How Hot Is It In August?

Dr Desert Flower really wanted to drive home from work last night with the convertible top down, but something she saw on her dash board dissuaded her from lowering the C70's top.

She has covered parking at her place of employment, so the vehicle did not sit baking in the sun all day.  This was just the ambient temperature, inside the lower leading edge of the engine compartment, about 18 inches above ground level.  She did not drive to lunch yesterday (as is often her practice) so there was no latent heat from residual engine cooling a few hours earlier.  No, this was an ambient temperature engine & engine compartment, in the shade, in South East Phoenix, about 2 miles away from the Sky Harbor Phoenix airport. The sunlight you see in the above photo is the western setting sun, which never had a chance to fall upon DDF's car's hood, front fender, front quarter panels, or near the ambient temperature sensor of her eastward facing parked car.

People ask me "how can you stand the heat?"  To which I often reply "Stay inside.  And when it is -20F with a -35F wind chill in Chicago in January, you don't spend alot of time outside either."  (I learned this one from my cousin Mike who has lived in the Phoenix valley 10 years longer than I have, and who also grew up near Chicago).  Even my dentist yesterday was complaining about the heat (no cavities or gingivitis, again... but the hygienist reprimanded me for tea stained enamel). 

It's hot in August here in Phoenix.  125F is not pleasant.  This is our 5th August here.  They get more tolerable over time.    At least is it not Saudi Arabia, or Iraq.  It will actually be hotter here today than either of those places, but there's fewer religious fundamentalist extremists in Phoenix, so that certainly makes it much nicer.