Ah, Phoenix in the summer!
There was a jumungous dust storm yesterday in Phoenix that reached a height of two miles:
Here’s a different perspective:
The storm came at the beginning of Phoenix’s monsoon season—yes, you heard me right, Phoenix’s monsoon season—which is in the summertime and features violent thunderstorms whose winds can kick up huge dust storms in the normally-dry area near Phoenix.
Years ago, I had to stay in Phoenix for a week during July. The good news was that they were practically giving hotel rooms away. The bad news was that there was a reason for that: no one who wasn’t forced to be there at that time of year would ever willingly choose to go.
When I made the reservation, I asked the clerk what time the weather cooled off somewhat. His answer was, “Around Thanksgiving.”
I said no, really—and he said yes, really. I found that during the day it was about 115, and at night it cooled off only a few degrees. The swimming pool water was like a hot tub, but it didn’t matter because you wouldn’t want to be out there, anyway. The city streets featured spritzers that sprayed you every twenty yards or so in order to keep you alive.
There was no monsoon and no dust storm while I was there, but one was hardly needed to make the stay unpleasant. And sightseeing was an ordeal, although sun umbrellas were provided at this place, where Frank Lloyd Wright had a home and working compound (wisely, in winter).
Hee. It’s amazing what you do and don’t get used to; I grew up in Phoenix. I always found it pretty easy to get along with so long as I drank enough water. Although my family did hold that summer had not really begun until you walked out of an air-conditioned building and the heat would hit you like a physical blow upside the head.
Moving to New Orleans was miserable, though- it might have been twenty degrees cooler but the dampness made it so much more difficult to escape.
Thirty-eight years of flying and I saw this weather phenomena only one time – near Denver. The one I saw was not nearly as dust laden as this one. It appeared as a diaphonous screen of dust that went straight up from gound level (5,280 feet at Denver) to about 10,000 feet. Just like a vertical screen of dust. It traveled from nothwest to southeast and caused only a short closure of the airport. I understand these are more common in the ME. Glad they are rare in this country.
The monsoon season in the desert southwest refers to the period when the major airflow is predominately from the southwest. Moisture comes out of the Pacific and the Gulf of California across Mexico and creates major thunderstorms. I flew from Denver to San Diego one July and every flight we had to detour around major thunder-bumpers due to what we called the Mexican monsoon. Some years it is stronger and more pronounced. I guess this is one of the strong years.
Flying in and out of Phoenix in the summer is always a challenge because of the heat and the turbulent air. High temps can create soft asphalt runways that impede acceleration and of course jet engines become less powerful at higher air temps. It was sometimes a juggling act to get enough fuel to make it to ORD and carry all the passengers and cargo we could. (That was on the B-727) We sometimes had to leave people standing at the gate to make the allowable takeoff weight. Yes, I still miss the flying. Some of the problems that go with it, not so much.
We’ve been thinking about fleeing to Phoenix to escape the coming deluge here in the People’s Republic. Summer weather there is the big sticking point (easy access to MLB spring training is on the asset side of the ledger).
I’ve played in baseball tournaments in Phoenix in October, and it was hot, but perfectly nice. Temps were in the mid-90s, but dry, and frankly I preferred that a lot over, say, Boston, which is pretty much miserable (albeit in different ways) all year ’round.
Could we get used to 115 degree days? Maybe, maybe not. Back in the day, I played tennis (singles!) in that kind of weather (for a week or two per year the onshore winds reverse, and San Diego’s weather comes from … Phoenix!), but doing that at this age would probably finish me off.
I thought I’d live out my days here, and so I really resent the liberals for screwing up my beloved California to the point that I have to think about making such a momentous decision.
So it’s a tough call. But every time I decide against moving, those idiots in Sacramento come up with another brilliant idea that makes me reconsider. (A rrecent example: an exit tax – aka “ransom” – for those selling houses in CA and not buying another here. It didn’t come to a vote, but it shows how they’re thinking. Not good.)
I arrived in Tucson the evening of the first day of the monsoon season in ’70. Five people drowned that night. Two drowned the following night, and another was electrocuted (downed line, flooded engine, got out of the car…) Tucson runs about 10 degrees cooler, though.
People are always saying Phoenix isn’t so bad because it’s a dry heat. But isn’t inside your oven a dry heat?
