring the temperatures with that in mind as we complete the yearly cycle.

Even though we did not have rain in Sedona, The snow melt is contributing to a higher than normal runoff, causing flooding in some areas. Sedona was not impacted by this.

The good news is that we continue to mitigate drought conditions for Sedona and Arizona. In fact, most of Arizona is out of severe drought conditions for the short term.

This image is a special location that most hikers will not find. It shows the lichen on the rocks. You can see in the distance, the iconic Cathedral Rock.

May was one of the most pleasant months we have experienced. Last May (2022) we had 10 days at 90º or above. This year, there was only one day at 90º. Because there were clouds and some weather in the late afternoons, many people thought we were getting an early monsoon! In fact, we were not having monsoon conditions. But this weather pattern kept us cooler.

The temperatures have been very pleasant. May was another month that did not see the AC power up. The house stayed cool enough that we didn't have to run it.

I like to remind people who follow my weather, that the weather station was replaced last August 26th, 2022. I will keep monitoring the temperatures with that in mind as we complete the yearly cycle.

Even though we did not have rain in Sedona, The snow melt is contributing to a higher than normal runoff, causing flooding in some areas. Sedona was not impacted by this.

Most of the days were in the low to mid 80ºs for the month. There were 4 days in the 70ºs, with one day hitting 90º.

The good news is that we continue to mitigate drought conditions for Sedona and Arizona. In fact, most of Arizona is out of severe drought conditions for the short term. Our plants, flowers, trees, and grass are the healthiest that we have seen. It is a wonderful surprise.

This image above is from the exit gate of the cottages At Coffeepot.

June was another pleasant month. We continue to pinch ourselves with all this good weather. Last June (2022) we had 7 days at 100º or above, and a total of 24 days over 90º. This year, there was only two days over 100º. The average for the month was 5.5º less than last year. Some of the days the lows were in the mid 40ºs. The heater even kicked on a few of those mornings.

We replaced the HVAC system last October and it has had very little use until the end of June. By little use, I mean less than 4 hours total for the first 3 weeks of June. It was amazing how nice our home stayed because of the mild June weather.

We continue to mitigate drought conditions for Sedona and Arizona. Of course this may be short lived if we do not see a lot of rain in July. Our plants, flowers, trees, and grass continue to thrive and are the healthiest that we have seen.

The Super Blue Moon Setting Over the Cottages on August 30th

August 2023

The sweltering heat that we experienced in July (see all the records), broke in August. We had 7 days over 100º. Putting this in perspective, there were 30 days over 100º, and last year, during the entire, we only had 26 days over 100º. In 2021, there were only 25 days for the entire year over 100º.

Another key factor was our low temperatures. There were 26 days in the 60ºs or below for the low. This allows us to turn off the AC and open the windows all night long. It makes the warm days much more bearable.

As for our precipitation, we have been blessed with a lot of rain. There was 3.28 inches of rain in August. There has only been one other August that exceeded that amount since I have been keeping records. The total rainfall for the year has already exceeded the entire year of 2022 at 18.19 inches (as of August.)

Monsoon Rainbow follows the Super Blue Moon for August
September 2023 will be the first full month to be able to compare to last year. The new weather station first started transmitting on August 26, 2022.

Sept 2023

Three more weeks of Summer…

There were perfect conditions to allow warm ocean air to be sucked up into Arizona from the Gulf. A high pressure area was being pushed into Texas by a low pressure area off California. The opposite rotation of the high and low pressure zones allowed this water saturated air to fill the state. The rainbow above was created from a sunrise.

Also, cooler morning temps that dipped into the 50ºs during the first week cooled the inside of our home allowing the windows to be open longer during the day.

Spring 2022

Spring 2022 starts on March 20th at 7:33 PM. So the last 11 days of March are included in this journal entry.

In the last week of March, we had a "heat spell". There were 4 days in a row above 80º. This boosted the mean temperature for the month by 3.2º. Our warmest day was 86.1º compared to 78.2º last March. To put this in perspective, last April 2021, we had a high of 88.1º!

So will we have a warmer April this year? We will see…

As a note for covering the plants from freezing temps: Our last day of freezing morning temps was on March 21st. This lasted for about 1.2 hours in the early morning This would not have been enough to hurt the Jasmine we cover. March 9th was the last time we got a hard freeze. It lasted from before midnight to around 8 am.

As for rain and snow in March, there was a small amount of measurable snow and 1.1 inches of rain for the month, but that puts our rainfall at the third-lowest total for the first quarter since I have been keeping records. (2014 = 1.95", 2012 = 2.41", and 2022 = 2.45").

In April, we had a couple of days with hard freezes. One day reached as low as 25º. This caused some frost damage to the new leaves on our Japanese Maple tree. Everything was in full bloom, but the freeze did not do much damage. Our high temp was 3º less than last year, but the median temp was the same. It did feel like a cooler month. We even had the heater on a few days in the early morning.

