Cloudy Day

Today is going to be cloudy here in the Valley of the Sun. I love cloudy days. They are so rare that having one is a treat. On a cloudy day in Phoenix, I open the blinds wide in the house and get to turn on lights. The yellow (or white if its fluorescent) glow from the lamps is so homey, so comforting, so cozy, so different.

I grew up in Kansas. It rained every seven to ten days. Cloudy days were not unusual. You always had to have a Plan B when planning outdoor activities. The wind blew... constantly. Boy, was I in for a surprise when I moved to Phoenix.

The first weather shock when I moved here in 1978 was that wind speed could be calm or zero. I swear, I had NEVER in all my life seen a wind speed of zero.

My second shock was that people could live through days where the high temperature got to 117 degrees. Not only could they live, but they still walked around, drove their cars, acted like this blast furnace was normal.

The third shock was the first fall that I lived here. I worked the night shift, and I swear this is the truth... I got into my car one night at 3:00 am to drive home and was chilly so I turned on the heater. The weather came on the radio and the current temp was 70 degrees! I just had to laugh. I wondered what my Kansas friends would think if they knew I was running the car heater at 70 degrees.

As I got accustomed to life in Phoenix, the weather shocks were fewer and farther between. At first the novelty of over 300 days of sunshine was fascinating, but as time went on, I began to miss clouds. And rain. This led to the bizarre behavior a lot of us have here in town, every time there was a cloud in the sky or a rain drop I ran outside. I still do.

After I'd been here a few years and thought I was acclimated, we had a bad monsoon season. This is the rainy season in the summer when we get about 2-3 inches of rain in 3-5 months. Yeah, I know, doesn't sound like a big deal to most of you. However, when your car is floating down the flooded street, it's a big deal. I was shocked to learn that we could have storms that powerful. The summer of 1991 brought two days in a row of temps 120 and above. I remember thinking, "it's 120 degrees and I'm still breathing!" Another shock occurred in the summer of 1996. It's a legend by now. It was a huge storm that took off roofs, knocked down power lines, and created havoc.

I've come from living in Kansas where you run outside when the tornado sirens go off, to living in Phoenix where you run outside if a cloud passes in front of the sun... what a journey.