DESERT HEAT? IT'S NO SWEAT

Hi folks. Hope you all had a pleasant summer. Hi fellow Brits. Hope you all enjoyed your mini Indian summer.

Until I arrived in Tucson I had always thought obsession with the weather was a peculiarly British trait. How wrong I was. We have got nothing on Tucsonans. The percentage chances of rain on any given day, how many consecutive 100-degree days there will be, when the monsoon season will begin and how many inches of rain it will bring. All these questions, and many others of a meteorological nature, are pondered on a daily basis.

The excitement when snow arrived last winter, apparently for the first time in 10 years, was palpable. I remember being in Circuit City when a loud thunder clap and sudden outbreak of heavy rain had all the staff scampering to the front doors to take a look. DJ’s just love to wax lyrical about the weather. They never fail to counsel their listeners to stay cool or find some shade. ‘It’s a glorious cloudy day here in Tucson’ said one the other day. For someone brought up to believe that glorious and sunshine go together, I certainly enjoyed that coupling.

Before this summer, I was always asked if I had been here in the summer. When I said I had not, the questioner would inevitable chuckle knowingly. Of course, at 100 degrees plus, it is hot and I admit that I would not like to do outdoor work in Tucson. But not once did I feel that the heat was unbearable. For me, 40 odd percent humidity is perfectly manageable. I had much more difficulty in Turkey this summer where the humidity exceeded 60%.

For the record, there were 65 100-degree days in Tucson in 2007, 10 more than the average. There were 6.57 inches of rain during the monsoon, slightly above average. And the summer rains brought about a surge in the Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus species of mosquitoes. But with the onset of autumn their numbers have dwindled. Well that is a relief.