Friday, June 10, 2011

WARMIN' UP

It's 85 degrees at 3:30 in the afternoon.  June 10th.  Less than a month until the monsoon is scheduled to start.

Oh yes we do!  (I heard those dubious snickers about a monsoon in Arizona.)

It's a regular season here, usually starting around the 4th of July and running until September.  If you were to check the description of a monsoon, you'd learn that it is a change in the direction of the wind.  Where normally our "breezes" (heh-heh) come in from the West Coast, during the monsoon season they blow up from the southeast.  Dust storms down in Southern Arizona first, sometimes bringing rain.  Up here the mountain tops apparently dig into those clouds, releasing more rain.  Not a lot, mind you, but enough to cool down the late afternoons and evenings.  After a few weeks of dry, sunny heat-filled days, the cooling monsoon rain is a relief.

I remember my first day in Phoenix, back in July of 1972.  I was in a little store when raindrops began coming down outside and everyone rushed outside to get wet.  I thought they were crazy but then I learned that it hadn't rained for something over 100 days.  I got used to it and became a little crazy myself, in time.

8 comments:

  1. I need to order me up a monsoon here in Texas. It's way too hot, way too early. My hope is that we can BOTH stay cool this summer. (I don't ask for much, do I?)

    S

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice of you to be thinking about us here in Phoenix!
    What we dread the most are the nights when, opening the outside door, we still can't breathe any cooler air than during the day...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Again, I remember my first week in Phoenix. Watching television, I was stunned when the anchorman came on with a live MIDNIGHT newscast by saying "Good evening, it's 106 degrees in Phoenix!"

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm sure the rains will be welcome if the fires are still raging.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I bet your cats don't rush out to get wet!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Steve, I just read that the big fire is 6 percent contained and about to move into New Mexico. Fortunately for me, it's nowhere near here.

    Lucy - I would agree. Only Blackwell goes out but I doubt he'd like to get rained on.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have to challenge your last sentence- " I got used to it and became a little crazy myself, in time." Bull roar you Taurus. You were more than a tad crazy before you arrived in Az.

    ReplyDelete