HikeArizona.COM

The endless chatter of weather.

@chumley
thanks....instead of driving up I plan to hike up to the Rim on the Horton Spring Trail and then make my way over to Promontory Butte

@DixieFlyer
Was just on the rim this past weekend Apr 4th - 7th to do an early season cabin loop via Washington Park. There was a good deal of snow left to where I was post-holing about a foot deep in places but only in short stretches. It's melting rapidly; wouldn't hesitate to go right now. I saw one person up on top the entire 4 days; lady section hiking the AZT.

Apparently this morning's pleasant temperatures in the valley will not be repeated again for about 4 months. In the high-country, overnight temps in the low 20s were widespread.

We're still more than a week out from June, but the last 4 days of the 7 day forecast are all 110 degrees +, up to 112 degrees. This seems early, but I have only been in the low desert since early June of 2014, living over 4400' and up to 6900' for the prior 8 years. I wonder how 112 degrees this early might affect the remainder of the pre-thunder storm season (monsoonal flow) and more hopefully more moderate highs.

Will we see an early span of 112 to maybe 115, but then cool off to more reasonable temps as we had in June of 2018, or June of 2017 ( before we hit 119), or will we end up just roasting in pure hell the next 6 weeks or so, with lots of 115+ days and have another week with 5 straight days over 115 or 116, up to 119? At least the lakes are full.

@Jim_H It’s supposed to be 51 here today with 65% chance of snow tonight, but there is a chance it gets up to 80 next week.

The snow stopped 1000’ above the house.

@MtnBart01 Short summers is why we left the Springs after 8 years.

@hikerdw
Long Summers and constant sinus infections is why we left Phoenix after 20 years.

@MtnBart01
Brrrrrr! No thanks! It was actually really nice last week when we had a high of 86 and a low of 63. Dry, too, with single digit humidity in the afternoon. It was actually rather perfect for summer.

@MtnBart01
Join me on the Flat Iron for a hike Friday? 1 PM Start time? Expected high 112 degrees!

@Jim_H
I spent 20 years there and roofed for 3 summers to pay for college which was brutal. There are things I miss, but not the summers and crappy air quality which has probably improved from media fear mongering this spring and summer. When I moved there in the early 80’s there wasn’t the same air quality issues in fact, we moved there because of my parents’ allergies in the Midwest. I also don’t miss 100 degree temps and 90% humidity in Galveston flying around in non ac aircraft. It’s actually quite pleasant in Az. From Late Oct. to March minus the pollution.

@MtnBart01
You mentioned it 3 times I think, and I will say that of all the things that make living here undesirable, air quality might be the biggest.

You can't get away from it. November to March, it is almost constant. You get 1 or 2 good days after a front, then it stagnates and gets worse, and worse. You can do things to avoid traffic, you can avoid noise pollution if you try, you can't do much about light outside the home, and you can see the light pool from 150+ miles away, but you can darken inside the home. In addition to the winter brown cloud, the summer ozone begins right about the time spring allergy season is dying. It does at least seem that so long as there is some wind, that is not as much a problem. However, I noticed last summer my chest always felt "funny" after hiking for a couple of hours in the summer, and in a way I did not feel when I went to Globe, Flagstaff, or the White Mountains. The air pollution is worse than the heat itself since you can still experience it while floating in a shady spot of a refreshing swimming pool, it is pretty much inescapable. Then again, I knew that 2 years ago and I still mortgaged a house, for some reason.....

After an endless three months of March, it suddenly turned into June this weekend. It was about 30 degrees warmer today than last weekend. It's time to put away the coats.

Unusually early moisture is expected to push into eastern Arizona after the high pressure system causing this record heat weakens. I’m not sure it would be accurate to call it monsoonal.

@chumley
It's what I like to call PMS Weather (Pre Monsoon Syndrome) At this time of the year and with this heat, it will be monsoon like. So rather than get hung up on trying to define it, I say just enjoy the show that is offered.

I believe "pre-monsoonal" is a technical term used by BLM, amongst others, on their "warning canyons flood a lot" signs about conditions in May.

Whatever it was, for awhile there I thought I was going to get rained on just below the rim yesterday. I was like, wait, what? Is the Season starting already???

outdoor_lover wrote: for awhile there I thought I was going to get rained on

I have that thought at least twice a day. It feels like a big risk when I walk down the block without a raincoat or an umbrella.

Lovely clouds moving in. Big dark cloud with some rumbling south of my house. Must be that PMS!!

I think we're all enjoying this PMS.

Which is unusual, to say the least.