Here Comes the Heat!

[JRNYMAN]

Forecast for the next week here in the PHX Metro area...


It could be worse. Death Valley's forecast for the same period...

[ebake02]

That right there is why I'm glad I live in the northeast.

[steveo777]

You should be able to grill a T-Bone steak on the sidewalk. Damn, that's hot!

[Everett]

You can keep it steve. That's why i love the midwest

[No Surprize]

Yeah, it's fucking hot but I'm use to it. You get that dry heat out west with no humidity. Down in the tropics you sweat it out. It's all good though, afternoon storms cool thing off a bit along with your favorite refreshment, a pool and the gulf.

[JRNYMAN]

As hot as it gets here, I'd still live here (western U.S.) than the midwest or especially the southeast.
I remember the first time I met my wife's parents. We drove to their house in Illinois and having never lived anywhere east of Colorado, I'd never experienced humidity before. When we got there, I was ready for a shower after driving for 2 days. Got out of the shower and as God is my witness, I couldn't get dry. I tried but it just wouldn't work!

As for it being a dry heat... yup, that's absolutely correct. Today for instance, it was 108 and the humidity was around 12%. That's a pretty accurate representation of how the first half of the summer is here. Then the monsoon kicks in and you'd might as well be back east somewhere. The "dry heat" situation has its drawbacks though. Once it gets over about 113, there's a noticeable difference in how the sun "feels" on your skin - you can literally feel it beginning to burn within just a few minutes of being exposed to it. So when it gets up into the upper teens and approaches 120, it' can get pretty serious real quick. Another thing you absolutely have to do here is force hydration on yourself if you're doing anything outside. You might not even feel that thirsty or think you need it but the evaporation rate is so fast that you're perspiration is drying as fast as you're sweating and within minutes, you can be overcome by the heat and BAM!~ Heat exhaustion, if you catch it quick enough. If not, heat stroke and off to the hospital you go. On the plus side, you can hang a load of towels out on the line and by the time you get the last one hung, the first ones are just about dry and ready to toss in the dryer for a quick tumble to soften them up! True story.

Two jobs not to have in PHX in the summer:
1. Roofer - You couldn't pay me enough!
2. Fireman - God bless these crazy, heroic sons a bitches! It's bad enough that they're fighting a fire which has its own heat factors but to have to gear up with 80-100 lbs. of thick, non-breathing fabric and equipment when it's super hot.... there's a reason why most, if not everyone has a healthy respect and admiration for these men and women.

In Lake Havasu, if your A/C is on the fritz and you have to have someone come out and look at it, your appt. time might be for let's say 3:00 - that's 3:00 AM.

[MotherCitay]

Dang, you doing okay?

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/06/ ... latestnews

[JRNYMAN]

Dang, you doing okay?

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/06/ ... latestnews

Yeah, I'm doing fine, thanks for asking. As the article states, PHX officially hit 119 - the 4th highest temp since they began keeping records. Chandler however, which is a suburb where I live is usually a few degrees warmer than PHX as was the case today - we hit 121 at 5:35pm. Haven't had to run the A/C yet this summer thanks to a kickass swamp cooler and super low humidity which combine to deliver nice, cold air at 20% of the cost of an air conditioner. That won't be the case here in a couple of weeks when the monsoon kicks in. Our July and August electric bills generally run $500.00 or so.
And, as luck would have it, today was moving day for my daughter. We loaded up the contents of her 2nd floor apartment late this afternoon and get to unload it into her new 2nd floor apartment tomorrow! The new place isn't as bad as the old place she's moving out of in terms of the walk to and from the truck. The old place was about a 300 yd. walk but the new place has a garage directly under the apartment. Yay for that!

[MotherCitay]

Dang, you doing okay?

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2013/06/ ... latestnews

Yeah, I'm doing fine, thanks for asking.

Good to hear