"...but it's a DRY heat!" (LOL)

[blackbuell]

I'm a desert rat: went to grad school at the University of New Mexico; became a desert animal ecologist; over the past 40 years I did much of my research in southern AZ during the summer months. Thankfully, most of the research was at locations with higher elevation than the greater Phoenix area: Ruby, Arivaca, San Manuel, Tucson, Portal. However, I have done much of the work when the day-time highs were 110-115 degrees F. As long as you stay hydrated, you can eventually adjust to working in the heat, but it does wear you down. Last year I decided that the desert work was too stressful to be fun any more for a person my age, and retired from it. I will still visit and camp in desert locations frequently (will do so in July), as I love desert habitats, especially when they come alive, as they do, at night.

Jon

[Arizona Wayne]

Guess you could say living in Phoenix year round is like living in Needles, Ca. 

[cruzziguzzi]

I don't care to defend Arizona in part as I don't wish to contribute to any further amateur status population growth but I will say this as a support of our positions.

Business, recreation and familial obligations draw my wife and I to many, perceived as wonderful, cities and climates. Between matters; atmospheric, meteorological, social, political or population density... not one single alternative stands out to keep us from getting excited to get back the "The Valley", regardless of season.
Love it here and can't imagine living here and not reveling in the climate. Hell, anything else is a self imposed sentence. That'd be like me moving - for whatever reason - to the Pacific Northwest and complaining about rain or being closed in by rain forrest or...


Todd.

[Travlr]

I played 18 holes of golf yesterday afternoon. 

And I wasn't the only one on the course.

Just came back from a ride today.

It sure as heck beats winters in the Midwest where you put your clubs and motorcycles away all winter.

Mike

[JJ]

I seem to remember a dirt storm enveloping large parts of Southern AZ a couple of years back , is that an UNnatural disaster ?

  Dusty

@ Dusty - Yes, we DO have the occasional massive dust storm, known as a "HABOOB"   and yes, they are BIG, and yes, they are natural, and they pass eventually, and don't cause any damage like major floods, earthquakes, and / or hurricanes.

[oldbike54]

@ Dusty - Yes, we DO have the occasional massive dust storm, known as a "HABOOB"   and yes, they are BIG, and yes, they are natural, and they pass eventually, and don't cause any damage like major floods, earthquakes, and / or hurricanes.

 "Haboob" , yeah that's the name  Oh , don't forget tornadoes , we are plagued wit all of the above here in Okiehomie , I have actually witnessed mud rain , that is fun 

  Dusty

[Sasquatch Jim]

  Is it more fun than a hurry cane, or Madam Pele spewing hot shit all over the place?
 How about a sue namy?

[charlie b]

Interesting that folks keep bringing up a 9 month riding "season" in Phx.  Albuquerque has almost 12month riding season if pick your time of day.  During summer you can ride north to mountains.  During winter you can ride south.  Almost all year you can ride around town.  There is less than a month of days that I do not commute to work on the bike, and most of those are because of snow and ice in my driveway, not on the roads.

[Penderic]

I had to look up "Haboob" on the web .... nasty looking thing! Yikes, I would try to outrun it if I saw that behind me! you shirley wouldn't want to be out riding in that!







Well, if I had a fast bike..... maybe....

[rboe]

Ug, just got back from a road trip. Low 50's in Newport Oregon (wonderful!), then over to Lewiston Idaho (lows in the high 50's, low 60's, highs in the low 90's - a bit too high for my taste, but fairly dry). Then we dropped back down into Hell. Gah. I'm a northern boy with cold skills, not so much for the heat. Sure you don't have to shovel the heat, but with snow, at least you can put on more clothes.

I"ll take the cold over the heat; but extremes either way are for the birds. Once the wife retires we're going to figure out a way to escape Arizona and the heat. May winter here; that has yet to be determined. She handles the heat like I can handle the cold.

I will miss the good Mexican food; the one thing I really missed on this vacation.

I forget the gory details; but I heard a story about two Arizona Indian scouts that died went to hell. They suck back and got their blankets.....

[travelingbyguzzi]

We are gonna set records in Seattle this weekend. Highs in the 90s. Eastern WA will be well over 100°. It is still June. Hasn't rained (appreciably) since April.

[oldbike54]

We are gonna set records in Seattle this weekend. Highs in the 90s. Eastern WA will be well over 100�. It is still June. Hasn't rained (appreciably) since April.

 Yeah , we got all of your May rain , probably 14 inches or more .

  Dusty

[Arizona Wayne]

We are gonna set records in Seattle this weekend. Highs in the 90s. Eastern WA will be well over 100°. It is still June. Hasn't rained (appreciably) since April.

