Arizona Winter 2017

[Shot-N-Az]

So we are doing our first snowbird adventure and we are in Arizona. Honest to gosh, the weather back home in the DC area isn't much worse than here, and on some days it has actually been warmer.

Everyone is telling me this is an unusual year. Lucky us.

Sorry, just had to rant a bit. This has not turned out to be what we had in mind. We are learning a lot of lessons for next year though.

[rocmoc]

2gypsies wrote:
Wow! One week of cold in Arizona and folks are complaining about it being a cold 'winter'. One week folks...... and the future is warming up! Hang in there. December was a gorgeous, warm month. Christmas - no jacket. 🙂

Live withing 20 miles of you and have lived here longer. Dec had 14 days that were below historical average. Jan & Feb are the COLD months with the most freezing and hard freeze night time lows. Jan has really been cold per my utility bills I am paying for the last month heat. Tucson rarely freezes but last night froze. Wonderful place to live and visit but this winter is COLD.

rocmoc n AZ

[Searching_Ut]

Hmmm, not sure I feel very sorry for the folks holed up in AZ. I've gone through well over a gallon of gas in the snow blower already this year and winter is far from over. That said, my family up in Boise would be tickled pink to only have a few feet of snow in their yard right now.

[2gypsies1]

Wow! One week of cold in Arizona and folks are complaining about it being a cold 'winter'. One week folks...... and the future is warming up! Hang in there. December was a gorgeous, warm month. Christmas - no jacket.

Seems like recently the eastern southern states have had ice, snow, tornadoes, rain..... 🙂

[doxiemom11]

We plan to go to AZ next winter so I have been watching the weather where relatives live near Phoenix. It has been 10-20 degrees warmer her along the TX coast than near Phoenix. That is not what it is normally like in the Phoenix area. Sure hope it warms up again next winter.

[almcc]

Yes, it's been an interesting winter, we are in Borrego Springs CA, about 3 hours north west of Yuma. This morning it was at 32F here in the desert, we've had lots of rain, enough that the local cable internet has been down for 3 days because the supplier has his dish equipment "up the hill" and it's snowed in, they can't get to it to fix it or shovel it out!

[bobsallyh]

Shot-in- AZ, lived near Gettysburg for almost a life time and after going full time, this will be our 14th season in Yuma, AZ. I talk to friend near Petersburg, VA. and he sure isn't happy with the winter they have had. Like the decals say, "we don't shovel snow in Yuma, AZ., we shovel sunshine".

[BarbaraOK]

Shot-N-Az wrote:
So we are doing our first snowbird adventure and we are in Arizona. Honest to gosh, the weather back home in the DC area isn't much worse than here, and on some days it has actually been warmer.

Everyone is telling me this is an unusual year. Lucky us.

Sorry, just had to rant a bit. This has not turned out to be what we had in mind. We are learning a lot of lessons for next year though.

This isn't the coldest winter we've been in. Remember a few years ago when one of the golf tournaments had a snow day in Tucson? But it only lasts for a day or two. It is a wet winter - but really can't hold that against them. The Southern Ca/Ar/Nv area NEEDS RAIN/SNOW desperately. They have had 5+ yrs of drought and really, really need the water. This is a good thing, and the cold weather (it you want to call it that) is short lived. The sun is shining and it will be in the 60s during day/40s at night by the weekend.

[RoyB]

I lived in the Tempe area in the mid 70s and really enjoyed the weather then... It was cold mornings in the high country and hotter then heck in the Phoenix area... Coming down from the high country at Payson you could watch the temperature continue to rise the lower you got...

You could enjoy both weather worlds... My pickup truck daily driver to work didn't even have air conditioner in it haha...

This was when there was only a couple of bridges over the Salt River and when the flooding came down from the high country you had to drive several miles out of the way to get across using the good bridges. The regular crossings was down through the river bed to the other side back then.

Cars and trucks would keep using using the river bed passages until someone couldn't make it hehe... It was common place to see a Volkswagon floating down the River back then...

I loved getting in the shaded cool places in the early mornings having breakfast outside watching the sun come up on the sides of the Rock Canyons in the Sedona areas... Sure don't get to see that back here in Virginia...

The dust devils was the strangest things I ever saw... They would come up from the heat anywhere. You would see plastic shopping bags way high in the air. I also got to see the wall of dust moving through the area - another very very strange and scary thing to witness... Dust clouds producing lightning...

Roy Ken

[eichacsj]

In Tempe for 20 years. Last year was the worst I remember, we'll see how this year stacks up.

[Thunder_Mountai]

Worst winter in our five years of birding in the Apache Junction area. 36 degrees this morning. But it will warm up to lower 50s this afternoon. Supposed to be "cold" all week. Heck of a lot warmer than Colorado, and I don't have to shovel "it".

[midnightsadie]

in law lives in tempe ,says coldest winter he can remember .

[John_Joey]

Where about in AZ are you?

Regardless, reading about it on the web and actually doing it are two different beasts. First year is the hardest, it'll get easier and better with each season.

The real danger is reading stuff coming from people that aren't in a RV. Their perception will be much different on just about everything. A 40 degree morning in a single wide with an AZ/FL/TX room is a lot different then in an open air bottom RV with just an awning. The list will continue from not having wind breaks to supporting buildings to storage to enough AC.

What snowbird RV'ers do have in their favor is the freedom to move around and see the country at will. So when some are sweating in 90 degree heat because it's too soon to head north, you can be part of the 70 degree club enjoying the middle of the country experiencing new things.

[OutdoorPhotogra]

I moved from MD to AZ and I'll take AZ weather. Sure this week is cold but I've had many days where it was 65 here and 35 in MD. December was much better in AZ I'm sure winter will show up in the DC area in Feb.

Winter isn't what has bothered me. It still being cold in March/April is what bothered me.

EDIT: I am in southern AZ so I know it varies and folks here are saying it's a cold year but I'm happy as a lark.

[rocmoc]

Hay I understand. This is our brick & motar location and this has been a cold rough winter thus far. We normally head out for Mexico mid-winter as it is too cold for this desert rat in the winter but rotator cuff surgery killed the trip this year. BUT next year back to the norm. Early Feb can be the coldest but by end of month AZ always starts to warm. All tho it was a late spring freeze here when I slipped on ice and tore up my shoulder. Hang in there, Yuma is the warmest.

rocmoc n AZ