LOCATION · United States
Phoenix Weather Radar & Live Satellite Map
Is a monsoon storm or dust wall heading for the Valley?
Phoenix has two weather modes: long stretches of blazing, cloudless heat, and the explosive chaos of the summer monsoon. For most of the year the radar is empty and the sky is the story — but when the monsoon arrives, conditions can flip from calm to dangerous in under an hour.
Open the live map over Phoenix and switch on Precip Radar and Cloud Imagery.
What to watch over the Valley
- Monsoon thunderstorms — from mid-June to September, surges of tropical moisture fuel intense afternoon and evening storms. They show as bright, fast-blooming cells that can drop blinding rain and flash flooding, then vanish.
- Haboobs (dust walls) — collapsing storms send out walls of outflow wind that lift desert dust into towering brown walls. Radar barely sees the dust; the satellite view and the parent storm are your best clues.
- Extreme heat — for much of summer the real hazard is simply the temperature, not a storm. A blank radar in Phoenix is normal, not a malfunction — see why radar can look empty.
- Dry lightning — storms whose rain evaporates before reaching the ground can still throw lightning, a major wildfire risk in the surrounding desert.
Reading the map for Phoenix
Monsoon moisture generally arrives from the south and southeast. Watch for storms building first over the higher terrain east and north of the city in the afternoon, then drifting or collapsing toward the Valley with their outflow winds. A storm that looks like it is weakening can be the most dangerous moment — that collapse is what launches a dust wall.
Stay ahead of the storms
During monsoon season, pair radar with satellite to catch storms forming over the mountains before they reach you, and keep an eye on outflow as cells collapse. As always, defer to the National Weather Service in Phoenix for dust storm and flash-flood warnings.
Open the live map over Phoenix to see current conditions.
Frequently asked questions
When is monsoon season in Phoenix?
The North American Monsoon runs roughly mid-June through September. Moisture surges up from the south, and afternoon heating fires violent but short-lived thunderstorms, dust storms and dry lightning — often after days of nothing.
Can radar see a dust storm (haboob)?
Weather radar mainly sees rain, not dust, so a haboob's dust wall is often nearly invisible to it. The giveaway is the parent thunderstorm: watch for a strong storm collapsing nearby, then a fast-moving outflow boundary. Satellite imagery shows the dust plume far better than radar does.
SEE IT LIVE
Everything in this guide is on one real-time map.