What is it like to live in the AZ heat? True story.

[Coyotl]

It was way too hot for days on end, so I was getting ready to leave the Phoenix basin and head to the Oregon Coast and cool my heels at the Country Fair. But first, I had to repair the VW van because all that heat had made the main seal leak and the clutch was slipping. I scheduled the work and had to do some begging to meet my schedule. The owner's Dad agreed to come in and R&R my engine. I dropped it off at 9 AM and walked the two miles to the college campus.

At 4 PM, the van was ready to go, so I walked back in the 115° in the shade sun, taking breaks at every air-conditioned quick mart to stand next to the cooler for a while. That's where the floors are actually cool. When I got to the shop I found the owner's 70 year old Dad had workedd outside, in the shade, with a fan. OMG! Now that's a Native Dad. I drove home with all the windows down, what with no air-conditioning in VW vans that old.

Out near Superstition Mountain, east of the city, I turned north on Ironwood and drove past the high school, a 25 mph zone. The 120+ degree sun was blasting half my face, and it was sooo hot I could feel the relief of the power pole shade even at 25 mph. Finally, I was home in my air-conditioned abode and packing. I discovered i had blisters on my feet.

Meanwhile a massive storm was building, an immense thunderhead to the southeast, and it was heading our way. The wind came up, then turned cold. Soon enough, it was below 90. Then the storm cloud started collapsing and the wind really came up. I decided to start driving while it was cooler. Back at the high school, the wind had blown over the power poles. I lamented that loss of shade as I drove around the downed wires.

Out on highway 60, heading west back toward Phoenix a 40 mph side wind was piling thistles on the median divider. The wind shifted to east and increased. A pile of thistles the size of a VW bug almost passed me. By the time I got to Phoenix, I was out of the storm and the temperature was 110 plus again. But hey, the sun was almost down.

I camped at the highest elevation on the highway Vegas. The air was bearable. At 10 AM it was 110 in Vegas. I had to keep the drive down to 50 mph to not overheat. Four hours later I was finally out of the 100 degree plus heat. It was really COOL to arrive in Oregon!

[Violet_Crumble]

1. OMG. I don't think I could survive in that heat...

Being Australian, I had to go quickly convert that temperature into celcius to see exactly how hot it was. I remember early this year we got extreme temperatures in SE Australia but compared to that they were nothing. I think we only got to 106 or something close to that...

Try and stay cool and out of that heat

[Warpy]

7. The fact that it's a dry heat really does make a difference

The air here in the southwest is so arid we don't get condensation on the outsides of glasses holding iced drinks, it evaporates as it forms. So does sweat.

I find I can stay fairly comfortable in high 90s with the air moving a bit. 100+ heat is uncomfortable, but doesn't feel as dangerously so as it did back east with 90% humidity.

I've been spoiled by the desert. I don't think I could cope with high humidity again.

[NBachers]

2. I'm glad the job was competently done; if you'd broken down it could've been tragic

[MissB]

3. You forgot part of that story!

How about telling folks what they are missing by not going to the Country Fair?

[flying rabbit]

18. + 1 for the country fair! nt

[Coyotl]

28. One of my favorite Oregon Country Fair photos

Says it all!

[Aristus]

4. I spent three years of my childhood in the Huachuca Mountains.

We had 100F-degree summers, but snow in the winters. I liked the variety.

And if anybody every complains to you that "dry heat is still heat, man!", I profess that there is a difference; having spent several summers in hot, humid, Houston, TX. At 100% humidity, your sweat has nowhere to go, no place to evaporate to, so you never cool down; it's misery.

At least in the desert, the sweat evaporates quickly, cooling you off a little. You're never as soggy as in a place with high humidity.

[ChazII]

5. Agree 100%

or should that be 120%. I have visited family in states with humidity and will still take my dry heat. Having battery operated fans are very useful should the power go out as are the fans that serve as misters.

[Still Sensible]

12. So true. I grew up in Sierra Vista and spent quite a bit of time

in the Huachucas... including one rattlesnake bite. But it really is a great place and I miss it.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

20. Humidity doesn't really bother me.

Living in Florida now with the summers (actually my favorite time of the year), and growing up in Maryland where the summers can be every bit as hot and humid as in Florida, I've always been around heat and humidity and never really found it to be unbearable (unlike extreme cold, which I do detest). I'll find myself sweating at times but never really feel uncomfortable doing so.