April Rain: There was only 1 day with .03 inches of rain. Overall up to this month, there were 2.43 total inches of rain from January thru April. Last year there were 5.19 inches of rain. I think this brought out the mosquitos last year. I don't think we will see many early this year.

May was similar to last year, but just a little warmer. There were 3 more days in the 80ºs and no highs in the 70ºs But one day less in the 90ºs. We were able to keep the windows open most of the day. When the temps reached the 90ºs, we put the air on. By early evening the temp outside was cool enough to turn the AC off.

We didn't get any rain in May, and the drought conditions are returning. The trees don't seem to be suffering yet. Hopefully, we will see some rain in mid to late June.

Summer Monsoon 2022

The first 6 months of 2022 had 2.46 inches of rainfall AND 5 inches of snow. Most of that snow came in February!

Since 2010, our backyard weather station has recorded an average of 5.8 inches of rain in July and August combined, so every year we look forward to the monsoon. In 2019, we had El Nińo conditions.  This caused our summer climate conditions to change. There was less cloud cover and less rain which caused warmer temperatures throughout the summer months. This is an a-typical season. As noted below, the normal Monsoon pattern brings moist air in from the south.

June is usually a pretty dry month with very little cloud cover.  So the temps remain high.  In fact, June is usually the warmest month of the year. However, in 2022, we had the most rain we have ever had in June. The rainfall was .79 inches.   The high temperature for the month was 103.9 this year versus 112.3 in 2021!  The average temperature was 1 degree less than 2021.  The additional cloud cover which acts as a blanket probably kept the temperatures from going lower.

The monsoon officially starts on June 15th and ends in September. Sedona usually does not see any shift in the weather pattern until mid-July. However, this year the southern weather flow that pushes up into Sedona started shortly after June 15th. Sedona saw the first rainfall on June 23rd. So the monsoon is here!

Monsoon is all about the the weather. The thunderstorms are dramatic and the cloud formations can be jaw-dropping. So it stands to reason that besides the occasional snow storm, this is the most exciting time for weather.


In August we continued to get a decent amount of rain, 1.97 inches compared to 1.14 inches in August of 2021. There were at least 11 days of overcast. We probably won't get to 300 days of sunshine this year. There are 122 days left in the year and we need 109 to get to 300 days of sunshine. In the last 3 years, the totals have averaged about 100 per year (95, 100, 106). So we may be short. I personally would rather have the state get a lot of rain in the next 4 months. We need it badly.

As for the temperature for the month of August. The cloud cover helped keep the temperatures down. There was only 1 day over 100º in August. August is usually a cooler month than June and July. This year was more of the same.

Learn More About Monsoon

2021

Winter 2021

2021 update…

This is the 12th year that the Weather Station at the Coffeepot Cottages has been keeping records. January is generally the coldest month of the year with December coming in a close second. February and March have been known to have more snow than the other months but as the days push closer to March, the mean temperature usually pushes up about 3º to 4º over January.

It was just last month (December 2020) that I talked about being in an exceptional drought. That is the highest rating for drought. There are 5 designations for drought. Severe is the middle designation moving to extreme and then exceptional. Most of Arizona is in an exceptional drought. However, Sedona was blessed with 2.69 inches of rain and 8.25 inches of snow right here in Soldiers Pass! So, I am hopeful that we are moving in a more positive direction with rain and snow. We need it!

As far as our temperature goes, January of 2021 was similar to January of 2020 with a couple of exceptions. There was one day with a high of 31.3º. This is only the 4th day in the last 11 years with a high below 32º. One of the reasons our snow is generally not as dangerous as areas that get freezing weather all day is because it starts melting or evaporating above 32º. The other exception that was slightly different was 4 days that reached 67º and 68º. The high in January 2020 was only 62º.

During the month of February, we started to see the temps on the lower side improve just a little over January. But isn't that expected as the months move toward spring and summer? The Cottages At Coffeepot are ahead of last year for precipitation. We will keep our fingers crossed that our precipitation remains much higher than our exceptional drought figures we had for 2020.

Winter videos below…

(January 2021) Sedona Winter Snow Event Featuring Zander The Hummingbird

Select this to see a gorgeous image of Thunder Mountain and a video.

You can see a short video below of our Christmas weather.

Holiday Dusting of Snow In Sedona (2019)

Making The Case...

So, when you put it all together, Sedona's weather is pretty darn good.  Did I mention it doesn't get humid? This is another plus in my book.  No real hot sticky or bone-chilling weather, simply because of the lack of humid conditions. Even when it is warm, mornings and evenings are cool. That means you can have windows open bringing in our Sedona fresh air.  We do not run the AC all day. In April, the AC only ran about 2 hours during the entire 12 days at the beginning of the month.
 
