As I mentioned in my previous post about Independence day, the annual tradition of cycling from Scottsdale to Tempe to watch the fireworks show was put on hold this year.  Last year, Mike Whalen hosted a get together at his brother in law’s house and again this year at his new home, which was a bit off the beaten path that we’re so used to traveling on the fourth.  Rather than cycling, we decided to join our friends and it was well worth it.

I was skeptical of how the fireworks would fare from atop a hill in Papago Park, but it turned out to be just about one of the best places to view the annual festival of fire in the sky.  I cooked up some photos as you can see in the gallery below.

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Over the past week, in the Valley of the Sun the temperature has taken us on quite a ride. Phoenix has a long standing reputation for basting it’s residence in a “dry” heat, but year after year, we experience a strange anomaly between seasons. Some of you may not realize that Phoenix doesn’t experience the typical four seasons. We go from cool to hot, hot to cool, year after year. Sure, there are plenty of beautiful areas in the Arizona wilderness that experience all four seasons, but Phoenix isn’t one of them.

Take a look at the graph below.  This is the temperature history for Phoenix according to weather.com along with the forecast through the end of the month as of Friday, May 23rd at 10:55 AM.  Every year, when the temperature moves from cool to hot, we see a quick increase in temperature followed by nearly a week’s worth of teaser temps, and then the full blown summer heat begins.

I’ve never understood why this happens, but being a resident of Arizona for over 36 years, it has become quite clear that the pattern isn’t going to change.  Since I can remember, in the summer, when the temperature moves from hot to cold, somewhere around the last week in October, we experience a period where we are teased with cool weather for a few days, then we experience a few more days of blasting heat, then it cools down for the season.  So, in the “winter” it gets hot for a few days, cools down then the furnace fires up, and in the summer, it cools down for a few days, fires up a quick reminder of how hot it can be, then cools down for the season.

I just wish we were on the October end of the season, and not the May end.  It’s gonna be a hot one.