By Scott Martin - @RaceWx4You
Well just a few short days removed from Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, we now shift our focus to the Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix for the Verizon Indycar Series. The good news is that we will not have to be dealing with any rain chances. The bad news, high winds may bring blowing dust into the forecast for Friday.
On Friday, the skies will be sunny and temperatures will be warm, with highs up into the upper 80s, around 89 degrees. The main story is that it will be breezy throughout the day. Winds will start off out of the southwest, but will quickly shift to out of the west and will increase during the afternoon hours into the 20-25 MPH range, with gusts up to 40 MPH possible. Those winds are expected to be the highest during the practice session that is scheduled to take place from 4PM-6PM. With the possibility of blowing dust and the strong winds, that will make those machines hard to hold on to. Conditions improve slightly at 8PM for qualifying, but wind gusts could still reach as high as 35 MPH. Temperatures will be in the upper 70s for qualifying, starting off near 77 degrees.
Saturday evening seems to be a much calmer day as far as the wind, but the one thing you will notice is the cooler temperatures for this time of the year at Phoenix International Raceway. Skies will be clear, and temperatures at the 6PM hour will be around 80 degrees and dropping to near 71 degrees by the checkered flag. Winds will be out of the northeast at 5-15 MPH.
On Friday, the skies will be sunny and temperatures will be warm, with highs up into the upper 80s, around 89 degrees. The main story is that it will be breezy throughout the day. Winds will start off out of the southwest, but will quickly shift to out of the west and will increase during the afternoon hours into the 20-25 MPH range, with gusts up to 40 MPH possible. Those winds are expected to be the highest during the practice session that is scheduled to take place from 4PM-6PM. With the possibility of blowing dust and the strong winds, that will make those machines hard to hold on to. Conditions improve slightly at 8PM for qualifying, but wind gusts could still reach as high as 35 MPH. Temperatures will be in the upper 70s for qualifying, starting off near 77 degrees.
Saturday evening seems to be a much calmer day as far as the wind, but the one thing you will notice is the cooler temperatures for this time of the year at Phoenix International Raceway. Skies will be clear, and temperatures at the 6PM hour will be around 80 degrees and dropping to near 71 degrees by the checkered flag. Winds will be out of the northeast at 5-15 MPH.