Sedona-Lifestyle
 
 A *Comfort Index of 8.0 Means Very Pleasant Temps
 
This April, almost the entire month was above 72º. After leaving behind a fairly chilly March, April was almost perfect. There were only a couple of days that we put the AC on and that was only for a short time. 
 Every morning and evening, the doors and windows could be open to allow that fresh air in as noted above!  A 50º temperature is spring-like in Sedona.
Low humidity means light sweater conditions. 

May has been a little cooler than May of 2020. The average Temperature was almost 3º cooler. No days reached above 93.6. In May of 2020, we had a high of 101.2. The AC was used sparingly. If we had to turn it on, it was mid-afternoon and by dusk, it was off.
Again, very little rain, only .02 inches.

June - (End of Spring 2021) - No rain has fallen though we have been in monsoon since June 15th. As in past years, June is proving to be the warmest month of the year so far. No days have been below 91.2º and we have had a streak of 9 days in a row of over 100º weather as of the end of Spring (June 20th). June 2nd was the first day that 100º+ was recorded for this year. The second warmest day ever at the Cottages was recorded on June 15, 2021 at 112.3º.

Here are the totals and rank by year for the top 4 years since 2010. This includes June through September.

2016 - 10.16 inches
2021 - 9.60 inches
2012 - 9.01 inches
2013 - 8.18 inches

In Contrast…
2020 was only 0.91 inches

The last 3 months of 2020 only had 0.12 inches of rain putting 2020 in last place in the last 11 years for rain total at 8.15 inches. No other year has been less than 13.66 inches of rain.

See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.

When Will Sedona's Fall Color Peak?

Is The Draught Over?

As for the draught condition, this monsoon has helped in the short term but Arizona's extreme draught conditions will not be over until the dams and reservoirs fill back up to normal conditions.

2020

Winter 2020

Winter videos below…

Select this to see a gorgeous image of Thunder Mountain and a video.

We enjoyed our Christmas weather. We even had some snow showers hinting at a White Christmas. We did get a dusting at the end of the year.

You can see a short video below of our Christmas weather.

Holiday Dusting of Snow In Sedona (2019)

This is the 11th year that the Weather Station at the Coffeepot Cottages has been keeping records. January is generally the coldest month of the year with December coming in a close second. February and March have been known to have more snow than the other months but as the days push closer to March, the mean temperature usually pushes up about 3º to 4º over January.

This year, there were 11 days over 60º for a high. This is 2 more than last year with exactly the same number of days (20) in the 40ºs and 50º. The difference being that last year there were 2 days below 40º.

As for precipitation, we only had .63 of an inch spread out over 5 days. 10 days were cloudy. Rain could have developed but nothing fell to the earth. No snow fell in Soldiers Pass Sedona, either.

An area of note: Sedona did get a lot of rain in 2019 which has helped our Juniper Trees bloom more than ever before. At the end of January, during the last front that came in, Sedona had a lot of wind. Many of the Junipers released their pollen. You could see lots of small yellow funnels throughout Soldiers Pass. It looked like yellow smoke coming from the forest areas. Juniper pollen is a big issue for allergies in the Sedona Area.

February was a much warmer month than last year. Last year the temps were cold and we got 25.61 inches of snow. We have not had any snow this year. As we approach spring, our chances continue to diminish. We have had measurable snow only one time in April with 3 other years recording a trace amount. We almost broke 70º on 2/21/20. The February medium temp was 5º higher than last year and the low was 11º above last year's recorded low.


Spring 2020

March was a little cooler than March of 2019. March 2019 was also slightly cooler than 2018. This year the cooler temps had to do with the rain. We had 5.25 inches of rain and some snow flurries near the end of the month. This is only the 5th month of rain over 5 inches since 2010. By the end of the month, our Japanese Maple Tree was barely starting to bud.

April had a little of every temperature range! We enjoyed some Sedona 70º plus spring weather at the beginning of the month and around the 9th, a cold front came in and made it feel like winter for about 5 days. Of course that is if your winter is in the 50ºs and 60ºs.

As for our rain, we had 5 days of rain for a total of .91 inches. This was perfect to enhance all the spring blooms.

Compared to May of 2019, this was a much warmer May. The mean temperature jumped 10º which is pretty incredible. Last year there were no days over 90º and 23 days were below 80º. This May there was only one day below 80º and that day was 78º.

Currently we are on track to hit a little less than 300 days of sunshine right now. We are at 118 days and last year we were at 117 days of sunshine. We ended last year at 296 days.


Summer 2020

Heat: Compared to June of 2019, this the entire weather picture was almost identical! The mean temperature was 3º higher and that was the big difference. Last year there was a total of 1 day over 100º and this year between May and June there were 8 days. As for 90º days, 31 this year versus 22 last year at this time.

With half the year finished, we are currently on track to hit a 292 days of sunshine.

