Arizona rain chances rise as new storm system approaches

You're watching the Fox 10 Weather Experts with meteorologist Erica Horvathin on Fox 10 News. Welcome back. Here's a live look from downtown Phoenix. It is looking gorgeous out there. We saw the rain and clouds move out a little earlier this afternoon. We've seen those beautiful blue skies through this afternoon and temperatures have been in the low 80s. So it's been pretty nice out there. Cooler than normal for our temperatures today. Here's a look to the west toward downtown and the sun already starting to go down. You know, sunset is before 6 p.m. now. So, sunset and earlier and earlier. And we still do have a couple of showers up in northern Arizona. These are pushing northward. So, we have some of that rain making its way toward Prescott, through Sedona, pushing up closer to Flagstaff. So, be prepared for some rain. You'll want to grab those umbrellas if you're going out this evening. And a couple of showers out around the Navajo Apache counties and eastern Coconino County. This is all from a system. That system was very large and over the Baja Peninsula over the past four days or so and then it started moving northeastward and it's kind of weakening as it does. So it still brought in some moisture today but this is going to move out and then we are going to be seeing another storm moving in later this week. So here's a look at our moisture tracker, the upper level moisture. This disturbance will track out to the northeast and move away from Arizona tomorrow, but we will see more upper level moisture moving in as we go through the middle of the week because of this setup. So this is another fall storm setup, but we also have high pressure over Mexico and Texas. So it's more like a monsoon setup really because we're pulling that moisture northward from the south. That is what defines a monsoon. So that high and low will funnel moisture northward midweek. And as that storm approaches from the west, it's also going to be bringing in some very strong winds. So we're expecting more wind and more rain, mainly on Wednesday and Thursday. And then it should be looking a little bit drier as we go into the weekend. So for tomorrow, about a 20% chance of some spotty showers in the valley. But Wednesday and Thursday is when we're going to be seeing that wet weather return to the Valley area and the rest of the state for that matter. As you can see, 80% chances of rain Wednesday and Thursday in Flagstaff. And we just have low chances pretty much every other day this week. So pretty wet weather across Arizona. As for our temperatures, we are starting to warm things up through midweek. But once that storm moves in from the west, temperatures will drop again. For tonight, we'll fall to 68 in Phoenix, which will be a little bit cooler than it was this morning, mainly because we won't have as much cloud cover and we won't have much rain. And up north, 39 in Flagstaff, 50 in Payson. Tomorrow afternoon, highs into the upper 80s, so it should be about 5, 6 degrees warmer than today in the valley. And in the high country, we'll see 60s and low 70s. Our 10-day forecast is showing 90s returning on Tuesday. Wednesday will start to cool things back down several degrees thanks to the rain that's moving in. And on Thursday, we'll be seeing those low 80s. Eventually, by Friday, we're going to be seeing 70s, and it'll be a sunnier weekend.