It's officially the last day of winter, but the forecast says otherwise.
KNAU meteorologist Lee Born joins Morning Edition host Bree Burkitt live Thursday to discuss the heat wave breaking previous record-high temperatures.
Listen to the full conversation or read the transcript below:
BREE BURKITT: I'm Bree Burkitt in studio with meteorologist Lee Born on what is apparently the last day of winter.
LEE BORN: Yeah, you wouldn't know it by the weather outside.
BURKITT: Sounds like a joke, actually.
BORN: Yeah. And, you know, good opportunity for me to correct myself. I think I was calling, uh, the Spring Equinox on Sunday 'cause I had read it wrong somewhere, but then this morning, um, we realized that today is the last day of winter.
Tomorrow, the Spring Equinox is at 7:46 a.m. local time.
BURKITT: Regardless, it certainly doesn't feel like winter.
BORN: Absolutely not. You know, an absolutely extraordinary heat wave, that, you know, has never been felt in weather record-keeping history. I've been calling it unprecedented, but you know, we never know what's beyond the 130 years we got records. But this one is just so out of the box in magnitude and, uh, and the temperatures out there.
You know, it's not unusual to have a day of record-breaking heat by a degree or two, but the sheer magnitude of this one, where we're seeing all-time monthly high temperature records broken by many, many degrees.
Today, we're forecasting to beat the all-time March high temperature record by 10-plus degrees in some cases across Arizona, and so just...
And also the extent of this heat wave — not only is it being felt across the entire West, but the fact that we're seeing it for days and days and days on end and we're just at the beginning of this thing.
BURKITT: And, like you mentioned, we've met or passed several records throughout the region?
BORN: Yes, the heat wave started on Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day here in Flagstaff. We hit 73 degrees. Not only was it a high temperature record for the day, it was the warmest. It tied the hottest March day in weather record-keeping history here in Flagstaff, dating back to 1899.
Then yesterday was 76. That is now the new standing hottest March temperature day ever.
Today will exceed that. We are forecasting 83 or 84 degrees here in Flagstaff today. That'll be the new March high temperature record, which by the way, the April hottest day, April's hottest day ever recorded in Flagstaff is 80. So if we hit 83 or 84 today, we're hotter than any other day even in April.
It’s beyond unusual — it’s very, very, very rare and just hard to explain here. Another staggering statistic, in any month here in Flagstaff, we have never beat the high temperature record by more than a degree. Like, if it's gonna be, oh, the new high temperature record for the month, in any month in Flagstaff when we have beaten a high temperature record over the last 127 years, it's been by a degree.
We're beating it by 10 or so degrees toda. So, if you need any type of signal that something really weird's going on out there — possibly pointing towards global warming — this one certainly feels that way.
BURKITT: Is this a precursor to what we can expect to see as we head into summer?
BORN: I certainly hope not. We can handle a March heat wave you know? We're used to heat here in Arizona. This is uncorrelated to what's happening coming up this summer.
This heat wave is going to go on well into the first days of the new season here in spring. We're just in the peak of it today and tomorrow. These will be the hottest temperatures felt. We’re going to continue with these record-type temperatures for a week or more. It’s gonna be an extended period of every single day seeing a daily high temperature record broken for seven, 10-plus days. This is going into the end of the month — this heat.
Out there today, just to talk about what the temperatures are here at the peak of this heat wave across the region — the Prescott area into the low 90s, Verde Valley and Cottonwood, upper 90s, maybe even see a triple digit around Verde. Sedona area, upper 90s. In the Little Colorado River Valley, the low 90s. Areas out on the reservations getting into the 90s. Forecasting 90 on Hopi today. Page, 90 degrees. Show Low region, mid-upper 80s.
Phoenix I think is forecast 106 or 107 the next couple of days. These are obviously way out of the box temperatures. I think 107. If Phoenix hits that in the next couple days, it'll beat the previous 107 by more than a month and a half.
Palm Springs — speaking of the regional scope of this — is forecast to get to 109 degrees, and if that happens, it'll be the hottest March temperature ever recorded in the lower, in the United States during the month of March.
So, uh, yeah, really unusual stuff out there.
BURKITT: That was KNAU meteorologist Born. Thank you, Lee.
This conversation originally aired on KNAU on Thursday, March 19, 2026. The text is edited for length and clarity.