July - 3rd Warmest Mean Temps on Record at 80.8º. July 31st was 2nd warmest day at 110.1. There were 12 days in a row over 100º (7/4 to 7/15). Here is the big difference from other areas. Our low temps are in the 60ºs which means that windows can be opened after 8 pm and don't need to be closed until 10:00 am the next day.

August - 2nd warmest Mean Temps on Record at 81.1º, (July 2010 was 83.6º). There was a 9 day Heat Spell of 100º plus temps.

September - Summer ended on 9/20/2020 and mirrored the prior months of warm, dry weather during monsoon. There was even a very unusual heat spell of 5 days over 100º with a high of 105.9º. We have not experienced this in prior years.

Rain: We had absolutely no rain in June but we did have some wonderful evenings to enjoy open windows and cool mornings. The average low was in the mid to high 50ºs! Monsoon should start sometime in July.

July Rain - Monsoon has started but we have not had much rain. One big downpour at about .23 inches. There were a few days were the clouds were more threatening but no rain.

August Rain - Much like July, we had very little rain with .63 inches. There was one storm on August 30th that brought the daytime temps down to a welcomed 74º.

September - Another month with absolutely no rain. This is the second year that we have had a "nonsoon".

See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.


Fall 2020

September - As summer ended, fall kicked in with more warm weather. From September 20th until the end of the month into October, every day was in the 90ºs.

October - Even though summer ended on 9/20/2020, October mirrored the prior months of warm, dry weather. After checking years prior, October 2020 mirrors September type weather. We had 11 days over 90º in October.

Since I started recording incremental changes in 2011, there have been only 4 years that a 90º temp has been recorded in October. Of course no other year has had this many days of 90ºs with 11 days.

There was even a very unusual heat spell of 4 days over 90º in the middle of the month, peaking in a high of 93.2º on 10/15/20.

We had another month with extremely little rain (.02).

Our low temps were in in the high 40ºs or low 50ºs. We did have to start using the heat near the end of the month but we could regulate fresh air. Because of the low temps, the AC was only used for about 3 hours for only 2 days…total. This gives up lots of time to enjoy the fresh air and reduce the strain on the AC and energy costs.

November - The big news is the lack of rain we have had all year. November just added to that low total by only providing 0.06 inches of rain for the entire month. Our yearly total so far is 8.11. We are 5.55 inches below our lowest total that I have recorded here in the Cottages. We are definitely in a drought.

2019

Winter 2019

On the very last day of the month of December (New Years Eve) Sedona received over 5 inches of snow. This was the second cold front in around a week to hit Sedona. In the previous 3 days there were snow flurries and ½ inch of snow. The average temperature was over 4 degrees cooler then 2017 creating 24 days with early mornings below freezing. January came in with very cold temps with a half inch of snow as well. Last January (2018), there was one day that was in the 70ºs and 25 days in the 60ºs. These were spring like temps but this January, there were only 9 days in the 60ºs, with 16 days in the 50ºs. The lowest temp was on January 1st with a temp of 12.8º. That day managed to get up to 35.6º.

El Nino is responsible for our extreme cold weather this winter and especially February. Sedona had 5 low temperature readings below 20º with 11.2º the lowest temp so far this year. I am pretty sure this will hold as the lowest temperature Last year, only 1 day below 20º was recorded. It was 18.6º. The high temp for the month was 65.7º where as last year it was 73.5º. February had the most snowfall in any recorded month since starting in 2010 at 25.51 inches recorded at the Cottages At Coffeepot weather station.

El Nino

During an El Nino climate shift, the U.S. Southwest as well as the southern part of the United States experiences a wet and in some places, a colder climate with more snow than usual. The warming of the Pacific Ocean generally develops between April and June and will peak in December and January. The affects of this condition have been noticeable this 2019 winter season.

2019 - An Unusual Winter For Sedona

El NIno is responsible for our extreme cold weather this winter, especially February. Sedona had 5 low temperature readings below 20º with 11.2º the lowest temp so far this year. I am pretty sure this will hold as the lowest temperature. Last year only 1 day at 18.6º was recorded. The high temp for the month was 65.7º, where as last year it was 73.5º. February had the most snowfall in any recorded month since starting in 2010 at 25.51 inches recorded at the Cottages At Coffeepot weather station.

Spring 2019

The month of March mirrored the saying “March came in like a lion and went out like a lamb”. The month was not quite as warm as 2018 but it was roughly a very similar temperature pattern. However, the leaves on our Japanese Maple tree are just coming in now. Last year the leaves started coming in the third week of the month. The windows were able to be opened right after the start of spring to circulate fresh air.

27 Days Over 65º in April!

April was a beautiful month for weather. We had our first day of 90º on April 25th. Our average temp was 58º and the low was on April 13th at just above freezing. Considering the El Nino season, we had only .85 of an inch for the entire month. That happened in 5 different days throughout April. There were 10 days between 80º≤ 90º and 14 days between 70º ≤ 80º. Twenty-seven days were over 65º. This is what I would call perfect weather.

