Well, I suppose it is a desert. It's not only hot, it's also cold. Come the cold of winter and we forget the heat of summer. Plus we get thirty or more degrees difference between daily highs and lows. By comparison, Seattle can be as low as eight.
We just got through some five nights of freezing weather. When it's thirty or twenty-eight degrees in "Tucson" (that mythical place designated by weather bureaus, usually near airports), it's several degrees colder a few hundred feet higher in elevation here in the Foothills. Plus, if you are near a wash, the temperatures drop even more from the cold air pushed down from the Catalina Mountains. So we've had a series of early mornings in the very low twenties.
Last year, 2012, overall was the warmest year on record in Tucson. We had forgotten about warm socks, thick pants, polypropylene sweaters, coats, and wool clothing. Come winter, we remember why we have such things. It's the swimming pool that seems out of place. It's down to 46 degrees. I have to do a polar bear dip -- just to say I did it.
We are more prepared than a couple of winters ago when it got down to seventeen and our palm trees lost their leaves. That winter, irrigation water lines burst around three faucets. This winter, I used a trick suggested by our good neighbor Denard -- put a trouble-light with an incandescent, soon-to-be-outlawed, heat-generating light bulb near the exposed water pipes, cover it with cloth, and leave the light on overnight. Plus we covered the plants that are more susceptible to frost. The one citrus tree we have is still small enough to cover, as is the Mexican salvia and our potted geranium and petunia collection.
Wednesday morning was the last of this stretch of freezing. The ten-day forecast has no freezing, and highs will be in the seventies. I took off the sheets yesterday afternoon. My god that was exhilarating to be outside in warmth. After highs reaching only the mid-forties, it got up to sixty. It was still a bright blue sky, but the iced chill was gone.
Citrus leaves are curled, plumeria doesn't like frost even if covered, and the Moses-in-the-cradle is almost as frost-intolerant, but the other covered plants did okay. Some we should have covered -- jade plant (duh) and a South African succulent should have been covered. They look wilted, but I'm hopeful.
The leaves on the two queen palm trees, way too high up to attempt a cover, are also shriveled, but I think they will survive. Queen palms are readily available at local nurseries, often on sale, but they don't tolerate the freezing we get in the Sonoran desert -- better to chose the California palm. Our two queens were planted a long time ago, and we almost lost them a couple of winters ago. They still haven't grown the lush foliage that they have in photos from before the Great Freeze. Smaller queens in the neighborhood didn't do so well.
We're still wearing mukluk boots and wool throws in the morning, and the air-conditioning system is still working in the "heat" direction, but layers get shed as the sun ascends. Snowbirds will be seen wearings shorts and T-shirts in the Safeway parking lot, but year-around locals like us have developed thinner blood. We'll still wear long sleeves.
I should take my polar bear dip before the swimming pool warms up.
We just got through some five nights of freezing weather. When it's thirty or twenty-eight degrees in "Tucson" (that mythical place designated by weather bureaus, usually near airports), it's several degrees colder a few hundred feet higher in elevation here in the Foothills. Plus, if you are near a wash, the temperatures drop even more from the cold air pushed down from the Catalina Mountains. So we've had a series of early mornings in the very low twenties.
Last year, 2012, overall was the warmest year on record in Tucson. We had forgotten about warm socks, thick pants, polypropylene sweaters, coats, and wool clothing. Come winter, we remember why we have such things. It's the swimming pool that seems out of place. It's down to 46 degrees. I have to do a polar bear dip -- just to say I did it.
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| The goldfish pond was covered with ice. Fish are fine. |
Wednesday morning was the last of this stretch of freezing. The ten-day forecast has no freezing, and highs will be in the seventies. I took off the sheets yesterday afternoon. My god that was exhilarating to be outside in warmth. After highs reaching only the mid-forties, it got up to sixty. It was still a bright blue sky, but the iced chill was gone.
Citrus leaves are curled, plumeria doesn't like frost even if covered, and the Moses-in-the-cradle is almost as frost-intolerant, but the other covered plants did okay. Some we should have covered -- jade plant (duh) and a South African succulent should have been covered. They look wilted, but I'm hopeful.
The leaves on the two queen palm trees, way too high up to attempt a cover, are also shriveled, but I think they will survive. Queen palms are readily available at local nurseries, often on sale, but they don't tolerate the freezing we get in the Sonoran desert -- better to chose the California palm. Our two queens were planted a long time ago, and we almost lost them a couple of winters ago. They still haven't grown the lush foliage that they have in photos from before the Great Freeze. Smaller queens in the neighborhood didn't do so well.
We're still wearing mukluk boots and wool throws in the morning, and the air-conditioning system is still working in the "heat" direction, but layers get shed as the sun ascends. Snowbirds will be seen wearings shorts and T-shirts in the Safeway parking lot, but year-around locals like us have developed thinner blood. We'll still wear long sleeves.
I should take my polar bear dip before the swimming pool warms up.
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