I spent quite a few summer vacations travelling across Arizona when I was a kid. I remember mostly that peanut butter sandwiches are terrible things when they start to melt and that when my brother and I (again!) complained about not having air conditioning in the car, Dad cheerfuly told us we did so have AC – we had “470” AC. That is, we rolled down all four windows and drove 70 miles per hour.
Occam’s Beard,
Consider Tucson if you need a moderate sized city to be comfortable, it does run 5-10 degrees cooler. Otherwise there is Prescott-Prescott Valley (pop. about 75000 total) which has all the amenities, an elevation of 5500 feet, and moderate/light snow in the winters. If you want real heat, try Bullhead and Lake Havasu City where 125 degrees isn’t unusual.
Really though, Phoenix isn’t a hell of a lot worse than San Bernadino/Riverside, and or that hellhole of an Imperial Valley.
LabRat,
I grew up going between Phoenix (summers) and the San Gabriel Valley, finishing HS in Phoenix. Used to joke that if it wasn’t 110 or better it wasn’t hot. Don’t anymore because after about 45 summers here, it just isn’t funny…
It really isn’t quite as bad as it sounds.
I grew up and still live in PHX. In PHX, you know summer is finally hear when you step outside and it smells like hot tar.
The Monsoons are the break from it, not the plague of summer.
Temps will drop 20-25 degrees after a good rain. It’s a wonderful relief. Dust storm the other night? Not so much.
Wife and I were skateboarding at the park when it hit. Talk about a gritty ride! Had to wait 20 minutes before it was safe to drive home.
Dad used to say they should outlaw air conditioning, and then only the folks who loved PHX would stay. True enough, but then Air makes this place totally livable (I should know, didn’t get air conditioning until I was 35).
Tucson? Forget Tucson, liberal paradise on it’s death throws for all the obvious reasons (Sorry to you folks down there, but all you have to do is drive the 2 cities to see the diffence).
Don’t let the heat scare you, really. Almost the entire south is worse then PHX in the summer, honest.
Dry heat means getting wet works like it should, you cool off.
Oh, and I skate year around, even when it’s 105 at 9pm, as does the wife. And no, I’m no kid at 46, just immature…
I heard that, every year, 100,000 people move to the Phoenix area, presumably retirees who visited during the Christmas holidays, and 80,000 leave.
My wife and I visited some redwood forest park or other north of San Francisco, having arrived there by the coast highway from LA. Got into the car in bright, beautiful sweater weather and headed east to pick up I5, wanting to see some of central CA.
Three hours later at a rest area, we got out into what felt like standing in front of an oven. Hustled through our stop there and drove until about ten in the evening, needing gas. An interchange with a couple of warehouses, a motel, four huge truck stops. A viciously hot, dry, busy wind from the west, no lights beyond this technocratic island of life, the rumble of idling semis, and I felt as if we were on another planet. Got into Bakersfield an hour or so later.
San Luis Obispo, though….
Been to Flagstaff in winter and summer. Pleasant each time.
oldskater: I’ve been in the South in the summer. I even spent a week or so in New Orleans in the summer, and it was plenty hot and humid. But I could still function outdoors, although not well. In Phoenix, however, being outdoors in the summer seemed potentially deadly, and in fairly short order. It was around 115 or so during the days the whole time I was there. I don’t care how dry it is, it was still nearly unendurable.
Your mileage may differ.
An odd thing i recall from a visit to Phoenix once was encountering a rail road tie i could lift with one hand. There was zero moisture in the big piece of wood.
An odd thing i recall from a visit to Phoenix once was encountering a rail road tie i could lift with one hand. There was zero moisture in the big piece of wood.
Helps bat speed!
I believe you’ve mashed together two common words, humungous and jagunda to create the new “jumungous.”
It fails to embiggen the language. And really, the first two were perfectly cromulent, Ms. Neo-Con!
😉
‘
We flew to Arizona rented an RV to drive around the state and see the sights, years ago. It was August. We were descending into Phoenix and I said to my husband, “Did the pilot just say it was 114 in Phoenix?” I looked out the window. My youngest daughter was 5 or 6. She looked out the window at the sprawling city below and, having never heard the word ‘Phoenix’ before, confused it with a more familiar hot place and said, “Mommy, is that Venus?”