Last Year by End of May = 15 Days over 90º - This year only 1 Day over 90º!

May was another beautiful month. The weather was much cooler than normal but very welcome. We still have not used the AC for the entire year. No days reached 90º which is so unusual. Last year we already had 15 days over 90º. So this is a very welcomed relief. We did have .85 inch of rain which brings our 2019 total for 5 months to the highest total of all the years that I have tracked these indices.


Summer 2019

Heat: Sedona weather for June 2019 had below average temps and little rain (.06). This is normal for June and may show that we are moving towards the change of weather patterns coming from the south. So the El Niño conditions may be stalled due to the summer weather pattern. We have had a total of 23 days of 90º which include 1 day at 103º. Last year at this time we had 31 days over 90º and 12 days over 100º. Our overall temperature for highs, average or lows was 3º less than last June. Overall, June is normally the hottest month of the year.

July 2019 had below average temps, and and had some rain at the very end of the month (1.53”). We have had a total of 30 days over 90º and 13 days over 100º. Interestingly, we had one day under 80º because of the monsoon. Everything really cooled off. Last year at this time we had 31 days over 90º and 12 days over 100º. Our overall temperature for highs, average or lows was 3º less than last July which is about the same as June. Overall, June is normally the hottest month of the year, but because we didn’t have much rain, July was slightly warmer than June. Another month of perfect weather. The air conditioner is being used at a minimum so far this year. It cycles for about 9 hours a day. Because of the lack of rain, August temps were slightly higher than normal, averaging a little over 2º. There were 7 more days over 100º compared to 2018 and last year there were 7 days in the 70s and 80s, none this year in August. Normally there is enough rain to cool off the August temps in Sedona. …not this year!

Rain: .06 inches in June - no monsoon conditions. It wasn’t until mid July that monsoon conditions started to develop. We had 1.53” for July. This is less than normal for July. Last July 2018, we had 3.57”. El Niño conditions may still be showing some influence. August had even less rain than July at 0.61 inches. Last year we had 6.02 inches of rain in July and August compared to 2.20 inches this year.


See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.


Fall 2019

In a nutshell… Monsoon never developed which seemed to change our Fall weather as well as the summer. September was warmer than usual. We had 3 more days over 100º than the last two years combined!

At the end of October, the Cottages at Coffeepot received the first freeze. There were 3 days in October and the first day of November that had low temps in the early morning all below freezing. This set the clock in motion to get the process of color change in the leaves moving. The assumption was that the Japanese Maple Tree would be bare well before Thanksgiving. As of December, the tree is starting to shed but is still rather full! This includes 5.5 inches of snow that fell on the branches and started to bend them due to the weight of the snow. (See pic below)

In the afternoon of that same day, you would never have been able to tell that over 5 inches of snow fell. It was evaporating because the temp when the snow was falling was above freezing. By noon, the streets and driveways were pretty clear. We call this "polite snow". It does not overstay its welcome!

Fortunately, the Cottages at Coffeepot in Soldiers Pass West Sedona we also received 5.58 inches of rain as well as snow bringing our year total to 19.37 inches, near the end of the month. So even without monsoon, we have the 4th highest total rainfall in the last 11 years.

With all that rain, snow and low temps, the Mean Temp was still above November of last year. The HI and LOW temps were also 1º higher than last year.

2018

Winter 2018

While the rest of the country east of Arizona is having extremely cold weather and freezing conditions, Our Arizona and Sedona January was warmer than most of the country. The high and low days for January was 3º warmer than last year and the average was 6.5º higher than last year. We did get 1.76 inches of rain in January and just a trace of snow.

In February, we finally received 3.75 inches of snow and 1.97 inches of rain. Overall a good month for precipitation. The mean temp for the month was about 4º lower than last year but well within the normal range. The last 4 Februarys were higher that the historical mean temp which made Spring feel like it was already starting. Overall, we ended winter 2018 with cooler weather than the previous year . The mean temp for the previous two months was at least four degrees cooler than 2017 each month. Precipitation in 2017 for the first quarter was at 7.11 inches and in 2018 it was only 4.41 inches. Days with sunshine are at 74 for the quarter versus 67 for last year’s first quarter.

Spring 2018

We have had a lovely spring so far. It was a little cooler in March but April was a little warmer than last year and the leaves on the trees seemed to take a little longer to unfold. Even though rain totals are around 12 inches off from last year, less rain has not hurt the growth on the plants. There were 2 days of 90º plus highs in April. The mean temp is the highest recorded in 9 years for an April. In May we had 13 days over 90º and only .38 inches of rain. Last May it was .36 inches so we are still behind by about 12 inches for the year. We lost a pine tree in our front yard that could have been stressed from lack of water…


Summer 2018

Heat - The heat has been nothing like 2017 when we had 3 of the top 5 hottest days on record. The heat spell lasted 13 days. We have had 2 times of 4 days each. June has historically had warmer temps than July or August because the monsoon usually does not start until July. In July, a total of 26 days were recorded over 90º but the high and low temps were less than last year’s. The mean temp was .6 higher than 2017. August had more warm days than the previous year.


