It is commonly stated that Phoenix is the hottest large city on the planet. Or maybe it is the largest hot city on the planet. Those two things seem to go together in the commentary. Size and heat. OK, how hot is it? If you look at the yearly average temperature of U.S. cities in degrees Fahrenheit, you get places like Albany, New York with an average temperature of 47.4 degrees. Flagstaff, Arizona, right up the road a ways, has an average temperature of 45.8 degrees. At 72.6, Phoenix is way up there, along with Yuma, Arizona at 74.2 degrees. West Palm Beach, Florida tops out at 74.7 degrees and Honolulu, Hawaii is top at 77.2 degrees, along with Key West, Florida at 77.8. There are a few other cities in that range.
Here is the issue, Key West, West Palm Beach and Honolulu are all about the same temperature all year. So their average is about what the temperature is right now (or whenever). Phoenix is an entirely different story. The average temperature in Phoenix in July is 93.5 degrees (that means day and night). The average temperature in Key West in July is 84.4 degrees.
Phoenix consistently ranks the hottest of the 40 largest cities in the U.S. Phoenix has a record high temperature of 122 degrees and reaches 90 degrees on the average 169 days each year. Just to be informative, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Phoenix is 17 degrees.
The folk lore about Phoenix, undoubtedly made up by the Chamber of Commerce, is that it is a dry heat. Let's get this straight, if it is 115 degrees in the shade, who cares if it is a dry heat? You die either way. Really, I think it is a lot more comfortable in Phoenix when it is 90 degrees outside than practically anywhere east of the Arizona state line with New Mexico.
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