The 2025-26 winter has proven to be an interesting season for the United States, breaking weather records all over the country on both ends of the temperature spectrum. While the East has been continuously battered with snowstorms and abnormally frigid temperatures, the West has faced the exact opposite problem, with numerous heatwaves overcoming the region. Phoenix, Arizona, notorious for being one of the U.S.’s hottest cities, felt the brunt of this record-breaking heat over the course of this winter. According to Chicago Music Guide, this winter was the second warmest ever recorded in the western United States, and Phoenix residents can definitely speak to the truth of that statistic.
Aside from the occasional light showers that provided some minor relief from the undue heat, warm temperatures have prevailed across Arizona’s capital city all winter long. This is unusual for the region, as, despite the stereotypes, the city actually does have the capacity to get quite cold during the winter months. Thanks to the dryness of the desert air, early mornings and late nights can get relatively frigid with temperatures even dipping below freezing on occasion. However, this has seldom occurred during the 2025-26 winter–if at all. Daily low temperatures stayed between the high 40s and 50s all season.
According to Weather Spark, Phoenix sees an average daily high temperature of a cool and fair 71 degrees during the month of February. Over the past month, however, the city has consistently seen temperatures far above those outlined in that index. On Feb. 27, the city saw its first brush with temperatures over 90 degrees far earlier than usual. Typically, this spring-like weather does not truly set in until mid-late March. This has been extremely disappointing for residents, as the winter months are supposed to be, well, cold.
Moreover, according to KTAR, the next day on Saturday, Feb. 28 the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport recorded a temperature tied with the hottest temperature ever recorded in February at the Airport: 92 degrees. Because of these two days at the very end of February, Phoenix broke its daily heat index record for the month of February, bringing it from 89 degrees to 90. The 89 degree record was set in 1986 and had not been touched since–until now.
The sunny conditions have not provided any relief. Without the protection of clouds above, the sun has been ruthlessly beating down on the city during what should have been a reprieve from the scorching desert heat which overtakes it for the majority of each year.
This abnormally warm winter has led many to worry about the potential brutality of the upcoming summer. Summers in Phoenix are notoriously sweltering, with last year’s summer being particularly unbearable. Considering this, Arizonans are not exactly unused to the heat. However, there is a line in the sand as far as a human’s heat tolerance goes which should not be crossed, and considering how much the city’s residents have been sweating even in the midst of this winter, many worry that this line will be crossed tenfold come the summer months.
Only time will tell how these abnormally hot temperatures will develop through spring. Phoenix residents can only hold out hope that the 2026 summer will not be any more horrendous than the ones preceding it.
