It was a busy morning on November 29th, as a strong cold front swept through the region. These storms even resulted in two tornado warnings for portions of the Phoenix Valley (see radar loop below).

The first tornado warning was issued for a storm near Scottsdale Airport at 4:01 am and expired at 4:15 am. The second tornado warning of the morning was issued at 4:44 am for a storm over San Tan Village Mall. This storm, with radar-indicated rotation, continued moving northeast over Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The tornado warning was canceled at 4:56 am.

So, the big question: Just how rare are tornado warnings in Phoenix?

To answer this question, we pulled archived weather alerts for Maricopa and Pinal Counties from 1986 to current, from the online database provided through Iowa State University.

From 1986 to present (33 years), only 23 tornado warnings have been issued for Maricopa County and 13 for Pinal County.

So the answer is: Fairly rare!

Below is a list of dates that tornado warnings have been issued for Maricopa and Pinal counties.

List for Maricopa County:
Aug 29, 1987
Nov 1, 1987
Sep 3, 1990
Feb 13, 1992
Jan 17, 1993 - two warnings issued
Jan 18, 1993
Mar 13, 1996
Aug 14, 1997
Sept 7, 2002 - two warnings issued
Sept 6, 2003
Jan 4, 2005 - two warnings issued
Jan 29, 2005
Jan 21, 2010 - three warnings issued
Sept 10, 2011
July 1, 2016
Sept 23, 2019
Nov 29, 2019 - two warnings issued

List for Pinal County:
Nov 18, 1986
Jan 18, 1993
Mar 7, 1994
Sept 4, 1994
Aug 14, 1997
Sep 12, 1997
July 6, 1999
Jan 21, 2010
Sep 10, 2011 - two warnings issued
Jul 14, 2017 - two warnings issued
Nov 29, 2019 - two warnings issued