Granted, I've never spent prolonged time periods in a hot, dry climate. My guess is that you will feel less sweaty. But for some reason that scares me more--sounds as though you'd dehydrate quicker, with the dry heat just quickly evaporating any type of moisture that might be on your body.

[Jenoch]

27. A couple of years ago

Minnesota had a day where we were the hottest place on the planet. It was a July day where the temperature was over 100° and the dewpoint was 89°. That made the heat index 134°. When you walked outside your sweat glands burst into sweat drenching your entire body. It was like walking into a sauna. We have a lot of Finlanders in northern Minnesota who have saunas, but they mostly use them in the winter and then roll around in the snow before showering.

[panader0]

38. Where exactly? I can see the Huachucas out my window right now.

Quite warm lately. It hit 100 yesterday and probably will today too. The swamp box cooler handles the heat nicely, 24/7.

[Aristus]

39. Fort Huachuca.

Is that where you are right now?

I remember the officers' housing from back in the early 70's; cinderblock tract houses, painted one of three pastel colors, blue, green, or pink. Ours was pink. And each one had a swamp cooler for indoor comfort.

[Cha]

6. Not a good story to be reading in my uber hot Hawai'ian

loft right now. I want to be in Oregon!

have fun, Coyotl

[DainBramaged]

10. 73 here been raining all week, got up to 90 once, but flooding is starting

Stay cool, be well.

[Cha]

13. Lucky Dain! It's 75 at night

here and of course heat rises in my loft. But, it's home.

Mahalo and be well, too and dryish! I know my daughter and her family are loving that coolness in Portland,
Ore.

[Lizzie Poppet]

36. Currently only about 70F here in Portland (8:40AM)...but headed for 90+

Nothing like Phoenix weather (I grew up in the Valley...), even accounting for the difference in humidity. That said, we're looking at a 90F/75% sort of afternoon, I fear.

[Coyotl]

42. 108 in AZ at 10:45 = cooler than yesterday!

[Lizzie Poppet]

43. Yeah, Newport's on the coast...lovely over there!

Thought about heading over for the day, but too much stuff to get done today. =(

[mountain grammy]

8. Enjoyed your story, broke into a sweat reading it.

and I'm basking in the cool mountain air of Colorado.

[Beacool]

9. I'm jealous.

Not of Phoenix, but of Oregon. I'm in NJ and it's your typical hot and humid day. I HATE the heat. I can't stand it when I take a shower and I'm sweating 10 minutes later. If I liked the heat I would have stayed in FL with my mother.

[Jenoch]

11. I've wondered about being in Arizona this time of year.

I've been in Mesa a lot in the winter. My dad has a place near 60 and 202 so you aren't too far away. It would never occur to me to live there without an air conditioned vehicle. I also know I would not attempt to walk two miles in that heat with the sun pounding down. You had an interesting adventure without AC. I also have wondered about the Hohokam Indians and even the more recent native American tribes and how they were able to deal with the heat.

[Zorra]

21. I live in rural Arizona. The Hohokam and Sinagua lived by water.

I have probably visited 150 - 170 distinct sets of non-commercialized ruins, mostly Sinagua. Some are individual cliff dwellings, some fairly large ancient pueblos, some are groups of cave/cliff dwellings, one of them consisting of 100 cavates with about 350 rooms, and old pueblos on the mesa above. i've found evidence of a few pit houses as well. I can see cliff dwellings from my back deck, and there are a few small cliff dwellings below my house near my swimming hole on the creek. I found most of the ruins by exploring the areas around creeks and the rivers, anywhere there is water. Most of the ruins are 600-1000 yrs old. I believe some of the oldest ruins may be Hohokam, judging by the type of pottery shards. I've seen and encountered many fascinating things exploring here.

We have a river, several fair sized creeks, and several small creeks in our general area. There is a network of what were farming communities, several that used irrigation canal systems to water crops. I have spent many hot summer days camping near and swimming in deep holes where the old ones spent their summer days playing with their children. In my opinion, before probable overpopulation and overuse of the the land took its toll on the environment, it may actually have been some seriously easy living.