Rain - In June we had a front move in but only got .14 inch of rain. However it cooled down to a high of 70.5 on 6/6/18 and 85.9º the next day…Welcome relief. By July 6th, the monsoon had kicked in bringing 16 days with rain vs. 20 in the same time frame of 2017. The rain total was slightly less than 2017 and the 4th highest recorded in 9 years. The rain is just right to saturate the ground and feed the trees and plants. Trees are doing well. August had .31inches of rain more than last August. Another good month. Last day of 100º + was August 19th!

See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.


Fall 2018

September’s mean temp was 3º warmer than last year. Days over 90º were 8 more than 2017, but no days over 100º. The low temps were in the mid 50ºs . Only 2 days were in the low 60ºs. The air was very brisk in the AM. September was a wonderful month for weather. There was a significant amount of rain (4.16 inches) that fell in Soldiers Pass on the first 2 days of October. Total rain for the month is the second highest month total in 9 years. October also had the 4th coldest mean temperature in those 9 years. It dropped over 6º from 2017. November was another very cold month. There were 18 days over 70º and 1 over 80º in 2017 but only 5 days over 70º in 2018. Days that dipped below freezing were up over 16 from last year. Days with sunshine rose to 289 for November. Lots of sun in Sedona!

2017

Winter 2017

We had a very wet and snowy winter season. We had 7.5 inches of snow and 7.22 inches of rain. This was the heaviest precipitation in the seven years of this weather almanac. In fact we had our very first Christmas Eve and White Christmas. This was the highlight of the winter season. Overall, 2016 was the most precipitation by close to 4.4 inches. Our temps were probably tempered because of the cloud cover which acts like a blanket to keep the temps from plummeting.

Spring 2017

The year started with a lot of rain. Normally March is not too wet, but this year we got 1.57 inches which brings the yearly total to 7.11 compared to last year”s rainfall of 3.52 for the 1st Q. There were snow flurries on March 30. A very cold winter like storm came in and temp plummeted 23º from the day before!
Our Weather in April was probably some of the best I have seen in the 14 years we have had a home here. No freezing weather and the highest temp was 80º. The average was 4º higher than last year and there was no real threat of rain except for one day. Continuing on in May, another beautiful month. We are still way ahead of last year on rain and everything looks healthy.

Summer 2017

Heat: Another hot spell lasting 13 days from June 15 to June 27 - 2nd longest hot spell on record but the average temperature was highest recorded for a streak at 105.6. Three of the top five hottest days on record were part of that streak ~ (#2, 3 and 4). The last day of 100º + temps was July 9th at 101.3 for a total of 22 days of 100º plus weather. The beginning of August had 6 days below 90º which caused the averages to be a little lower. Other than that, August was a typical August month without the 100º + weather.

Rain: No Rain in the month of June - there were a few drops one day, but not measurable. This is normal for June. Our monsoon kicked in on July 7th. This July had the highest total of rain at 4.36 inches. Last August (2016) we had 5.93 inches of rain. We are still ahead of the record setting total for last year, however we would have to have over 3 inches of rain per month for the next 4 months to surpass last years record. This is not impossible but highly unlikely.

See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.


Fall 2017

We have had very little rain in September (.23 in) and nothing in October. Last year we had 4.2 inches of rain in September, October and November. The last three months have also seen slightly higher overall temps partly because there has been little rain. We are in December and the leaves ar still full on the Japanese Maple in my courtyard. On the last full day of Fall (Dec 20,2017) - there are many trees (including mine) that still have color. This is not the norm, but Fall has been warmer than normal throughout the state including Sedona.

2016

Winter 2016

By the end of 2015, we were one tenth of an inch below are highest year of rainfall! So we did not set the record. We got 1.40 inches of rain which was the lowest total except for 2013 when we got only a trace of rain and snow. We were almost 8 inches higher in rain than 2015. December 2015 was the coldest month. January was another cold month about the same as December. It was one of the coldest and wettest on record and also had the most snow for a January since 2010. However, February was similar to last year, Spring started early to everyone’s delight. There were 17 days at 70º or above.

Spring 2016
 
Spring has been absolutely delightful this year. Temps have been very moderate with not to much rain. If you enjoy the outdoors March, April and May have been great.
There is not much to say except I wish every Spring was as pleasant as the last two years. Our flowering plants have had a good amount of rain and the combined fragrance as you move throughout the courtyard and garden ares is intoxicating. At the beginning of June, summer weather started to show up. We had 5 days in a row in the triple digits.

