Tucson is Climate

Fall & Winter In The Old Pueblo

Maybe it is the opening of the University, the zing of student cars, the babble of excited youth whatever it is, Tucson seems to shake itself come fall and gets ready for winter and the “high season.” There is a great flurry of gardening, cleaning up flower beds, readying for bulb planting. Crisp geraniums and perky bedding plants appear at nurseries. Seems like it all comes with such a rush the tingle in the air, the sharp evenings when we first pull up the blanket. Just yesterday we were almost too lazy to move. The wine in the air stirs the blood. Football season starts. There is horse racing, dog racing and in Nogales, south of the border bullfights. The much anticipated evening lectures and concert series begin. Merchants step up their advertising. Before we know it Hallowe'en has come and gone. The moon in the sky is enormous. The long evenings have shortened and soon it's Thanksgiving. And those last four weeks before Christmas-well I guess it's just the same everywhere, rush, rush, rush.

Christmas time in the deep southwest is not reminiscent of jingle bells, boots and mittens. But rather like that first Christmas so long ago bright stars in a quiet desert night. Music floating on the air as school children sing ancient carols as they enact Los Posados, begging from house to house for lodging for the night.

Then comes gala New Year's Eve with balls and parties. Then the first trickle of refugees from cold arrives. The Old Pueblo gets up steam as hotels, motels and guest ranches start trying to fit people in for the high season. Everybody and everything goes into high gear, for soon, for almost four months it will be “fun in the sun” with something doing every day and evening.

You can travel far but it's always wonderful to come back to Arizona and Tucson. For year around living, it's hard to beat.

When it comes to climate, Tucson is hard to beat. Its environment is the result of a rare combination of altitude, strategically-placed mountain ranges, elevated winds, and absorbent soil.

At 2,390 feet, the city is high enough to escape exceedingly hot summer temperatures that often broil desert communities lying at lower altitudes. Yet it is low enough to avoid most of the bitter winter weather that regularly paralyzes many cities in higher regions.

Completely surrounded by high mountains that tend to deflect winds, Tucson has relatively few days of extreme air activity. Yet, that very fact causes much movement of air high above the city. As a result, cloud cover is discouraged and the sun is allowed to shine a maximum number of hours, creating an arid climate. Even when it rains in Tucson the porous nature of the terrain quickly absorbs most of the water. Humidity remains at a minimum except during rare periods of prolonged precipitation.

Tucson's climate was admired by prehistoric men who congregated in the region in large numbers at least ten thousand years ago. Later, the climate was directly responsible for at least two major developments peculiar to the early Indian population. Unlike neighbors in Northern Arizona who left vast ruins as evidence of their ability to build, the Tucson-area aborigine fashioned only huts of brush and mud. A comparatively mild climate demanded no better abode. But the preponderantly warm climate allowed the latter to become an accomplished farmer, contrary to his northern counterpart who grubbed for berries, nuts and roots when the hunting was poor.

Today's weather bureau records tell an equally interesting story that emphasizes the importance of the peculiar combination of elements composing the Tucson environment. Among thirty-eight major cities in Arizona, twenty-four are considerably higher than Tucson's 2,400-foot elevation. Eleven are significantly lower. Only two Safford and Wickenburg occupy an elevation approximating that of Tucson.

Thirteen of those thirty-eight towns have average maximum temperatures higher than Tucson's 81.6°. Twenty have average maximum temperatures that are lower. Four Benson, Clifton, Safford, and Wickenburg compare with the Old Pueblo.

Tucson's average minimum temperature is 53.2°. Four other major Arizona cities have temperatures exceeding that figure. Twentyseven have lower average minimum temperatures. Six are similar to Tucson.

Precipitation in Tucson averages 10.91 inches annually. Twenty Arizona cities have much more rain and snowfall. Fifteen cities have less precipitation. Only Kingman and Wickenburg compare with Tucson.

These figures are not offered in a sense of competition. They are set forth here to provide a basis for the fact that, because of its unique location in a favorable corner of the Sonoran Desert, the city of Tucson has a significant environment that is responsible in large measure for its fantastic growth.

Like Arizona, Tucson is many things. But most of all, Tucson is Climate!