I feel that the Sinagua spent a great deal of time of time swimming and working in the canyon shade during the hot summer months, and the majority of their main thoroughfares were along watercourses or on trails that connected watercourses.

The short story is, they most likely dealt with the heat by staying in or near the water as much as possible.

Here are some cavates, part of a very large community, above the river, which flows into the Salt River, where many of the Hohokam folks lived.

[DeSwiss]

22. +1000

[Jenoch]

26. Wow. Thanks for the

history lesson. I've been to Casa Grande and the Hohokum museum in Mesa. I've always been a history buff. We used to go hunting for arrowheads near a rural lake in SW Minnesota and found a few. The old farmer that owned the land usually found them while plowing and disking his fields.

[Zorra]

40. My pleasure.

First Nations history and exploring are two of my passions. I am fortunate to live in an area where I have the opportunity to respectfully engage in both.

Thanks for the opportunity to relate some of my observations.

[ThoughtCriminal]

14. I was there in 1990 when it hit 122

The Phoenix airport had to close because the tables for calculating lift only went up to 120.

What was it like outside? Like putting your face close to an open oven door. You really can feel the difference between 114 and 116 and 118.

I put up with it for another 15 years before escaping to a higher elevation, but even at 5000 feet, it was 106 today.

[JohnnyLib2]

15. Enjoy Oregon!

You've sure as heck earned it.

[AAO]

16. That's like some kind of horror story!

[ErikJ]

17. Friend told me it rarely got 100+ degrees in Phoenix in the 80's.

I doubt if he's right though. And I always though the desert cooled down to very cold at night but heard in Phoenix it stays in the 90's.

[Coyotl]

30. Phoenix has over 100 days above 100 degrees every year

I still have a scar from touching my car for too long. It is hell on earth some times.

[aikoaiko]

37. When I lived in Flag we described driving to PHX a descent into hell

It all goes to hell quickly once you get off the Mogollon Rim

[mwrguy]

33. No, it was hot as hell during the 80s.

I grew up in Phoenix.

They used to shut down the airport because the air would get to thin to support jets when it was over 120.

[distantearlywarning]

46. My hometown is Flagstaff, AZ

Grew up there in the 80s. It was always ridiculously hot. I can remember one summer trip to Phoenix in the late 80s driving past a highway temperature sign at around 2 in the morning and it was still 95F. I spent quite a few summer weeks there in the early 90s as well, and it was regularly above 110F in June and July.

Now I live in Pennsylvania, and I have to say that even though the high temps here are much, much lower (a really hot day here is 95F), the higher humidity in this area is its own kind of misery. Sometimes (e.g., around August every year) I start thinking that maybe the desert heat is preferable. Even though being in a Phoenix summer is like living inside an oven, at least you can use water to cool down, and your own sweat cools you off. A 95/95 day here in PA is like being slowly smothered with a hot, wet, wool winter coat you can't take off. It's disgusting and horribly uncomfortable. There's no way to escape from it if you have to be outdoors. Coming from the west, it took me years to acclimate to the high summer humidity out here. The first summer was brutal.

Higher humidity also makes winters seem harder and colder - the wet cold just penetrates.

[Auntie Bush]

19. I've never experienced such heat...Thank god it's 67 degrees here as I type.

I just don't know how you and other people stand it.

[Iwillnevergiveup]

24. Well, at 9:30 p.m. PST

It's 106 in Phoenix, 75 in L.A., but feels warmer to me.

I've been to Phoenix once - spent about 12 hours there in July of 2007 I believe. It was so hot, I couldn't breathe, and when heading out to the airport at 8 p.m., it was 103. The evaporation of sweat on your body is amazing - after awhile it feels like caked dirt. Looking out the window on the flight back, I must confess I pondered the possibility of Phoenix just going back to the natural desert. Too much!

Kudos to you for your persistence in a getaway.

[Arugula Latte]

25. We rarely get awful heatwaves here in Portland (Ore.), but

tomorrow is supposed to get to 98 degrees! We will melt. At least it will be that good ol' dry heat, though. The coast should be amazing -- I'm jealous of people who get to be on the beach tomorrow.

