the years go fast, the days go slow
The comment box asks:
does arizona have an autumn?
and the Desert Museum, who ought to know, sez:
Are there seasons in the Sonoran Desert?
Yes, but they're quite different from the seasons in temperate climates.
So different, in fact, that naturalists don't all agree on what to call them, when they begin and end, or even how many there are! The situation is complicated by the unpredictability of desert rainfall, which profoundly affects both the timing and the character of every season. The Desert Museum recognizes five seasons in its surroundings in the Arizona Upland. How many do you count?
Spring: February to April
Foresummer or dry summer: May and June
Summer monsoon: July to mid-September
Fall: Mid-September to November
Winter: December and January
The differences between these are not marked; spring is when flowers bloom on the cacti and the monsoon season is when God attempts to destroy the earth with water, but that's about it. It has snowed here on two or three occasions in my lifetime. In general it's sunny and clear almost all the time. Half the year it's scorching during the day and warm at night; the other half (such as now) it's merely warm during the day and mildly chilly at night. The nearest deciduous tree that I know of is about a mile and a half away, on Nik's street. He calls it The Season Tree and uses it to remember what season it is. By now I imagine The Season Tree has, like Iowa, shed most of its xanthophyll-hued leaves.
