Atmosphere Comparison

[Jim]

The endless chatter of weather.

[Jim]

I had blowing filth, dust, debris, some broken tree bits, more filth and dust last evening. Power briefly went out, and then there was some wind driven and very uneven rain. I seem to have been on the west side of the storm that dropped 9/10ths of rain at the airport. I do not see how I would have had more than 2/10ths, at best.

I accidentally posted about the Hualapai Fire in this thread because I thought I was in the Salt Fire Thread, and just left the post here.

[Alston_Neal]

I accidentally posted about the Hualapai Fire in this thread because I thought I was in the Salt Fire Thread, and just left the post here.

This^^^^^^^ after all the good things I've said about you.
On a weather related note we got all the stuff Jim H did except no power loss and some rain. Finally a drop in temps!

[outdoor_lover]

@Jim_H
That heavy rain went right between us, we needed to be closer to east Papago Park. I'm west of Papago just 1 mile and we only got about 3/10 here too. 44th to 56th St from Camelback to Van Buren was the heavy stuff I guess.

[Jim]

@Alston_Neal
Well, I only noticed after Lee and Todd posted back, and by then it was too late. Besides, this is really a mindless chitchat thread, not a weather thread.

[chumley]

It's the first day of autumn!

The final Summer 2020 stats are in and they're brutal.
Phoenix #1 Hottest Summer on record with an average high temperature of 96.7F (95.1F was the previous record from 2013 and 2015)
Tucson #1 Warmest Summer on record with an average high temperature of 90.0F (+4.3 over average)

[LosDosSloFolks]

It's the first day of autumn!

Aren't you 3 weeks early?

[SuperstitionGuy]

Like a little kid he always has to be first and this time I wish he was right!

[chumley]

Aren't you 3 weeks early?

Not at all. This is a discussion of meteorology, not astronomy.

[LosDosSloFolks]

@chumley
I was just testing you...

[Jim]

@big_load

I like how Phoenix had it's hottest, but Tucson had it's warmest. It's less than a 7 degree difference between the two cities, and most other locations in the country would call anything 90 or greater hot. However, the last few days in the low 100s and high 90s have been pleasantly mild.

I'm looking forward to some cool, brisk Autumn weather, starting with the forecast high of 111 for the weekend. It will be refreshing!

[chumley]

@Jim_H
That was my mistake. I was going to add a few other statistics, such as warmest low temperature, and had started typing that when I decided to keep it short. The "warmest" is a remnant of that. I should have changed that to "hottest" as well. The vocabulary posted by me was not provided by NWS.

[Jim]

@chumley
You hate Tucson and denigrate it at every opportunity, and you know it! joking

[chumley]

@Jim_H Not the city, just the people! also joking

[chumley]

It's starting to look like Wednesday will be the first day of that crisp autumn weather. Highs in the deserts in the mid 90s, lows near 70, and snow forecast for the Rockies and even front-range cities like Denver.

Can we close the book on whatever excuse we had for a monsoon?

[Jim]

@chumley
It's pretty much over.

[Jim]

My God! It's 115 degrees right now at sky harbor. 2 degrees more than was forecast. When will this Summer's heat end?

[Jim]

I thought the summer of 2019 was pretty bad after the monsoon failure, but really it was pretty nice in a lot of ways.

I know this is sort of valley centric, but it has been hot everywhere, and then the large fires and continuing area closures. The weeks of smoke, from local and out of state fires. Continued pestilence which had the parks I might have visited earlier in the summer closed, and crazy angry mask people dousing people with hot coffee because they dare lower a mask to eat, and all the rest of that. Plus, political strife, at home and abroad, who's to say what is right and what is wrong.

Still, it's 115 degrees after a long hot endlessly extremely hot summer. Individually, things happen, but taken together, is this the worst summer in Arizona in memory? Seems like it to me, but I only arrived in August of 2006

[chumley]

Memory favors the recent.

[Jim]

@chumley
Indeed, but remember, I'm thinking of more than just the heat. Heat, fire and area closures, but also politics, riots, cultural insanity. It seems a bit much.

[chumley]

Well I think that it's a fairly universal observation that 2020 is an ongoing dumpster fire. And you don't even have to live in Arizona's summer heat to reach that conclusion.