Tucson is for snowbirds

One of the great things about Arizona is our weather; you can usually count on it being nice and sunny with mild temperatures most of the year. That's why so many snowbirds visit Tucson during the winter months. I've mentioned snowbirds in an earlier post; these are folks from the cold weather states that make warm weather states like Arizona their home for the winter months. I can spot winter visitors wherever I go; it's not usually that hard to pick them out in a crowd -

The most obvious way to recognize a snowbird is by their out of state license plates. I've recently seen a lot of visitors from the Northeast, Northwest and upper Midwest, just trying to escape their own crazy weather by moving to Tucson for a few months. I've also seen more RV's with compact cars in tow off the back. These vehicles are usually being driven by seniors, so I'm assuming they're snowbirds, but it's just a guess.

It's easy to recognize snowbirds by the way they dress. Just this weekend I was out with clients, and while I was wearing pants, boots and a jacket, one of them was wearing shorts, flip flops and a short sleeved tee shirt. The client was from Washington State, where it's been cold and snowy, so he loved our weather. Guess you can tell that I'm acclimated to the Tucson temperatures; it was 60 degrees and I was cold. Snowbirds are never fazed by Tucson's cold weather snaps. No matter how cold it gets here, it still warmer then wherever they came from!

Yesterday Tucson saw an interesting weather mix that caught us a little off guard. Storms rolled in one after the other, bringing cold temperatures, rain, hail and even snow to some of the higher elevations. This left us with really cold temperatures last night and this morning (think high 20's). I decided to take my daily run a little later in the morning, hoping for warmer temperatures, and that's when I saw it, that one individual that in my mind epitomizes the term snowbird. The temperature was still only 39 degrees, so I was amazed to see a shiny new, bright red Mustang convertible cruising the streets of Oro Valley with it's top down. The driver looked relaxed and pleased with himself while he basked in the sun (and breeze) in a short sleeved shirt. Makes me feel kind of wimpy, running in my multiple layers of clothes, a hat and gloves. That's okay, I'll let these fair weather friends enjoy their precious four months of the beauty that's Tucson. I'll settle with knowing that it's mine all year long!