Posted on 09/05/2024 7:02:06 AM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
Blame it on the heat island effect….too much glass and concrete
This flip twixt Vegas and Phoenix is interesting. It’s likely the heat island affects Las Vegas more than Phoenix since we’ve seen it in Phoenix for many, many years, but Vegas has expanded exponentially in just the last 3-5 years.
They had some evening cooling, but that’s probably over...look for Vegas to take the heat title in future.
BUT IT’S A DRY HEAT!
The Mojave also has different weather patterns than the Sonoran. We are subject to air flows (or lack thereof) off the Pacific - over 3 mountain ranges - from either Southern California or sometimes from the Bay Area (NW). The flows into southern AZ from Mexico are less obstructed and can come from both the Sea Of Cortez and overland from the Gulf. There is more moisture in Southern Az as a result. That may have impacted the weather more this year - we got no monsoons at all - so even though we are much higher in altitude we were hotter. If ElNino comes back like last year when we had a cool, wet summer (for us), things will go back to what we more normally see. Regardless of growth, the heat island in Vegas is still quite a bit smaller than Phoenix.
Summer in Phoenix.
We have another month of it.
Happens every year.
Whooopee, check Yuma’s daily averages if you want hotter🥵
I have lived in Phoenix since the 1960s. The house I was born in didnt have AC, just an evaporative cooler. The heat island effect has made things worse here, because it doesnt cool off at night as much as it used to. My dad grew up here as well, and his family arrived in Phoenix using war rations and gas stamps. Back then, only a few select buildings in Phoenix had AC, like a movie theater or offices in the downtown area. Most places did not have AC. Let me put it this way- the numbers on the thermometer were slightly lower, but people still persevered anyways here. I used to travel to Casa Grande for work. You pass through tribal land to do so. A few hundred feet south of the Gila river was some older homes, several are very old and made of mud/clay bricks and are still in use. No AC there. I think what makes it worse on you is going from extreme hot to extreme cold. If it is 115 out, and you go inside to 75, that is a huge swing, and the reverse makes the heat feel like your oven.
Hmm...Death Valley...Furnace Creek...something tells me it might get hot there...
It’s been ugly in Phoenix this year. Tucson has done OK, gotten plenty of rain, even a few days sub 100. But a lot of our rain hasn’t followed the monsoon path, so Phoenix has gotten very little. Yes it’s normally hot in Phoenix, but not like this year.
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