Over the past few days I’ve been posting on my Instagram feed and Facebook about the Arizona heat I’ve been experiencing. It’s been getting warm to be sure, and spending time in Casa Grande, Queen Valley, & Mesa at this time of year is inviting additional experience with true Arizona heat. But here’s the question…..Is it unusual?
Nope, not at all. This is in fact a desert state, and it has been for quite a while. We’ve got Saguaros you know…..and scorpions, and tarantulas, and rattle snakes… You get the idea. So during the summer it is not unusual to see high temperatures. What is unusual is how many people voluntarily stay in those high temperatures. Me personally, I’m not so cool with it.
I’ve been reading around the web about the summer heat, and I get the feeling that folks think this is out of the ordinary, but it’s not. And actually, if anything we’ve had a much cooler Spring than normal. While in Casa Grande all of the residents at Sundance 1 RV Resort kept telling us how cool it’s been, and how it should have been hotter. And they were right. Still, I don’t want to live in triple digit heat for long, but I do acknowledge that it isn’t unusual in the Phoenix area.
When I first arrived in Prescott in 2007 I encoutered the warmest temperatures I’ve ever seen in Prescott. Leading up to the 4th of July my thermometer stuck on my Airstream window registered 104 degrees in the shade (and it melted to my window). Since that week in 2007 I have never personally experienced heat like that in Prescott ever again. Also, just a few weeks ago I was running around in a fleece jacket every morning. That was a little unusual on the cool side.
Finally, I look to Watson Lake as a gauge of how things are going here. The lake is at the highest I’ve ever seen between 2007 and 2015. A very wet winter has provided more water to the area. Things are greener than I’ve ever seen.
So, when I say it’s hot understand it’s just me being a whiner. I want to find a place that is 70 during the day and 40 at night……year round. I’d move the Airstream there in a hot minute! But alas, I don’t believe it exists. So I’ll endure the warmer temperatures for a few months, and then we’ll get back into my kind of temperatures again!
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I’ve lived in Az since 1977, this year we had a beautiful cool and wet spring. The nicest one I can recall.
I lived in the Phoenix area from ’77 to ’99. People imitate the desert creatures and hole up in A/C during the summer daylight hours, running from car to home to office, etc. Analogous to what folks do in northern climates in winter. I remember the day it was 122 degrees and Sky Harbor airport closed down due to heat thinning the air too much for safe flight. That was an ugly hot day.