A Cooler West Enjoys a Mild Reprieve

PHOENIX —  It was around noon in Lake Havasu City and the temperature was approaching a high of 107 degrees.

But it was still considered a relatively comfortable day by folks in the western Arizona town, where summertime highs usually reach into the searing 120s.

“It just isn’t as god-hideous as it’s been in past years,” said Jill Bersell, manager of Lake Havasu Roofing Inc. “Some years you can’t even go outside.”

Throughout the West, residents are reveling in an unusually mild summer while the Midwest recovers from a deadly heat wave.

Randy Cerveny, an Arizona State University climatologist, attributed this summer’s unusual temperatures on both sides of the country to a seesaw effect in atmospheric conditions.

When warm air was over the eastern portion of the country, cool air hit the West.

“You tend to think of the Southwest desert as the hot spot, but there were quite a number of days when the East Coast was warmer than we were,” Cerveny said in an interview Monday.

For example, Chicago’s high of 104 degrees on July 30 was seven degrees hotter than the high in Phoenix on the same day.

And expect the unusually cool summer across the western United States to continue for another few weeks, said Bill Patzert, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

That’s good news to outdoor workers such as Toby Mills, superintendent for a developer building an apartment complex in central Phoenix.

“A day like today, when you have a halfway decent breeze going, it’s nice,” he said while working during the 104-degree afternoon. “Obviously, you’re not going to sweat nearly as much. You don’t lose as much energy and you’re not as thirsty.

“It’s definitely been bearable this summer,” he added.

In addition to cooler temperatures, a strong monsoon season has dropped record rain on Arizona, including Phoenix, which had its seventh-wettest July on record.

It’s been the same this summer elsewhere in the West.

In southern Nevada, where temperatures often stay above 100 degrees at night, July highs reached 100 degrees only 15 times and a flood dropped half the average year’s rainfall in one afternoon in Las Vegas.

Rainfall in some areas of Colorado is up 50%. Denver reached its average annual precipitation total by early August.

In Tucson, residents experienced the 10th-coolest July in 100 years. High temperatures averaged 94 degrees, five degrees below normal.

In the mountaintop town of Flagstaff, where Monday morning’s 44 degrees tied a record low set 100 years ago, residents are enjoying weather cooler than the usually pleasant mid-80s. “Temperature-wise it’s just beautiful,” said John Dudine, owner of Grounds Maintenance Company.

Nonetheless, not everyone is enjoying the summer’s reprieve.

Jason Rose, superintendent of Gary & Son Roofing, said it’s still hot when he works during the summer in Phoenix.

“Last summer was hot; it’s still hot this summer. Instead of 110 or 112 degrees, it’s only 104 or 106,” he said. “Basically, it still feels hot.”