miranadobe
Posted : 7/28/2008 1:24:27 PM
fuzzy_dogs_mom
I'm surprised to know that AZ has a monsoon season.
Oh, yeah. This year it started the 2nd week of July, I think. To me, all it meant was massive lightning/thunderstorms. Those of us from the northern part of the country are fully familiar with wicked summer storms that bring heavy, heavy rains, window-shaking thunder, and tremendous lightning strikes. (Sometimes I expect to see hail like I would've in the NorthEast.) The differences here are the ground can't soak up the water, so it rushes thru any available path - the towns create "wash" areas specifically for this... my favorite are the so-named Rivers that don't actually appear until AFTER such a heavy rainstorm. Otherwise it's just a dry gulley.
So, when you move here, be aware of flash flooding - because there's an actual law called the Stupid Driver Law (something to that effect) which says that if you drive into an area that is flooded (ignoring signs or simple common sense) and you have to be rescued, that you are charged with the cost of rescuing you, etc. :)
As for whether the monsoon cools it down - yes, it does, for a few hours. But usually it just heats back up again within 12 hours or so (total estimation). And it does get humid. The kind of humid most of us in New England would consider an average summer day. But because folks are not used to humidity, they complain like it's a swamp or something. Isn't that bad, but the high temps make it pretty uncomfortable.
As for your dog adjusting, the best thing for now is making sure you have A/C. Once it hits Sept/Oct, you can start conditioning your dog to the heat, but dropping right in on the height of this would be pretty tough. Gracie cannot stand it after, say 8 in the morning. You'll see people out exercising at about 5:30am most mornings.
Good thing is you have so much daylight, even at that hour.