by Analicia Bake
By the time Halloween comes around, every Tucsonan knows and is relieved that the days of 100 degrees are finally over, and 2017 year was an especially brutal year in most of the Southwestern United States. Even October was freakishly warm; in fact, 25 days in October experienced highs above 90 degrees, making it the hottest October in the history of recorded temperatures in Tucson—and that is more than 130 years of keeping track of the weather in our city.
“The cold weather is great, although we were really warm this year,” said sophomore Samuel Avila. “I especially like the overcast skies because we have so few of those in Tucson during the year.”
Earlier in 2017, Tucson experienced the warmest June in its weather history. Then, Tucson and much of Southern Arizona experienced the wettest July- ever!
Why stop the records there?
This past Thanksgiving, Tucson hit a record 91 degrees, and the records kept being shattered. December 2017 and January 2018 were in Tucson’s Top Five warmest list for those months.
Winter is not officially over until next Tuesday, March 20, but if the trend continues, Winter 2017-18 will probably go into Tucson’ weather books as one of the warmest on record.
While much of Arizona has been basking in the heat throughout the past five months, much of the rest of the country has been drastically below normal—frigid temperatures that few of us could ever relate to. Can any of us even imagine what 40 below feels like?
Now you may be wondering: What is going on?
Pueblo science teacher Mrs. Lisa Shepherd said, “We need to learn more about how pollution is affecting our planet the most and to recycle more often. This planet needs to support and develop new products that will be beneficial to our planet.”
She paused and added, “We can work with legislators to create laws to help our environment, and we have to initiate change.”
The forecast for the first day of spring break…? Try 70 degrees on Friday; the normal high is near 75 degrees.
Go figure… Happy Spring Break!