It get's HOT in the summer in eastern Oregon/Washington !!!   But It get's COLD there in the winter time too !!!     Kind of like central Nevada.  But they're a dry heat.   

[HardAspie]

A fun thing is that sometimes the dust is stirred up by winds falling from convective clouds. If conditions of cloud and wind and rain are just right, then, right at the edge of dust there can be a dust to rain interface and mud storms!

[cruzziguzzi]

A fun thing is that sometimes the dust is stirred up by winds falling from convective clouds. If conditions of cloud and wind and rain are just right, then, right at the edge of dust there can be a dust to rain interface and mud storms!

It's my own personal pleasure to walk out and see the effects of this flash-baked onto my black Mercedes or any of the black motorcycles. Get the dust storm ("haboob" is for new-commers, snowbirds, contractor-chic types and news folks fancying themselves old school war correspondents 'cause they saw a guy in the desert with a gun once), throw in a touch of precipitation then immediately clear the clouds to flash it into mini mud rings on a paint that was already 135 degrees before the dust storm.

Weird confluence of effects and paint choices... and lack of cover. Takes vinegar to dissolve them without abusing things with polishing compound.

Todd.

[JJ]

Interesting that folks keep bringing up a 9 month riding "season" in Phx.  Albuquerque has almost 12month riding season if pick your time of day.  During summer you can ride north to mountains.  During winter you can ride south.  Almost all year you can ride around town.  There is less than a month of days that I do not commute to work on the bike, and most of those are because of snow and ice in my driveway, not on the roads.

Yes, the riding season around the Valley is really 12 months, if you can take the heat in the summer.    Just have to plan your rides around sunrise and between 9AM-10AM at very latest.  After 12 noon, the heat moves rapidly like a staircase up through sunset - - and it is dreadful!

I have ridden in 115+ degrees in a full coverage helmet / full gear, and it is not pleasant, but it is doable, as long as one stops and HYDRATES often!

[gsf12man]

I like Phoenix and the Phoenix/Arizona Guzzi gang, for the few times I got to hang out with JJ and co. before relocating. But 122F is a little too warm. That fateful day I rode my Suzuki GS1100EZ to work, 17 miles one way, because the temp. sender on my Merkur XR4Ti chose to die during that heat wave. Car was fine, but without a temperature gauge I didn't dare drive it. That was a pretty hot ride. At work I was driving a BMW 7-Series and the outside temperature readout approaching Scottsdale was 133F.

I told this story to my brother in Aberdeen, SD, and he told me his fellow employee explained to him that I was fine, and would have been comfortable, because it was "a dry heat."

Best winters anywhere, though!

[HardAspie]

Cornville Arodzona today. Clouds gather in the heat. No rain expected, but moisture is coming north from the gulf and Sea of Cortez. Monsoon en route.

[rboe]

Out cleaning the truck after our road trip - it's turning into a wet heat. Not as bad as Minnesota humidity; but up there. :p

[Chuck in Indiana]

Yeah , we got all of your May rain , probably 14 inches or more .

  Dusty

I was talking to our farmer yesterday, he said we'd had over 20 inches since May 22. (!!) He has 120 acres he can't even get in to yet, and it's too late. I've flown once this year. The runway hasn't been usable. No matter what the Naysayers say, I say that Mother Nature is pissed off. Record heat, cold, drought, and floods seem to be the norm.

[dee g]

It get's HOT in the summer in eastern Oregon/Washington !!!   But It get's COLD there in the winter time too !!!     Kind of like central Nevada.  But they're a dry heat.   

I used to live in Mojave, CA.  115F in the shade was a common thing during the summer. Electricity was so stinking expensive there that I couldn't afford to run the a/c too much.  getting a $500 electric bill one month about killed me. So, I got used to living with out it.

Forecast for Wenatchee earlier this week was for 111F on Sat and Sun, but they have since scaled that back to about 105 for both days. Electricity here is MUCH cheaper (like only 2.5c per kwH), so I'll wimp out and have the a/c on.  :-)

[Stormtruck2]

113 in Henderson currently according to the thermometer I'm looking at. Will be a fun unload!

[oldbike54]

113 in Henderson currently according to the thermometer I'm looking at. Will be a fun unload!

 Iowa or Caaaleeforrnia ?

  Dusty

 OOPS , my intelligence service tells me that would be Nevada 

[AMGeneral]

It makes the record 77 we had here over the weekend seem less severe.   

Yea until you remember that the temp in Alaska goes the other way too. I could stand a record high of 77 in the summertime but not to fond of the temps winter will bring.

We've been bouncing right up against the 100 mark this week.