The Arizona sentinel., 1897-06-12
ARIZONA.
Its Attractions and Advantages as a
 Place of Residence i'll Winter.

Its Attractions and Advantages as a
 Place of Residence in Winter. Whitelaw Reid. owner and editor of the
 New York Tribune, who has spent the last two winters in Arizona for the benefit of
 his health. writes cntertainingly and in structiycly concerning that part of the country Mir. Reid says:
 So many questions are asked about Ari- zona as place for winter residence, and
 there appears to be such dearth of pre- else information among many who are
 vitally interested, that it seems almost . public duty, to set down, iA the simplest form, few facts of personal observation. WEATHER,
 Daring five months residence in Southern Arizona in winter there was but one day when the weather made it actually
 unpleasant for me to take exercise ill the ! open air st some time or other during tEe l day. Of course there were a good many days which weather observer woulI de-
 scribe as "cloudy," and some that were
 ''sLovery; bUt during these five months 1 tfrom November, 1895. to May, lS96,l
 there were only four days when we dii not
 have brilliant sunshine at some time dur ing the day. Even more than Egypt, any
 where north of Luxor, Arizona is the laud t~Er A,k kn 7 k-s
 i TEMPERATURES.
 1 1 have seen the thermometer mark 92 degrees in the shade on my north piazza in | March. On the other hand, we had frosts
 which killed young orange trees, and there
 were several nights when thin ice formed. The government reports show a mean i temperature for fourt cen years at the pres
 ent territorial capital of 57a degrees in
 November, s degrees in December, 20 de- grees i'll January. 54 degrees in February, 6l degrees in March and 66 degrees in i April. The same reports show the highest
 and lowest temperatures, averaged for 1 eight years, at the sane place, as follows: For November 7SH degrees and 42 degrees, December 73ia degrees and 36Ia degrees,
 January 651a degrees and B degrees, Feb I ruary- 7l1l degrees and S51a de rees. March Sl I degrees and 4l degrees and April S6H degrees and 46 degrees. The
 nights throughout the winter are apt to be
 cool enough for open wood fires, and for
 blankets. Half the time an ovcrcoat is
 not needed during the day, but it is never prudent for stranger to be without one ! st hand
 The atmosphere is singularly clear, tonic and dry. 1 have never seen it clearer
 anyw here in the world. 1t seems to have
 about the same bracing and exhilarating
 qualities as the air of the Great Sahara in 1 Northern Africa, or of tho deserts about
 Mount Sinai in Arabia Petraea. It is
 much drier than III the parts of Morocco.
 Algiers or Tunis usually visited, and drier
 than any part of the Valley of the Nile north of the First Cataract. It seems to
 me about the game iii quality as the air on
 the Nile between Assouan and Wady- 1 Halia, but somewhat cooler.
 ACTUAL HUMIDITY.
 Tiils is extremely slight, everyw here in
 Arizona, as compared with any eastern
 climate in the United States The air is driest on the high mesas, remote from snowclad mountains or forests, and in the desert vallc,s, where no considerable irri
 gation has been begun. Wherever irri9a-
 tion is carried on on $ large scale, the
 percentage of humidity iii tine atmosphere must be somewhat Increased, although to an eastern visitor it is scarcely perceptibie. The same Government observations al ready cited show relative humidity, at
 Phoenix or Tucson, averaged for weeks, from morning and evening readings, at less
 than half tue usual humidity on dry days in New York. General Greedy, in pub
 lication from the Weather Bureau, gave
 the normal weight of aqueous vapor in the Arizona air at from 1s to 1 grains per cable foot.
 RAIN.
 Showers, and indeed heavy rains are liable to occur in every month of the year; 1 bat the actual number of rains seems to an
 eastern visitor strangely small. The average rainfall in Southern Arizona, as shown by the Government observations, is
 but s 11a inches per yea:.
 ATTITUDES.
 It's striking advantage offered by 1 Arizona that. with the same general con-
 ditions as to temperature and dryness of air, the physician is able to select nearly any altitude be may desire. Thus, asth-
 Esatic sufferers can find almost the sea level at Yuma, or an altitude of only @ thousand feet at Phoenix, or of only 2,4G0 at Tucson. Others, who find no objection to greater elevations, can choose between Prescott or Fort Whipple, 5,400; Flag staff. (, ,SO0,; the Sulphur Spring Valley, or Fort Grant, 4,2O0; Fort Huaciiuca. 4,300, OF Oracle, about 1. GOO.