Summer 2016

Heat: June was hotter than normal. Records were set all over the state and in Sedona as well. We hit a high of 112.7 on the first day of Summer. This shattered the old record set on June 29, 2013 at 109.1 - 3.6º hotter. I feel this will be the record for quite awhile. There were 2 heat spells during the month. One during Spring at 5 days and at the end of the month there was a 9 day spell of triple digit heat. The average low and high temps were 3º warmer than last June. The last day of the month did not hit 80º. See rain below…In July we only had 2 days below 90º. This July was 4º warmer than 2015. The median Temp of 78.5º was the 3rd highest July in the 7 years of tracking it. The temps for August dropped dramatically because of all the rain we had (see below). The average temp was 5.6º lower than July and also 3.4º less than last August. The low and high day was less than last year as well.

Rain: Our monsoon kicked in on June 29th. This finally cooled us down from the sweltering heat we experienced throughout the month of June. July had 2.42 inches which was well below last year’s total of over 4 inches. Almost 1 inch came on the last day of the month. The longest stretch of dry weather was 9 days right after the 3rd of July. August (5.93 in.) had the heaviest rainfall since 2010. That total was almost an inch higher than any previous month. Everything is green and growing right now!

See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.


Fall 2016

So far our Fall season has been pretty mild. Temps have fallen right in line with the averages of past years. During Thanksgiving, our color in the area is still peaking and many of the trees still have the leaves. Back in August, we were looking at record totals for precipitation. But September and October show different and smaller totals than last year so we are behind last years totals by five inches. December will have to be a big month!

On November 28th, 2016 - There were snow flurries in the Soldiers Pass area. The snow was about a tenth of an inch. Normally we get very little snow this time of year. This is my earliest observation of snow falling.

2015

Winter 2015

Up until the last day of the year, we had not had any measurable snow. On December 31st, we got 8 inches of snow and 2 more inches fell on January 1st. January 1st, the high temp was only 36º. The high for the month was 70.5º approx. 4º higher than 2014. The big difference was the low temperatures compared to January 2014. The low last year was 52.1 and this year we had 9 days which were colder than the coldest day last January. We got rain right before the Sedona Marathon (Jan 31st) and the Forest Service cancelled the marathon because of mud. It was unsafe. Two indices stand out this winter. We got more precipitation this winter than any winter in the past 5 years. The winter was noticeably warmer than in years’ past, especially comparing it to the previous year which was considered another warm winter. It was 6.6º warmer than the February average and 2.8º warmer than last year. Most days, just a no sweater or just a light sweater was needed. Trees started blooming early February by the beginning of March, it felt like Spring all over Sedona.

Spring 2015 

The old saying “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” held true to the words. In the first few days of March, a cold front came through dropping the temps and all the rain for the month. By the end of March, the high temperature and averages were closer to April’s averages than March. All in all, Spring was kick-started early in 2015 and the majority of trees and bushes were full of leaves by the end of the month. April, May and June are historically the driest months of the year. The last two years for that time period we have only received .42 inches of rain in 2 the 2 Spring quarters! But this April, that trend has changed. A cold front came through and dropped .93 inches. May was a lot like April. We have had record rain for May (1.91 inches). June is normally the driest month of the year with .01 total precipitation since 2010. Warm weather did not start until May 29th, so a pleasant Spring lasted from February thru May. We got about 10 more weeks of extremely pleasant weather for that time period.

Summer 2015

Heat: We had more days over 100º in June than we had in all of 2014 (16 days). There were 23 days in June over 90º, with a high of 106.1. On the average, this summer was warmer than most. This includes the month of September which was very close to the same temps as August. Normally, the change of seasons is more obvious; not this year!

Rain: Using the old definition of Monsoon (3 days or more of 55º dew point = monsoon conditions, our monsoon started on June 9th. It went for 6 days and then started back up on June 27th. Historically may and June are our driest months. We had .66 inch of rain in June bring our total to 9.01 for the year. Since 2011 the average rain for the first half of the year is 3.6 inches except for 2010 which had 9.74 inches. 2010 ended with 21.56 inches of rain. We are on track to hit over 20 inches of rain based on 2010 totals which would be 6.5 inches more that 2014. July had over 4 inches of rain (4th highest month total in last 6 years. There were only 2 days over 100º the last being on July 3rd. this August was warmer that last year by a 6º average. We had 8 days in a row over 100º, which is very unusual. This contributed to the warm Lo & Ho averages. This August competed with June as the warmest month. Normally the cloud cover from monsoon lowers the temperatures in August. The added precipitation in August exceeding all of last year’s total rainfall. We have 4 months to go to continue to add to the total precipitation for the year. In September, we only had .71 inches of rain. This is the lowest monthly September total in the last 6 years.


See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.

