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Arizona...holy HOT

StarryEyedDesigns

StarryEyedDesigns

My goal, is to make a goal
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Dec 29, 2015
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I went to visit a good friend in AZ, this past weekend. She lives about 40 minutes from Phoenix.

OMG I thought I was going to melt, or combust. It was 120 the whole time I was there.

How the hell do people live there??
 
I don't know how people survive there in the summer either! I've been there in about March twice and it was awesome to have moderate heat while it was snowing at home. I have a friend that lives in Phoenix and she shared a post about it being the first day of summer on 6/20 and then commented that her AC had broken the night before. That's just dangerous. She said it had been 118°F the day before. Thankfully the AC repair people came fast and got it fixed within the day.
 
LOL, AmyLee. I was there once late spring/early summer and it was hot hot hot. I remember us laughing because one place we had visited, the spots that had cars in the parking lots were the ones in the back - far away. Why? Because that's where the trees and shade were. We parked in the front row spots ... and were sorry when we came out and got back into our rental car! Could not sit or even get in until it cooled off. We noticed every car had those window visors to keep the sun out too. There are a few AZ peeps ... who should chime in with survival skills for the summer. I think water (if going outside) and AC (for inside) are the keys.

Karen glad your friend got her AC back quickly!
 
I have a cousin and uncle&aunt in Arizona so I've been there a few times. Thankfully never in summer though! Plus I grew up in San Diego, so I'm familiar with the heat of the southwest. Though, as my cousin likes to say, compared to San Diego, Phoenix is a "dry heat." I think the scariest thing is the long term ability of the area to get enough water to support so many inhabitants.
 
I'm in Mesa, Arizona, right next door to Phoenix. And yes, it is scorching hot right now. They are saying this is the hottest beginning to summer that we have EVER had. It was 118 on Sunday, 117 on Monday, and it has gotten a little lower as this week has gone on. Today is supposed to be 112. Then the following days are predicted to be 111, 110, 111, 112, 113, and 112. "They" are easing up on the excessive heat warnings which I think is odd as I still consider us to be in a dangerous situation. Four people have died in this heat wave in the last week. Our nights get down into the high 80's and the 90's so we get very little relief at night.

My husband went out to check the thermometer in our pickup a week or so ago and it was 124 in the shade. When he came home from work on Monday it said 127. That was in the sun and by the time he got home it was down to the 117 at our house. Yeah...it has been HOT!!

We drink LOTS of water. Stay inside as much as possible. Basically just do very quiet activities and don't move around much. And know the signs of heat exhaustion/stroke and don't push past them. My husband isn't always in an air conditioned situation at work so I told him to watch for the symptoms and come home right away if he was feeling any of them. Don't take chances.

Our AC unit is only four years old...we came home from a month long road trip in 2012 where the days were about 78 degrees all month long...to 106 degrees here at home and no AC. Our son came over to see if he could get it up and running again for us but that unit was a good 32+ years old and he said that he didn't know if anything he did would work. So we declared it dead and got this new unit. SOOOOOOO thankful we have it! But we were without AC for two or three days there. Believe me, we didn't move around any more than we had to during that time.

Anyway, that's what we do to survive here. And now we are waiting for our monsoon season to arrive. "They" say it is already here - "they" set a dated time frame for it a couple years ago. But the real monsoon doesn't begin until the dewpoint has been 55 degrees or higher for three days in a row. It hasn't done that here yet. So I'm still waiting for it to REALLY arrive. :) Love our monsoon season! It's one of my favorite things about our long hot summers.

Have a great day, Everyone! :) Sorry this was so long. :)
 
Jan said:
Love our monsoon season! It's one of my favorite things about our long hot summers.
Click to expand...

I used to love monsoon, when it was rain and thunderstorms and lightning storms. The past few years has only been dust storms and lame humidity!
 
klee73010 said:
I live here. This past weekend, I actually posted a picture. My dashboard read-out hit 120!!!
If I'm running, I have to be done/home by 7am. Monday when I was running, got home at 7am, it was already 111 degrees.
Click to expand...
That's crazy @klee73010! I can run when it's 70ish in the mid morning and I drag myself out of bed early if we're having a heatwave (meaning 90s-100) but I can't imagine that temperature:cornfused
 
klee73010 said:
The past few years has only been dust storms and lame humidity!
Click to expand...
I know! What is with that!! We have dust out there this evening. And my husband called me on his lunch hour and said that the thermometer in our pickup said it was 131 degrees in the sun today. 131 degrees!!!!! My plants in my little flower pot garden are dying on me. They look terrible today. And we have been watering them a lot with the heat wave going on. It's just too much heat. I'm going to have to cut some of them way, way back in an effort to save them. So sad.

