It Is So Hot In the Arizona Desert
Posted: Wednesday, August 31, 2011
by John Waddey
firstcenturychristian
I grew up in Tennessee before the days of home air-conditioning. Summer temperatures ranged in the 90s with lot of humidity. The hot sticky days made little boys shed their shirts and kept the swimming pools filled with folks looking for relief.
In Mississippi in August I saw cattle standing in the midst of their stock pond to get a little relief. I remember nights so hot and humid that upon arising, I could see the damp imprint of my body on the sheet.
In the past I made several trips to Equatorial Africa. Air-conditioners were unknown. There were no public swimming pools. People flocked to streams of water to cool off. In some places they had to drive the wild animals away from the water, they too were trying to escape the heat.
Then I moved to Phoenix, Arizona. Here I learned about real hot weather. I am talking about summer months with daily temps ranging from 105 to 117 and an occasional 120 degrees. Out here in the Sonoran Desert we have very little humidity. Some days our humidity will only be 5 or 10 percent. The ultraviolet rays of the sun can burn one through his clothing. They even sell sun proof clothing. A straw hat is not enough to protect ones head from the sun. It must one that is tightly woven to block the burning rays. The hot sun will bleach the color out of the paint on our cars. Our sidewalks get so hot they expand and buckle. The asphalt on our streets melts. In the desert we survive because of our wonderful air-conditioners. Without them, Phoenix would be largely deserted in the summer months.
I read about the Native Americans who inhabited the region when the first settlers arrived. During the hottest days they would dig a hole in the damp soil of a river bank. They would crawl into their hole and have someone cover them with the loose, damp soil. To shade their heads, above the dirt, they would used think branches of trees.
We do get some rain in the desert. During the height of the summer we have a predictable monsoon season. Moisture laden clouds flow northward from Western Mexico that bring us an occasional shower of rain. But it is so hot, that the rain often evaporates before it reaches the ground. The meteorologist calls it virga. It shows up on the weather radar, but we are left hot and dry.
Living in the desert means sun damage to the skin. Sun-blockers are best sellers, but still we see lots of folks with damage. For some, after a few years, their skin looks leathery. Their arms, necks and faces are lined like maps. For others it is skin cancer. Dermatologists do a brisk business out here as most adults need a yearly visit to have the damaged skin treated with liquid nitrogen.
Then there are the endless jokes about our heat. One fellow said that he saw a man spit on the sidewalk and three lizards rushed to lick up the moisture. Another noticed a mother dove had abandoned her nest. Upon inspection he found three boiled eggs. One old timer swears he had seen ants cooking their breakfast on hot rocks. It is a fact that I can’t take a cold shower in the summer months. Our water mains are not deep in the ground. Consequently , the pipes and the water get so hot that even the cold faucet provides only warm water.
How do we survive, our animal instinct help us make it through the hot weather. In cold climate certain animals hibernate and sleep through the long, freezing days of winter. Here, we two-legged creatures hibernate in our air-conditioned houses and offices during the heat of the day. We venture outside in the early morning before the thermometer reaches 100 degrees.
I sometimes remind folks, "If you think it is hot out here, think what it will be like if you miss Heaven when you die. Now that is one chilling thought.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Great article. Except for the Sahara, I personally relate to all the places you have been. Were you assigned to your present location by fiat, divine direction, the blessings of good will or the rulership of Providence? My personal biology resists hot weather. Truly, I have a condition that makes me suffer greatly if I am in heat for too long. This is my difficult time of the year. I rejoice on Labor Day because it means I will be happy in Colorado until mid July. Great writing. Loved the remembrances.Hello Chris. In days past I lived in Colorado. First on the West Slope at Delta and later in suburb of Denver. I love Colorado. We came to Arizona by invitation of a church. But my wife had long hope to move here. We love it. In the summer we adjust our schedule to avoid the heat of the afternoons. In the fall, winter and spring, we call it our desert paradise.
I like the desert. I have a vacation house near Joshua Tree, CA. I'd rather have that than a humid day here.Hello Jack: God knew what He was doing when he created the desert. A lot of people don't enjoy sweating. Out here the low-humidity keeps us nice and dry. Not only do we have low humidity, we have no snow, no ice to drive on, or to scrape off our sidewalks. We have no tornadoes, no hurricanes, no tidal waves, no floods, no earthquakes, no volcanes. Because of our dry heat, we have few flies or mosquitoes. All in all it is a lovely place to live.
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