by Steve
When we last wrote in April, we were trying to decide whether to travel this summer or just hide out from the Coronavirus pandemic. At that time we were leaning toward not traveling, and that is what we've chosen to do.We have friends from the church we attend in Tucson who own a condo in Green Valley, AZ. They have graciously rented it to us for the summer. As they are snowbirds, the condo would normally sit empty for the summer. Suddenly we have 1300 square feet of space and 2 bathrooms.Plus not one, but 2 bedrooms. Jane now has one of the bedrooms in which to spread out her craft materials, and we have some room to spread out as well.
Here's a nice thunderstorm dumping rain on Madera Canyon, about 10 miles away from us.
Our decision not to travel was driven by several considerations. Some of the places that we had planned to go were going on lockdown. So either we would not be able to stay there, or if we did, there would not be anything we could do. And many places were requiring out-of-state travelers to self-quarantine for 14 days. Another thing we considered was what would happen if we were to get sick with Covid-19 in some small community with limited health services.
During our time here, Arizona became one of the hot-spots in the world for Covid-19 contagion. But we have been able to limit our exposure to other people and thus to the virus. It helps that the zip code where we are living has a small number of cases.
And so we are hiding out in southern Arizona for the summer. One thing that we looked forward to seeing is the "monsoon season." Tucson gets only around 10 - 12 inches of rain a year, but about 1/2 of that falls during the months of July, August, and September. While June is typically hot and dry, from July through September this area can get moisture that comes north out of the gulf of California and which can result in torrential thunderstorms and downpours.Normally dry washes can turn into raging rivers for a few minutes while the water runs off the hard dry desert soil.
Here's some decent-sized hail that fell during our one significan rainstorm. The temperature was 100 degrees when the hail started falling.
It's mid-August as I write this. We are halfway through the monsoon season, and we've had one decent rain, although it was very localized. Like last summer, the monsoon rains are not coming very often, and this means that the extreme drought continues, as does the extreme heat. Normally a monsoon rain will lower the temperature by about 30 degrees, providing a nice cool respite. But not so much this year. July 2020 was not only the hottest July on record for Tucson, it was the hottest month in 125 years of weather records. But August is on track to beat that easily. The average high temperature in August is supposed to be 97 degrees, but we have yet to see a daytime high below 100 this month, and the forecast shows record highs for the next week, and 100+ temperatures to the end of the month. The monsoon season may be a thing of the past.
Well, it's been an interesting summer. We're getting sick of being cooped up, even in a spacious place, and tired of the unrelenting heat. Time to look for some safe places to travel that will give us trees, and green, and water, and cool days. We'll keep you posted on where we go.
