Why would Arizona be cold?

A few weeks ago my paper said the coldest spot in the US for a few days
was in Arizona - but this doesn't include Alaska, Hawaii or Calif. I
think it doesn't include the tips of mountains since the tops of the
Rocky Mountains would always be the coldest. It also only includes
cities and towns (it says weatherunderground.com at the bottom of this
section of the paper). I can't imagine why it wouldn't include Calif.

Why would Arizona be that cold?

"Richard Fangnail" wrote in message
ups.com...
A few weeks ago my paper said the coldest spot in the US for a few days
was in Arizona - but this doesn't include Alaska, Hawaii or Calif. I
think it doesn't include the tips of mountains since the tops of the
Rocky Mountains would always be the coldest. It also only includes
cities and towns (it says weatherunderground.com at the bottom of this
section of the paper). I can't imagine why it wouldn't include Calif.

Why would Arizona be that cold?

Many of the cities are at the higher altitudes, up to 8000+ft..
MLD

Richard Fangnail wrote:

A few weeks ago my paper said the coldest spot in the US for a few days
was in Arizona - but this doesn't include Alaska, Hawaii or Calif. I
think it doesn't include the tips of mountains since the tops of the
Rocky Mountains would always be the coldest. It also only includes
cities and towns (it says weatherunderground.com at the bottom of this
section of the paper). I can't imagine why it wouldn't include Calif.

Why would Arizona be that cold?

There's a small town near Flagstaff that is often 10 degrees or so
colder than the surrounding area and occasionally it 'wins' coldest
spot in the US for a day ... this is about 7,400 ft elevation and in
the shadow of a mountain almost 13,000 ft.

Probably it was 65 in Phoenix that same day ... or mid-50's if there
was what passes for a "major winter storm" in Arizona.

"MLD" wrote in message news:0tbnh.1487$5g.328@trndny01...

"Richard Fangnail" wrote in message
ups.com...
A few weeks ago my paper said the coldest spot in the US for a few days
was in Arizona - but this doesn't include Alaska, Hawaii or Calif. I
think it doesn't include the tips of mountains since the tops of the
Rocky Mountains would always be the coldest. It also only includes
cities and towns (it says weatherunderground.com at the bottom of this
section of the paper). I can't imagine why it wouldn't include Calif.

Why would Arizona be that cold?

Many of the cities are at the higher altitudes, up to 8000+ft..
MLD

There's also a very wide variation in temperature.

One January I went there to 'do' the National Parks.

Every morning I would get up and there was snow on
the ground so bad that the freeway was restricted to
one land an there was usually a car or two in the
ditch.

By lunchtime the whole lot had gone and it was a
warm and sunny day.

tim

On 2007-01-04 15:29:03 -0500, "tim....." said:

Every morning I would get up and there was snow on
the ground so bad that the freeway was restricted to
one land

It is anyway, isn't it? US freeways only exist in the US. :-)

Why would Arizona be that cold?

Elevation (it's a tremendously geographically varied state -- even has
a couple of ski areas), plus a particular cold snap, could make some
parts of Arizona surprisingly chill, at least for a while.

That having been said, I'm not seeing Arizona listed among the January
2007 or December or November 2006 extremes of cold in the Lower 48 that
fall readily to hand -- though the vaguely similar looking and sounding
Alamosa (a town in Colorado) comes up a few times, and low-lying parts
of southern Arizona copped a few national *highs* as one would expect.


Cheers,
--Joe

On 4 Jan 2007 09:50:41 -0800, "Richard Fangnail"
wrote:

A few weeks ago my paper said the coldest spot in the US for a few days
was in Arizona - but this doesn't include Alaska, Hawaii or Calif. I
think it doesn't include the tips of mountains since the tops of the
Rocky Mountains would always be the coldest. It also only includes
cities and towns (it says weatherunderground.com at the bottom of this
section of the paper). I can't imagine why it wouldn't include Calif.

Why would Arizona be that cold?

In the West temperature is highly elevation dependent, the
adiabatic lapse rate running 3F-5F per 1000 feet of elevation.
Arizona elevations run from about sea level at Yuma to some
13,000 feet in the San Francisco peaks north of Flagstaff.

There are also some low spots that tend to accumulate cold air. I
remember one day about thirty years ago when the weather service
listed Gila Bend as the nation's "hot spot" at 80F or so, and
Hawley lake, down in a bowl shaped canyon in the Rim country, as
the coldest at about -44F.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *