I'ts just plain hot

I'm going to whine a little bit this morning about Tucson weather. Tucson's in a much better place then the rest of the country when we look at our climate and weather conditions; we never need to worry about flooding (except flash flooding during the monsoon season), tornadoes or blizzards. What we do have is HEAT. As we move into the summer months, Tucson's seeing temperatures consistently over 100 degrees on a daily basis. While it's true that it's a dry heat, it's still hot. The lack of humidity makes it very tolerable compared to other parts of the country. Being from the Midwest I remember all to well walking out to pick up my mail and returning soaked. Still I've got to be honest and say that even a dry heat is hot once our temperatures reach 100 degrees. Tucson's expected high today is 108 degrees. Temperatures like these can be difficult to deal with. When you walk out into this type of heat it takes your breath away for a moment.

During the summer I generally head out early for my runs; if I'm not out by 5:30am it's just too hot for me. Tucson's no longer cooling down at night like we were in May; now we dip down to the mid 70's. Needless to say most homeowners are running their air conditioners non-stop. Electric bills are increasing, generally running between $200-$300 as homeowners crank up their cooling units to survive the extreme temperatures. Luckily we're heading into our monsoon season, which will bring in afternoon rains and some cooler temperatures. Nothing like hearing that the rumble of thunder, the first sign of our summer respite!