Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

Sorry but back in the mid to late 70's I spent part of January and Feb
in Sun City and it would get into the 80's

If that's true, it was an anomaly. The last two years, it's becoming the norm. I've been here since 1992 and the occasional snow in Phoenix was more common than 80 degree weather in winter.

Phoenix has experienced a significant upward trend in temperatures over the last 50 years, largely driven by the urban heat island effect, with average yearly temperatures rising from roughly \(74^{\circ }\text{F}\) in the mid-1970s to over \(78^{\circ }\text{F}\)–\(79^{\circ }\text{F}\) in the 2020s. Recent years, specifically 2023, 2024, and 2025, have broken records for extreme, sustained, and consecutive \(100^{\circ }\text{F}\)+ days.