We'd leave Tucson three in the morning, and were out running our wires and gear at 5:00 or so, and stayed at it until Noon or 1:00, then put up and came in. A great summer--I love the Sonora. I remember watching the Sun's first light hit Superstition Mountain. Beautiful!
As one wag put it, "For two months of the year, Tuscon gets mean, wicked, uncomfortably hot. The rest of the year, though, it's simply unendurable."
Hang in there, DesertRat! Keep plenty of iced coffee on hand. Even in fairly temperate Boston, I brew a pot at night, let it cool, then stick it in the fridge so it's already to go next day.
I've driven through the states of Sonora and Chihuahua, it's pretty darn hot! Years ago they were so cheap that when you would buy a coke they would pour it into a bag so that they could keep the bottles. Lots of pot holes and the restaurants had nothing to eat in them. I love Mexico.
I detest polygamy, but a small part of me respects the polygamists who migrated to Mexico to continue the practice. It bespeaks of significant determination and strength--for a horrible cause, alas.
yeah but is a dry heat. Try the Midwest (VA for eg) in the mid-upper 90's with 100 humidity. When you go to hell HERE they send you back here for a down coat.
Yes, there is nothing like southern humidity. I could take up to (the rare) high 90s in Colorado without too much trouble. In fact it was not unusual for me to sleep with a down comforter at night in the summer there. But 90+ degree weather in the mid-Atlantic or south can be brutal. I was shocked at how much hotter Virginia can get than Maryland (and Maryland is no slouch when it comes to heat.)
If you have air conditioning in your house and in your vehicles, the only affect that the Southern Arizona heat has on you is to cost you an additional three hundred dollars or so per month in the summer. Of course, the winter time heating bill's are next to zero and you really could go without any winter time heating with only some minor discomfort. Then there is the rest of the year. Spring, Winter and Fall are very enjoyable for outdoor activities. Even in the Winter, it gets comfortably warm outside on most days.
But if you don't have air conditioning then yeah, summer is definitely hell here in the Sonoran desert. It can be far worse than the uninitiated might be able to fully understand. Your home can become nearly unlivable without air conditioning in the summer as the indoor temperatures exceed over 110 degrees in the daytime and never drop below 100 degrees, even at night. As you sleep at night, you're actually suffering from a fever. And if you think you'll just take a cool bath to cool-off, think again. Much of the time, only hot water comes out of the cold water tap. There is no escape from the potentially life threatening heat without air conditioning. But if you have air conditioning, all is good. More or less, you live in a big refrigerator for three months of the year.
We just hope that the power doesn't get cut-off for longer than an hour or so in mid-summer. With over a million people needing to go somewhere else quickly, it's not like you could just go to a hotel. My air-conditioning broke down on July 3rd one year. We spent the next few days in a motel.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2019 10:07AM by azsteve.
Speaking of dessert living: I was born in a very small town in So. Arizona, in my grandmother's twin bed, however, before I knew how hot hot could be, we moved to So. California.
One year, when I was in my late teens, my family sent me to visit my relatives in this town. As my father worked for the railroad, it didn't cost them anything to send me.
After the biggest part of the trip was made, I sat on a bench in front of a very small wooden station. While waiting for my next connection, I spotted a turnado coming my way--zig-zaging across the endless sand before my eyes. Before I knew it, it had landed directly where I was sitting, picked up my suitcase, and then set it down again.
Then, I boarded the only passenger car--which was required due to the fact that the train was using Indian terittory.
Their were 3 customers on this "old-west" wooden train, with big open windows. One was me, and the other was an Indian with a long velvet skirt on, and her papose on the traditional board and her baby being held in place by traditional (cow-hide?) straps.
Without being able to say a word to each other, she knew I would be interested in her unstraping the baby, and then re-straping it so I could see how it was done.
Such a sight is long gone now, I am sure--except for the fact that Indians still get a free ride.
Holy smokes! A tornado right in front of you, then the old-west wooden train, with the curious passengers. Being allowed to unstrap the baby and strap her back into the papoose yet another thing you wouldn't have imagined happening until it did.
Those kind of memories are truly once in a lifetime.
It's worse in the modern era with all the concrete and asphalt that magnifies the heat and traps it. It must've been slightly more bearable in the days of the Hohokam with just ground and probably more bushes and greenery.
In the Old West days (1890s-1910s) people would sleep in semi-open porches with wet blankets on top of them sometimes.
A/C is really a necessity. The local power companies (SRP/APS) have a policy that they will not cut your power if you're behind on your payment during a declared Excessive Heat Advisory.
From experience having lived in the desert Southwest a few years ago, other than blasting the A/C, try to stay indoors as much as possible during the day. Do your shopping and errands in the early morning or after sunset. Avoid sugars and alcohol which raises body temperature.
Good comments. My wife and I are moving to Tucson from Minneapolis in a couple of weeks. We have been there a few times during the summer/monsoon season. Maybe it's just because we will be newbies and just former visitors, but we welcome the change over the heat plus humidity up here. Right now it's 88 degrees with 70 percent humidity. Dew point 70 degrees. Ugh! And then within 3 months we will be likely putting on our parkas again (if we stayed) getting ready for another 5+ months of eternally-seeming winter. And don't forget the REAL Minnesota state bird, the mosquito.
Plus, we welcome the sunshine. I have SAD and the long dark winter days with gray skies and nothing to look at but bare trees and a view of my neighbor's dog doing his business on a gigantic snowpile have become just too much!
If you want to get a flavor of life up here, just watch the movie "Fargo" where the salesman character played by William H Macy is scraping his car hood and loses his temper....
We know it will be HOT, but truly for us the dry heat will be something we hope to endure in exchange for many months of more temperate weather. And the chance to see real mountains and travel around and see new sights.
I hear that Tucson is a few degrees cooler than Phoenix. If you use swamp (evaporative) cooling, I hear that it works year-around in Tucson. In Phoenix, there are a few summer months where swamp cooling doesn't work. I haven't used it in a few decades now. The humidity in your house goes way up. But it is a very inexpensive way to cool the home down.
Minnesota winters are brutal. I've been to Minneapolis in the springtime, summertime, and fall though, and I thought it was surprisingly beautiful weather, but I'm used to some humidity. The lakes are so abundant there what is it called, state of 10,000 lakes or something like that?
Isn't Tucson a lot more southern than Phoenix? I would think the temps would be warmer the more south you go.
I get affected by SAD too living in the Northeast with the shorter days and the long cold winters. I take extra Vitamin D in the wintertime, and use those daylight light bulbs as much as possible, plus get extra rest when possible.
Good luck on your move to Tucson! Sounds like good times ahead. Are you still house hunting or have you already found a place to live?
When I've visited St George the few times I have, I met some snowbirders from Minneapolis who were moving there to get out of the snow.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/17/2019 10:46AM by Amyjo.