[xtraxritical]

29. Hey I drive a 1971 VW camper and it's way hot here in Riverside Ca. too.

It's also been a very bad time of year for me to decide to paint my house. I've got to get up at 5 in the morning to get to work at sunup so I can get 3 or 4 hours in before it's 100 degrees outside. I'm sure glad the VW doesn't give me any trouble!

[DreamGypsy]

31. Managing the summer 'heat' in Oregon.

Welcome to the land of the Oregon Country Fair...

...you're arriving early, but it does take a bit of the time to prepare your costume...or lack thereof...for the fair.

I spent four hot hours this afternoon mowing around the blueberry fields. My t-shirt was soaked. However, the weather station out in the fields reports the max today was only 89 degrees, min 56.2, average 78.2, and currently 65.3 (10 pm). The current temperature inside the house is 74.

That max/min difference is important.

An hour ago the inside temperature was 76, a little below outside average, but the high for the day inside. The current outside air felt cooler, so we performed the summer evening ritual of opening windows north and south downstairs, east, west, and south upstairs. Tonight, when the temperature drops to somewhere around the predicted low of 57 degrees, the house will cool to mid- to low-60s. We start these night with blankets off, but they often return during the night.

In the morning, depending on the planned inside/outside activities for the day we close the windows to establish a good base temperature. Our house is generally well insulated, BUT we have a lot of windows (important for dreary Oregon winter days) that allow a lot of sunlight penetration. We've done well if at 2 pm, when the dogs are panting outside at 87 degrees, they (or we) can come inside to rest at a moderate 66. On the hottest days of the year, we may decide to use the heat pump for some late afternoon cooling, but that happens a few times per summer at best. Otherwise, we let the cool nights and a well-built house provide our electricity free 'air conditioning'.

It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful thing.

[OutNow]

32. See you at the Country Fair

My DIL dropped off Country Fair tickets for my wife and I today after she closed down her Eugene Saturday Market stand. There are now some 3rd generation vendors at the Oregon Country Fair including the 7 year old grandson of one of the food vendors. It is a wonderful experience. See you at the fair!

[Coyotl]

35. There are actually two (or three) OCFs.

Just getting tickets and spending the 8 hours on the trails is one experience, one that should not be missed. But, if you possibly can, become a Fair Family member or vender and obtain a Camping Pass. Then the fair becomes a far more unique experience as the place is entirely different once the public is swept out. Some people are there for a week or more too. I worked in a "job" that required showing up on Tuesday before. There is a Community kitchen and it is fun to wander the trails before the crowds are there.

A really special feature of being "inside" after the crowds are gone is the Midnight Show:

http://www.jqjacobs.net/photos/fair/midnight_show.html

[OutNow]

44. Oh yes - the Country Fair at night

Yes! There is a good reason why many young people will work at the fair for little or no wages so they can camp out and enjoy the fair after the sun goes down.

[Are_grits_groceries]

34. I live in SC, but I spent 2 summer months in Wyoming.

It got hot as hell but it was heaven compared to lesser temperatures with high humidity.

I can crack my door for a second and tell if it is a hell day. The air seems to be a hot gauzy blanket and any wind isn't cooling. It just moves the heat around.

On some rare days, the humidity is down and it feels like a respite from a volcano.

[blueamy66]

41. Lived in that heat for over 35 years.

Hot, hot, hot.

We lived in the pool.

Now I'm in Sacramento and it's freaking hot here too!

Spent yesterday at the beach on the river. Burnt my feet. Burnt my face. But had a blast.

You never get used to the heat in AZ.

BTW, great story!

[Apophis]

45. Why would anyone subject themselves to those high temps?

I'd rather live in an area where it gets cold than in an area that gets hotter than hell. At least you can always put on layers in cold areas.

[smirkymonkey]

47. I don't know how people bear it

I live in the Northeast and I have to shut myself in my apartment and crank the AC (which I don't have to pay for - managed bldg.) if it gets above 80 degrees. I really can't stand the heat at all (and I am on the thin side). I grew up in upstate NY where it would get below zero regularly so I am much more used to the cold.

[Scuba]

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