Saturday’s temperature had triggered an excessive heat warning across Arizona as lows were expected to range between 80F and 86F
On Saturday afternoon, the National Weather Service announced that the temperature at Phoenix Sky Harbor international airport reached 110F, making it the 54th day this year with temperatures of at least 110F.
Saturday’s temperature breaks the previous record of 53 days that was set in 2020. From 1991 to 2020, the average consecutive days of 110F or above is 21 days, the NWS said.
An excessive heat warning has been issued for south central and south-west Arizona until 8pm on Sunday as weekend highs are expected to range between 108F and 114F. Meanwhile, lows are expected to range between 80F to 86F.
Follow-up question: why make that city a car-dependent hellhole of McMansion suburbs larping as a city, seemingly designed to be as energy-intensive as possible?
I’m not arguing for it, but as someone from Florida, I can understand why it’s car-dependent. It is too hot to walk to a bus/tram stop, wait, get on a relatively freezing bus/tram with wet clothes, get off, walk in the sweltering heat, and arrive at your destination drenched in sweat to freeze in a/c again.
For mass transit to work, there would have to be lots of stops very near locations, high frequency of transport vehicles, and the culture would have to be okay with people being sweaty. Maybe people could travel with a change of clothes and a towel, but then locations would need to have changing rooms.
I think Americans are too used to the luxury of not being sweaty, so it would be hard to accept and use a mass transit system in really hot places.
I wonder if covering walking paths with solar panels would help?
Edit: also maybe zoning that allowed things to exist closer together instead of promoting car use
For one, the zoning should be altered to build everything close together and make walking more feasible. [(NINJA) EDIT:] Now I think about it, a number of buildings built before mechanised cooling in warmer climates were built with their ground floor entrance set back from the rest of the floors above, creating a covered, shaded walkway. Perhaps such a feature on hypothetical buildings in walkable areas in Arizona and New Mexico could work? [/edit]
For two, solar panels are but one option. Much easier would be to simply rig the place up with tarps over the streets to create shade. Hell, there’s a town in Spain where those tarps are a local cultural phenomenon
I’m aware of the tarps, the country I live in had them and still has in some places but they have started to copy the car centric ideology (to my disdain)
I only suggested panels because they can become net negative and help offset the coal generation of electricity that’s still common in a lot of places.
Also, for zoning, that’s what I was thinking too, things built by as close as possible