So Warm The Winter Sun

It is not idle chatter nor bombastic blatherskite to say that Southern Arizona, blessed land of the giant saguaro, enjoys the finest winter weather in all of these wonderful United States. The doubting can be relieved of their doubts by merely consulting the records of the U. S. Weather Bureau. In this Bureau, dedicated and learned gentlemen, impassioned skywatchers as it were, with their charts and all the intricate tools of modern meteorology, are hep to the whims of weather, past and present, and often the future. They do more than talk about the weather. They study it in all its willful vagaries, they measure it, they apply to it the ken of scientific yardsticks; so when they speak, they speak with authority and when they say that our winter sun, that sun which shines with such consistent benevolence over the desert and foothill regions of our state, is a warm sun, they are not speaking for any booster's club but from knowledge, understanding, observation and study. It is all in the records for anyone to read.

There is a reason for our mild, sunshiny days when other areas of the country shiver and freeze during the long, bitter cold months of winter. Geographical location and circumstance of terrain have a lot to do with it.

Prevailing winds over the United States, as we all know, blow from the west toward the east. Our mighty winter storms, born in that refrigerator we call the North Pacific, are seized by these prevailing winds and with Herculean strength are hurled eastward toward our fair land.

These storms become monstrous movements of weather whose progress we follow each day in our newspapers. They have a good press, to be sure, because they mean so much to all of us. Thanks to our meteorologist, we know their might, their speed and their direction of travel.

You would think nothing could impede their progress but such is not the case. As they sweep

Into the mainland they plunge headlong into the tremendous barriers of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevadas. A mighty battle ensues. The “sweat” of these battles between storm and mountain falls as precipitation. Snow locks the high ramparts in white; rain drenches the lowlands along the coast. Sometimes Nature's channels are unable to carry the rain back to the sea in orderly fashion and what results are scenes of flood and desolation such as those of northcentral California last holiday season.Wide valleys sheltered on the lee side of majestic coastal mountain ranges, are visited by “gentled” storms which have spent most of their energies battling high mountains to the west. As a result, the desert areas of Arizona experience only the high, thin, wispy cirrus of a spent storm, allowing the sun to warm this part of Earth's surface, shedding its gentle rays on man as he works and plays in the Land of the Sun.

Storms, drifting into Arizona from the southwest, often retain some of their moisture as mountain ranges are not as high over southern California and Lower California as mountains to the north. As these storms drift across our desert areas, mild rains are sprinkled over parched desert lands and then they spend their wrath and strength on the sudden upsweep of San Francisco Peaks, the Mogollon Rim and the White Mountains. These are blessed storms for all of us in Arizona. They mean spring flowers, skiing on mountain sides, runoff waters to fill irrigation reservoirs.

In our enchanted land, where the winter sun is so warm, we are protected by mountains from winter's severest onslaughts. We enjoy almost 80 per cent of possible sunshine from December through May, our rainfall lowest in the Nation during the same period.

So we are really not braggarts, we who are so fortunate to work and play in the warm sunshine of Southern Arizona, when we brag about our winter weather. It is all a matter of record. But we don't need records; we live in it.Our warm winter weather in the desert is the kind of weather that means roses and other flowers in December. It means shirtsleeve weather during the day and cool and crisp mornings and evenings. It means the annual trek of thousands and thousands of people our way filling our hotels, motels, resorts, ranches, inns and trailer courts with bubbling activity as they fortunately and gratefully pour into our Sunland to escape the inclemencies of weather in more northern and more tempestuous climes. November through May is winter vacation time in Southern Arizona and it seems as if the whole world, almost, is around to share the scenery and sunshine with us. Probably more suntan lotion is sold in Southern Arizona during the winter months than is sold any place on earth during the same period.

In Phoenix, Tucson and other communities, enjoying the benevolence of a warm, winter sun, lawns of Kentucky rye and other winter grasses are gleaming, green creations in the sun and vegetable gardens in the backyard bespeak the luck and outdoor activities of their attendants. In fact, the vegetable grower out here has more fun and gets as much or more for his efforts in winter than he does in summer.

Golf courses are crowded to capacity everywhere in our Sunland because our warm, winter sun is the powerful magnet luring people out into the open for fun, rest and relaxation.

Best of all, perhaps, as the result of our mild, winter weather, is the discovery of our desert by so many people. Nothing is as pleasant as a winter day in the domain of the Saguaro. Desert roads and desert trails lead into a vast, primitive wilderness throughout Southern Arizona that is so different from anything else one can find elsewhere. Here the air has a zest all of its own. Here is silence, sweeping panoramas of flatland and mountains, a veritable wonderland for those who love Nature and who want to escape, even for a few hours, the tribulations and pressures of our bustling age. A steak fry in the desert, late on a winter's afternoon when a sleepy sun begins to do tricks with desert shadows, offers, we can assure you, as much therapy for jangled nerves as a truckload of pills and potions.