Postcard from Tucson

If you want to get your outdoor exercise here in Tucson in the summer, you better get out early…and I mean real early. Even then you may run into 80-85 degree weather with higher than normal humidity. You see, summers here include temperatures in the low 100’s and severe monsoon rainstorms coming in from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. I’ve seen days where our temps and humidity are higher than Miami on the same day! So the old expression about Arizona…”yea its hot but it’s a dry heat” isn’t exactly true.  

Enough complaining. This photo was taken just a few days ago around 6:00 AM. I took it with my iPhone camera as that is all I had with me on my walk. I was on a large piece of desert land owned by Pima Community College, right across the street from my new place. It is crisscrossed with trails that offer a great walking experience as well as elevated views of Tucson. On this morning, the view offered a view of two localized light monsoon rainstorms. These are quite common this time of year.

My home was hit the previous evening with another storm that brought heavy, heavy rain and a spectacular thunder and lightning storm right overhead. The storm you see here, especially the one on the left, was very near my home, but petered out before it got to me.

One would think that walking on the ground after a heavy rainstorm, one would be sinking in mud. Not here…this land was bone dry. Rain, even monsoon rain, goes right through it so mud is a rare commodity. The Sonoran Desert is very different from most. Its these rains than allow the cactus and other desert flora to thrive. The large Saguaro Cactus store the water in their rather large arms.

The large mountains you see in the distance are the Santa Catalina Mountains. To the right of the photo, you would see Downtown Tucson and the large campus of the University of Arizona. PS: If you ever come here this time of year, stay out of the gullies and dips in the road. They flood in 5-10 minutes. Flash floods are no joke and we have received several flash flood warnings this year. Still, I do like living here even with these inconveniences.

For the last couple of years, I have managed to escape in August to the San Francisco Bay Area for a length of time and come back home when the temps start to drop. Next week, I will again be winging my way north to see friends and attend the last Indy Car race of the year in Sonoma. I look forward to that. You may recall I went to that very race last year which took place after a large earthquake. Hopefully we can see the race without an earthquake this year.

Of course, this means I won’t be writing this blog for a couple of weeks, but I promise I will be back with new photos from my time up north. So take care and I will return.