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Heat Out West
Mon Nov 17, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
So what's the difference between a hot summer and a really hot summer? Ask somebody in
Phoenix. This past July was the hottest month in the city's history. Hi, I’m Bryan Yeaton
for The Weather Notebook.
The average daily high was close to 109 degrees Fahrenheit. That's five degrees above normal.
On July 16th, Phoenix had an overnight low of 96 degrees--three degrees higher than any other
night in Phoenix history.
Of course, Phoenix has always been a hot town. That's why hardly anyone lived there until air
conditioning came along. In 1940 the Phoenix area only about about 200,000 people. Now it's
got more than three million, which puts it among the biggest desert-based cities on Earth.
All those people translate into a lot of highways and parking lots, which contribute to the
heat island effect; The dark pavement soaks up the sun’s energy, then and later releases it,
helping keep temperatures high.
It scorched all over the West this summer. Salt Lake City had its warmest night ever, with a
low of 80, and it was the hottest month in over a century of records for Grand Junction,
Colorado; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Salt Lake.
Why so hot this year? Spring in the West was warm and dry, so the midsummer sun had lots of
parched ground to work with. The Western heat usually gets interrupted in July by the North
American Monsoon. But this year, the monsoon got off to a slow start. One fellow in Phoenix
who didn't have air conditioning knew things were bad when the candles in his house
melted—without being lit!
Thanks to Bob Henson for today’s story. The Weather Notebook comes to you through grants from
the National Science Foundation, and Subaru, Driven by What’s Inside.
Today's Links
All you need to know about Phoenix weather:
http://phoenix.about.com/cs/weather/
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