Arizona, Land of Dramatic Skies

For a land considered one of the driest, sunniest and most scenic, Arizona, surprisingly enough, is also a land of dramatic skies. This may sound strange considering the amount of sunshine lavished upon our blessed and sun-baked acres. Phoenix and Tucson, for instance, enjoy eighty-six percent of possible sunshine, with Yuma having a possible sunshine record even more impressive than that. Again, Phoenix and Tucson, with an annual, average relative humidity of thirty-three and thirty percent, have by far the least humid climate of all major cities in the continental U.S., and that includes vacation and resort cities. Hot and dry but seldom humid! Visit Washington, D.C. or Houston, Texas, some hot, humid day in August. You'll know just what we mean!To have dramatic skies, you must have large bodies of water to supply the moisture to build the clouds with which to form those skies. Arizona, considered a desert state, has, fortunately, such bodies of water so close as to be called friendly neighbors. The broad Pacific caresses America's shores a short day's drive to the west of us. The Gulf of California, to the south, is hardly more than a leisurely half day's drive from our desert communities, and even the Gulf of Mexico by plane, to the east, is not more than a few hours away. Tempestuous storms, born in these oceanic areas, have much to do in forming our dramatic skies, although they are niggardly in pouring upon us as much rain as we could use. The might and fury of these storms, headed our way, generally lose their force when they beat

"Dramatic Skies Over Yavapai County" DEBS METZONG "Window in the Sky Grand Canyon"

and batter the high mountain barriers which surround us. That rusty, jolly, old iron rooster surveying all his domain above your weather vane has a jolly, good time of it in this country of ours trying to show which way the wind is blowing. If he looks a little bit dizzy, he probably is, and should be, considering the temperment and fickleness of our changeable winds and frequency of wind direction, which are responsible forour dramatic skies and weather. For 14.3% of the time our jolly old rooster just sits, doing nothing, because there is no wind. Here is prevailing wind direction the rest of the time (from studies made in Phoenix): N 4.5%; ΝΕ 10.9%; E 21.1%; SE 14.7%; S 5.3%; SW 10.1%; W 12.1%; and NW 7.0%. A lot of varied winds to push our dramatic skies.

A collector of dramatic skies could find Arizona a truly happy hunting ground. To some collectors there could be a monotony of clear, blue skies (you know the words in the song "Where the Skies Are Not Cloudy All Day,' and whoever wrote it must have, at least, passed through Arizona on a bus!) If he had set around for a spell, he might have made some changes in the lyrics!

The pleasing things about clouds in this, our arid, land is that they are harbingers of moisture, welcome, needed moisture. But don't ever think that when a cloud comes tumbling in over the horizon there is going to be rain. Think that and you'll be a nervous wreck faster than you know. You have to get philosophical about such things and learn to live with the environment and the strange quirks and complexities of the weather. Clouds will come and clouds will go, tantalizing and frustrating in their unkept promises, serene and regal as they go skimming merrily on their way to bestow their largess on lands that need their moisture less than we do.

The thing to do about our dramatic skies is to enjoy their beauty, coloring and majestic formation. Like the man said, "It'll rain! It always has!"