 NOTE:

Fall 2015

There were 5 days in October over 90º. We continued to get more rain than normal 2.65 inches. This is the second highest total for rain since 2010 when we got 3.44 inches. The average high temperature was a pleasant 78º. Typically in early Fall including October, air conditioners and heat are rarely turned on. We had our first day of snow on November 4th (just a trace) but the temp did not get above 44º. The rest of the month was much cooler than normal. In fact, November was more comparable to January weather than a typical November. there were 5 days with a high below 50º. 2 of those days did not reach a high of 45º, and 18 days had low temperatures below freezing. Our low temp for November was 19.6º. Rain total for the 11 months is 20.06 in. We are only 1.5 inches below our all time high rainfall for the last 6 years.

2014

Winter 2014

Winter never came to Northern Arizona! We had 1/2 inch of snowfall on December 8th. This January, February & March were the mildest on record!  Spring has been here since early March. Our tourism across the state has seen records due to the great weather locally and the extremely cold temperatures and record snowfall all across the country.  
Flagstaff had around 5 inches of snow - normal is 100+ inches. The only snow Sedona received was 1/2 inch on December 8th, 2013. The warmer temperatures in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast (USA) prevented the winter storms from moving down the west coast.  The polar air mass was forced to move south through Canada into the USA causing severe weather conditions through out the rest of the United States while sparing the southwest portion (California, Arizona and New Mexico) from having a normal winter.  

Quick Winter Synopsis: January 2014 was mild. We were 6º warmer than 2013. There was only.06 precipitation and no snowfall!
February was the warmest February I have on recorded on my weather station.  There were 15 days at or above 68º. This is unprecedented in my records.  The average high is almost 4 degrees higher than normal.  Our rain & snow is down 5 plus inches since November.  There were 97 days without measurable rain since November. On March 1st, Soldiers Pass did receive around 1 inch of rain!

Spring 2014
 
In April we had a cold front move through Sedona causing a trace amount of snow. Two days dipped below 32º.  This is the first time my weather station has recorded low temps below 32º in April. We had another unprecedented dry month, receiving only .08 inch of rain.  We should be at 7.89 inches of precipitation by the end of April.  We are at 2.01 inches total.  This leaves a deficit of 5.88 inches. May and June are historically the driest months of the year. 

Sedona (CoffeePot Cottages-Soldiers Pass) hit 90º for the first time at 15:07 on May 3rd.  We average 91 to 110 days at 90º + for the year.  

Summer 2014

Heat: Our first day of 100º came on June 8th and we got 14 days of 100º + temps.  In 2013 we only had 16 days at 100º + .  June has the hottest days of the year but July averages the HIGHEST low temperatures of the year which makes the mean temperature rise.  This year we did not use the AC at night at all and we had a handful of days that we did not turn on the AC during the day. August was a rainy month but we were still behind last year's rain to date by an inch. August was a much cooler month than normal dropping 7º from July at 89.9º. Due to the rain, we had one day that only reached 70º. This brought the average for the month down 1º. On the whole, the CoffeePot Cottage weather station recorded 7.73 inches of rain for the season. The clouds and rain help keep the temps down significantly, dropping the average high temps for the season. Obviously this only happens during highly active seasons as we had this year.

Rain: Monsoon "Officially" arrived on June 15th and ended on September 30th, however in weather circles, monsoon needs to have 3 days above a 55º dew point. There have been zero days in June at or above 55º dew point.

Using the previous standard, Monsoon arrived on July 3rd, 2014. There were only 5 days below a dew point of 55º in July and 2 days in August. The first 6 months of the year we have had only 2.18 inches of rain and in July and August we had 6.53 inches of much needed precipitation. We are still in a draught. Last year we had 9.78 inches of rain by September 1. So far this year we have had only 8.71 inches. Our draught in this area is considered moderate. We need more rain. As for "Hot August Nights", we did not reach 100º. August was much cooler than July dropping from an average of 96.9 in July to 89.9 in August. As long as I have been monitoring the weather, I have not seen temps 100º or higher in September. Total days of 90º + days are above 90. We had 15 days in September bringing our total to 96. (Last day at 100º+ = July 31st @101º)

See Sheri’s blog on "Monsoon" for more information.

 NOTE:
Sedona has a "dry heat", especially Spring and part of Summer. May 4th the humidity got as low as 8% at 16:30! Single digit numbers are not uncommon.

Fall 2014

No day in October reached 90º. We only had .21 inches of rain for the month. Over all the temperatures for the month of October were very pleasant. Not one day in October did we use the air conditioner. In mid November, a cold snap came down for the arctic circle. Though it didn’t hit Arizona too badly, the rest of the country had record snowfall. In Sedona 10 of the last 14 days had lows at freezing or below. However we did not get any snow during the month. If fact, the yearly totals for snow so far are just a trace. The lowest snowfall we have had since I started tracking it was 8 inches in 2010. In the last week of December, we finally got some snow. Christmas Day there was a trace of snow, but on New Year’s Eve we got around 8 inches of snow. The snow carried through to the next morning of 2015. Two more inches were recorded on the first day of 2015.