Sudden shower, where is that sweatshirt...
I spent the last few days on a short combination business/fun trip to Las Vegas (via Kingman, AZ and Laughlin, NV). Today, while on the return trip, and just outside of Kingman headed east on I-40, I ran into a quick (and what LOOKED like a rather weak) thunderstorm. The sun was shining all around, as it often does during an Arizona storm, and while I could see before I got to it that the rain was reaching the ground (it often doesn't, but evaporates before it can arrive at the ground), I really wasn't expecting much more than a few spots on the windshield and a renewed need to wash the vehicle. As I entered the stretch where it was raining, the temperature was about 108, and I watched my thermometer to see how much it would drop as I drove through the rain. The storm covered about 5 or maybe 8 miles of pavement, and as I got to the center of that stretch, the temperature had dropped 38 degrees, down to 70, all in the space of a few miles! I shut the refrigeration off, rolled down the windows, and breathed in the fresh fragrances of a desert storm, if only for a few moments. Then, just about the time I turned south onto US93 toward Phoenix, the temperature jumped (almost instantly, it seemed) back to 108 again, and kept going up from there over the following 150 miles. As a Phoenix resident, it's probably the last cool air I'll feel until about October 30th (around here anyway)! , Here at home today, the mercury hit 116, a new record for this date. It seems like our summer wet season has fizzled out for this year. But, no matter where you go on a road trip, there's usually always some kind of a treat in store, and TODAY, that was 5 miles of Arizona I-40 that for a short time was a cool and comfortable 70 degrees -- in August!
