Over 100 degrees in April?

When I was growing up, I remember that we could always count on temperatures over 90 degrees by Easter. This year was no exception, but the temperature has been going up and down and just over a week ago we were out when it was 45 degrees. However, as the statistics and experience show, cool temperatures won't last long in the desert. Today is the day the temperature goes over 100 degrees. As I drove to work I saw the temperature rise 3 degrees in the ten minutes it takes me to get to my office.

Having the day come this early, makes us think that 110 degree temperatures can't be that far off. I don't want to make it seem that I am fixated on the weather, mostly, because of central air conditioning and car air conditioners, we ignore the outside totally, but some places have groundhogs, we have thermometers.

There isn't really a lot of difference in the livability outside when the temperature is below 110 degrees. I can tell, every time, when the temperature goes above 110, because the air feels hot. If you are driving around and roll down the window, 110 degrees actually heats up your arm and feels hot. Below 11o, the air feels cooler when it is blowing by. You can also tell the hot temperature by looking around the streets. They are empty. No one is outside. No children playing, no dogs running around, no people walking down the street. Except for the cars (and there are a lot of cars) it looks like a old time Apocalypse movie.

Quite a few things happen when the temperature goes over 110, the asphalt melts, the sidewalks literally become hot enough to cook and egg, the air turns into a semi-translucent haze of dust and heat waves and the Malls fill up with people.

The weather forecasters are really funny, they keep predicting that the temperature will go down. They also issue heat advisories to tell us that it is hot and the polution is high also. Duh.
Everyone is driving in a car that is why the heat and the polution go together. So here we go again, trying to survive another summer in the Valley of the Sun.