HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

This week has been weirdly too hot. Didn't it used to be that the hottest time of year was late June, not the end of July and beginning of August? This should be about the peak of the thunderstorm season. The 7 days QPF shows nothing for Arizona.

@Jim_H
There is definitely a tear in the fabric of the space/time continuum.

@Jim_H
Reminds me a bit of 1995. Slow start to summer rainy season, then a ridiculous heat wave at the end of July. I did get a strong thunderstorm at my house on the 30th (.62 inch and a wind gust to 60 mph), but that didn't translate into cooler temperatures or more rain. My July total was .81 inch, well below normal. Then in August, it was hot and mostly precip free for the first 10 days, with high temps 108 to 110 each day! Finally, on August 11th after a high of 104, a severe thunderstorm rolled through (3.11 inch rain, 1/2 diameter hail), and this finally broke the back of the heat wave. I ended up with 4.55 inches of rain for the month, with storms being pretty consistent during the second half. So, though what we are experiencing now is sort of rare, it does happen occasionally.

The summer from hell marches on!

chumley wrote: ↑Jul 31 2020 12:40 pm From NWS PHX:

Based on preliminary numbers, July 2020 is now the hottest month on record for Phoenix, AZ with an average temperature of 99.0 °F. This breaks the old record of 98.3 °F set in July 2009 and tied in August 2011.

Edit 8/1: The official numbers are in and NWS is now reporting the average temperature at 98.9 °F. It's still the hottest month ever, with both the hottest average high (109.8°F) and hottest average low (88.0°F) in the 125 years of recording at Phoenix.

@chumley I'm sure this is ALL due to urban heat island affect and "normal" cycles, and absolutely NO other reason.

Jim_H wrote:urban heat island affect

And yet, we just keep losing dirt space and replacing it with concrete and asphalt. Papago Park is rapidly shrinking. First the last section of desert on the north side of McDowell is now a Baseball Facility and now they are going to put a huge paved parking lot on the NE Corner of Van Buren and Galvin Parkway. The open spaces are rapidly disappearing in the urbanized zones. It should be a crime what's happening around Papago. I expect within 10 years, it'll just comprise the Ponds, the Tomb and Hole in the Rock and you won't be able to see any of it from Galvin Parkway. I remember a classic old time Restaurant that got shut in like that. It's not there anymore.

@outdoor_lover
For the life of me I can't make out what your profile photo is. I tried clicking on it, but that didn't make it any clearer. To me, it looks like an elephant, its trunk on the upper left side. It is wearing black and yellow epaulettes, but has human type legs, sticking down at bottom of photo.

@azbackpackr
took me awhile too, I thought it was an odd sea creature
[ photo ]

@azbackpackr
We finally figured it out a while back. She's doing a "Page Rob" pose as shown in HAZ culture.
@RedRoxx44 new "shadow" avatar is very odd! Jury is still out on the creepy factor.

The sun is red this morning. Very strange. Maybe there's smoke mixed with the cloud layer?

@Jim_H
Really red up here in Cave Creek...no new fires thankfully. Made me think of this though... [ youtube video ]

@Jim_H
Just read online that the cause is smoke from the Apple Fire east of L.A.

@LosDosSloFolks
This is evidence (if any was needed) that we ARE NOT currently under a monsoonal flow, as the Apple Fire is just west of Palm Springs, CA, and the smoke is moving due east in the atmosphere, which is part of the normal westerlies. If the wind shifted to come from Mexico and New Mexico, the moisture and monsoon flow would arrive, again.

@azbackpackr @joebartels @LosDosSloFolks [ photoset ]

@joebartels
Ahh! Thanks!

Is this still the weather thread?

Really nice rainstorm going on here in east Flag. I moved the rig today to another encampment, temporarily. Pinecones keep bombing the roof.

It's been pretty warm in NJ the last couple weeks. Not like Phoenix, but the humidity makes it unpleasant. I'd rather be in the desert.

@outdoor_lover
I just wrote it off as drug induced.

Beautiful morning, almost fall like.

chumley wrote:hottest month on record

I still pulled off 47 miles and 10k elevation gain. yep.