View Single Post
  #6   (View Single Post)  
Old 8th February 2009
Oko's Avatar
Oko Oko is offline
Rc.conf Instructor
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Kosovo, Serbia
Posts: 1,102
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJ View Post
It depends where in AZ, and it matters a lot. The northern part of the state is temperate, and gets snow in the winter. Phoenix, on the other hand, is really, really hot. Tucson is a tad less so.

By "really hot" it means that starting in April or so the daytime temperatures exceed 100, and that does not let off until October. The summers during July and August are typically 105 during the day and 95 at night, give or take. Before this monsoon season, it gets hotter, but is more dry. Highs earlier are closer to 110, though it does get up to 120. You would not believe the intensity of the sun, and one is constantly thirsty.

It is dry, relatively speaking, but there is a lot of water and lawns in Phoenix that add water to the atmosphere. There's a lot of allergens these days too, since people have brought their favorite plants with them and they have grown. And pollinated.

Many people make their peace with it, the others leave again. Count me in the latter group. I found the heat oppressive.

Winters are pretty nice, but it is odd to have the nice weather when the days are so very short. It is also not unusual for it to freeze at night.
I lived in Tucson for 5 years. Unfortunately I had to relocate recently because I have a new job. Tucson has fantastic climate. It probably has over 330 sunny days a year. The temperatures are not exceeding 90 during the day from mid September till May. Nights are very cool due to the low humidity (less than 10%) which means that temperatures go down 30 degrees as soon as Sun comes down. May and June can be bad with day temperatures from 95-105 and humidity of about 25%-30%. Monsoon season usually starts around 4th of July and lasts until late August. It brings daily rainfalls and humidity of around 50%. The worst time in Tucson is right before the monsoon starts when the heat very high and temperatures remain high during the night due to the elevated humidity.
If you have enough money to live high in foothills of Mount Lemon Tucson it is nice year around.


Large portions of Phoenix are in depression (in the whole) so the heat is much worse and monsoon is much weaker. If you have money to live in Prescot things are not that bad.

Flagstaff is fantastic year around since it is 8000 ft above the see level. The same goes for White Mountains in the eastern part of the state.

Western desert (west of I-10) is inhumanly hot. The only larger town is
Yuma better known as the winter paradise and the summer hell. Even places around Lake Havasu are incredibly hot for about 5 month a year.
I am talking over 120 during the day.

New Mexico has fantastic climate especially north of Albuquerque, around continental divine and Rio Grande.

The worst climate of all Sun belt states (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado,
Utah and Nevada) has Nevada with exception of places around Lake Tahoe. The worst climate and shittiest city probably on the world at least of what I have seen so far (40 states of U.S. and about 60 other countries) is Las Vegas Nevada.
Reply With Quote