Rain in the Desert - Tucson, AZ
Created | Updated Sep 2, 2003
Ahhh... summer... the smell of car tires slowly melting in to the hot pavement rolls over your head and down your throat as you scramble through the parking lot to get back to a cooler environment (assuming your air conditioner is still running).
And then it starts to rain.
You gingerly open the door to your car and wince visibly at the blast of oven-hot air. You run around to the other side of the car and open another door to get a draft going, and stand there absurdly, sweat trickling down your back, as you wait for the inside of the car to cool off a bit before you get it.
Now you're soaked - in less than 3 minutes flat. Next time, you WILL remember to put up the screen in the windshield before you go get groceries, but you're glad you brought a pair of socks to wear like gloves so you don't burn your hands on the seat belt and the steering wheel(smart people use oven mits). As you start the engine and pull out of the parking spot (which you found due to the absence of a shadow of a car on the ground), it stops raining. By the time you get home, you're dry and hot again. You step out of the car and ... ahhhhh... it smells SOOO good!! Like the dusty Earth is coming alive again (but don't be fooled -- the grass will stay brown until October). And it IS cooler! Now it's only 103 degrees F (40 C) instead of 115+ (45 C). (Every year several nitwits leave babies or dogs in the car for "a few minutes" while they run in to the store for something, and when they return it's too late. Apparently it takes only about 10 minutes for the inside of a car to heat up to 400+ degrees F, with the windows rolled up. With the windows cracked 4 inches, it'll reach maybe half that. But still 200+ is pretty deadly.)
Sounds like a movie, doesn't it? That's actually fairly accurate when you live in Southern Arizona.
The good news is that summer lasts only for for a few months, from late May or early June, through mid September. We have 2 monsoon seasons. Meteorologists tell us "monsoon" is defined by when the dew point drops to a certain termperature in the morning, but that's silly. The dictionary defines it at seasonal rain, and it does rain seasonally. In those few months, we'll get 75% of our rain for the whole year. The average is about 11 inches per year, but we've been having a drought for the last 10 - 15 years, and have only been getting about 8 or so. Yeah, we complain, but in Phoenix, they get an average of 6 inches per year! And they wonder why we don't like Phoenix (the state capitol)!
The bad news is that we have only 2 monsoon seasons.
The monsoons start usually on July 4th, at 4pm. I'm not kidding. I've observed this for nearly 25 years now. It's God's way of manking sure we don't burn Tucson down with our Independence Day fireworks (fireworks are illegal in Az, except for Independence Day, and New Year's Eve), so the resorts and the City put on special fireworks shows for us with all the professional firefighters on hand, with the latest in pyrotechnique magic. And every year, they manage to set "A" Mountain on fire. It's amazing to me that no one gets hurt.
So from July through about September, we get (or used to get) a donwpour lasting anywhere from 20 minutes, to an hour or 2, with thunder so loud it literally shakes the windows in the walls. It's amazing none of them have ever broken. The next bought of rain is from mid January - February. For some reason, it's not as punctual in the winter, but just as welcome.
You can tell the true native Tucsonans (NOT "Tucsonians" - that's another way to tell the natives from the wannabees) because we're the ones out in the street dancing when it rains. The snowbirds have the gall to bitch about our rain! EXCUSE ME - if it weren't for the rain, this place would be feakin' YUMA!! (Read: Sahara Desert).
And once it rains, the animals come back out, and the clouds still so thick and purple, glisten with orange as the sun sets. A really good sunset actually has faint streaks of green in it. Now THAT'S heaven on Earth!
And then it starts to rain.
You gingerly open the door to your car and wince visibly at the blast of oven-hot air. You run around to the other side of the car and open another door to get a draft going, and stand there absurdly, sweat trickling down your back, as you wait for the inside of the car to cool off a bit before you get it.
Now you're soaked - in less than 3 minutes flat. Next time, you WILL remember to put up the screen in the windshield before you go get groceries, but you're glad you brought a pair of socks to wear like gloves so you don't burn your hands on the seat belt and the steering wheel(smart people use oven mits). As you start the engine and pull out of the parking spot (which you found due to the absence of a shadow of a car on the ground), it stops raining. By the time you get home, you're dry and hot again. You step out of the car and ... ahhhhh... it smells SOOO good!! Like the dusty Earth is coming alive again (but don't be fooled -- the grass will stay brown until October). And it IS cooler! Now it's only 103 degrees F (40 C) instead of 115+ (45 C). (Every year several nitwits leave babies or dogs in the car for "a few minutes" while they run in to the store for something, and when they return it's too late. Apparently it takes only about 10 minutes for the inside of a car to heat up to 400+ degrees F, with the windows rolled up. With the windows cracked 4 inches, it'll reach maybe half that. But still 200+ is pretty deadly.)
Sounds like a movie, doesn't it? That's actually fairly accurate when you live in Southern Arizona.
The good news is that summer lasts only for for a few months, from late May or early June, through mid September. We have 2 monsoon seasons. Meteorologists tell us "monsoon" is defined by when the dew point drops to a certain termperature in the morning, but that's silly. The dictionary defines it at seasonal rain, and it does rain seasonally. In those few months, we'll get 75% of our rain for the whole year. The average is about 11 inches per year, but we've been having a drought for the last 10 - 15 years, and have only been getting about 8 or so. Yeah, we complain, but in Phoenix, they get an average of 6 inches per year! And they wonder why we don't like Phoenix (the state capitol)!
The bad news is that we have only 2 monsoon seasons.
The monsoons start usually on July 4th, at 4pm. I'm not kidding. I've observed this for nearly 25 years now. It's God's way of manking sure we don't burn Tucson down with our Independence Day fireworks (fireworks are illegal in Az, except for Independence Day, and New Year's Eve), so the resorts and the City put on special fireworks shows for us with all the professional firefighters on hand, with the latest in pyrotechnique magic. And every year, they manage to set "A" Mountain on fire. It's amazing to me that no one gets hurt.
So from July through about September, we get (or used to get) a donwpour lasting anywhere from 20 minutes, to an hour or 2, with thunder so loud it literally shakes the windows in the walls. It's amazing none of them have ever broken. The next bought of rain is from mid January - February. For some reason, it's not as punctual in the winter, but just as welcome.
You can tell the true native Tucsonans (NOT "Tucsonians" - that's another way to tell the natives from the wannabees) because we're the ones out in the street dancing when it rains. The snowbirds have the gall to bitch about our rain! EXCUSE ME - if it weren't for the rain, this place would be feakin' YUMA!! (Read: Sahara Desert).
And once it rains, the animals come back out, and the clouds still so thick and purple, glisten with orange as the sun sets. A really good sunset actually has faint streaks of green in it. Now THAT'S heaven on Earth!