Just checked the dewpoint. It's at 48 right now. So maybe the monsoon is almost here! :)
 
@michelepixels I lived in So Cal too, for a total of about 3-4 years and the hottest I remember it getting was about 110. Then we moved to the Bay Area (about an hour East of San Fran) and it was 100-108 on average in the summer! I thought Northern Cali was supposed to be cooler.....LOL We live in Washington now. It was 60 degrees today. We are about 20 degrees below normal for this time of year.

@Jan I am definitely planning to visit NOT in the summer next time...lol I would have loved to be there during monsoon season though. I love storms.
 
I thought dry heat was, or didn't feel as, hot? Lots of folks have suggested to me to move to Phoenix for the dry heat and my arthritis..... I think I'll pass..
 
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...@Lindzee not that this is you specifically, but... I want to punch people that say this to me. "At least it's a dry heat"... :hairpol lol
I like the memes I see online with "dry heat" and it's incinerated bones/skeleton :giggle
 
@Lindzee heat is heat. Dry or humid, heat is heat. I will admit, humidity sucks. I've lived in both kinds of climates. However, with the "dry" heat, you feel like you're standing in an oven with a hair dryer blowing on your face.
 
I felt I was very fortunate to visit the Phoenix area while the temps were still in the 90s. Our last day promised 100° and I was very very grateful to get on that airplane out!

The Middle East was worse though...AZ temps AND high humidity. Pure hell.
 
I'll stick with the 90-100 degree temps and humidity here in Northwest Florida. When I visited Arizona, Nevada and Utah . . . my skin was so dried out. Here at home, it's rare for me to use hand or body lotion, but out there, I was dying for it constantly. It was a different heat. It didn't make it better, but it was definitely different than the wet blanket of heat we have here. Like Amy Lee said, it's like a hot dryer blowing straight in your face out there. As far as arthritis, I think you would just have to find a place that had little barometric pressure changes . . . whether that's Arizona or not, I don't know!

Right now at 3:30 pm, it's 93, feels like 105. Humidity is 83%. It's not raining. We are expecting thunderstorms tonight, in about 6 hours, though.

I know I've been thinking a lot about @Jan and a few other friends in the area as well with this heat, as well as the areas of the country that have been experiencing flooding. One thing about having internet friends is they are all over the world, in various climates, facing lots of different circumstances. Gives perspective to our own situations, you know?
 
Hey, Everyone! Right now it's 104-105 but "feeling" like 101. And I have to admit it does feel a lot cooler than last week. Humidity is 16% and the dewpoint just dropped to 49 degrees. It has been cloudy today and we have a small chance of a storm and some dust again today and all this coming week. Whether we get it or not...time will tell. That dewpoint is trying to hit 55 and stay there but just hasn't quite made it yet. Has to be that for three days in a row before the monsoon is officially in our Valley here.

My heart goes out to all who are having the flooding. I just can't imagine what you are going thru. Will take this heat any day over flooding. Oh! AND I'll take the dry heat over humid heat. It does feel like an oven, but the humidity can be so miserable.
 
Not someone who has a hot-proof body neither...
I love the middle-degrees...
 
Being born and raised in Arizona, I prefer the dry heat. I visited Dallas in July. The heat and humidity was too much! However, I don't like Phoenix heat. The heat comes from above and below and never cools off at night (heat island effect). In Northern AZ where I grew up, yes, it's hot during the day but doesn't come from the ground and does cool off at night.
 
@gonewiththewind where in NW Florida are you? We used to live in Pace (just outside of P'Cola). If hubby's company wins the big bid they are bidding next month in P'Cola, we're hoping to get sent back. Originally we were supposed to be sent to CO, but it looks like now it depends on this bid :D
 
Next door in New Mexico...and we don't say it is raining here, but oh look it is mudding out! just enough moisture to mix with the dust and make mud! The kind you have to scrub off everything. Then the rain contains an alkaline of gypsum (think lime and gum), that leaves the most amazing designs on all things glass or smooth. YEP, windows cars...but so sweet to see I ♥ mom in the dust on the table I washed 20 minutes ago...bhahhaha
the upside?
I'm working on that! lol
 
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