Sunshine by the Yardstick

SUNSHINE IS A salable commodity. It's an elixir that means health and vigor and rest and relaxation. For that reason thousands of Americans, wishing to escape the frigid weather of less fortunate climes, come to Ari zona to spend the winter, and enjoy more sun shine per day than they could in any other place in the United States. The good gentlemen of the United States Weather Bureau, whose duties are to measure and judge the amazing personality of Old Man Weather, have over a period of many years applied a yardstick to sunshine, and from those studies ARIZONA HIGHWAYS has had compiled a U. S. sunshine map which shows southern and central Arizona the sunshine capital of the United States. We who live in Arizona are blessed by the extravagance of a bountiful sun. Sunshine for us in central and southern Arizona means sim ply this: roses in January, crops going on and off every month of the year, oranges in Decem ber picked from our own groves, ranches and resorts and inns scattered all about our land filled with folks who come to share our sunshine with us. Sunshine in our land means warm, friendly breezes all winter long instead of icy blasts. It means sunbathing in the afternoons instead of ice skating, and horse back riding and hiking in the desert instead of bobsleds and skis. We have winter sports, too, in our land, but only in the higher mountain elevations of the northern part of the state. According to the yardstick, Central and Southern Arizona enjoys 85 per cent or more of possible sunshine during the average day. This compares more than favorably with other fa vored portions of the United States whose claim to sunshine, while vociferous, hardly puts them compiled from U. S. Weather Bureau studies by William De Merse of the Plans Division of the Arizona Highway Department.

Sunshine map of the United States

In a class with the sun-blessed residents of this, Pacific Coast loses its our blessed sunburnt land. bad humor among these purple mountains, and the icy cold, sweeping from the north, is spent and feeble long before it reaches central and southern Arizona. Nature does a fancy bit of air-conditioning out our way. All of the southern part of our state was once described as the great American desert. Merely the addition of water has caused this to become a great western garden. Such is the For sunshine, the weather charts, as well as the claims of such active civic groups as those in Douglas, Tucson, Mesa, Phoenix, Nogales, Wickenburg, Bisbee, Willcox, Bowie, Chandler, Yuma and intermediate points, will point you to the central and southern portions of our state. Ours is a warm, friendly sunny land. Purple mountain ranges surround southern Arizona doing faithful service in taking the bite out of the wind and reducing it in intensity. Angry weather sweeping in from the power of sunshine. World travelers, familiar with the finest climate on earth, finally get around to Arizona and here they stay. More and more people choose Arizona for their permanent mailing address and all because of the weather. Freedom from winds, protection by geographic position, our sunny land is noted for its dry, invigorating air. Clouds dissolve in this air as if it were a magic brew of some alchemist. Clouds, such as they are, hang about like props in a play rather than harbingers of bad weather. The sun doesn't have a hard job going about his business. All he has to do is rise and shine... R. C.

winter and the transition from autumn to spring is a gentle process of sunny afternoons and starry nights.

LAND BY CHUCK ABBOTT And in the Arizona desert summer lingers all winter long, whispering only of the calendar in the chill of the morning and the nip of evenings, clear, quiet and cool. And blessed with such weather, the visitor finds the call of the out-ofdoors is ever a strong one in Arizona.