The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-09

Not a Oyersrown Dcsert-Net Always hot
Even Has TIVE SprIngs.


OF all the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. current about
Arizona there is none more absolute, says
a writer in MGraceH's Tdlismdn, than hat
concerning her climate. The prevailing
idea seems to have been taken from the
much quoted old poem which DIES RIDES
how
The Devil was given permission one day
To make him a land of his own special sway.
He heated II seven times hotter than Hell
And then declared it would do very well.
In the average opinion Arizona is hot
all Of it and all the time. There are no
mitigating spots or seasons in which to cool
of.
But the truth is that the climate OF Arizona
is so varied that a man may, by a few miles
travel, choose what he likes as much as il
it were made to order. The northern half
Of Arizona is a great plateau, ranging from
$500 to 1890 feet in altitude, crossed and
recrossed by ranges Of mountains reaching
up to the eliminating peak Of San Francisco,
$4,000 feet above the sea.
Throughout this region the climate is
cool in summer and cold in winter, varying
with locality and altitude. Figs and april
cots may ripen in the deep. sheltered valleys,
while in the mountain parks, twenty or fifty
miles away, potatoes will scarcely mature
between the frosts OF spring and fall.
All Of this region is subject to SHOWS in
winter, varying from the winterlong crown
on the high mountains to the light fall that
barely whitens the ground in the lower
valleys and melts In an hour.
The seasons, as concerning vegetation
and farm products, are very like those OF
the Middle Western States; corn planting
time begins about May 10 and frost may
occur beyond that time.
The autumn months are warmer and
usually the most beautiful part Of the year.
Once in many years there is a white Thanks
giving, more often a white Christmas. and
with the New Year winter will usually have
asserted its claim. Yet a zero temperature
is seldom cached and never sustained for
more than a day or two, and. correspond
ingly, the summer heat seldom rises to a
hundred or above.
About midway of Arizona. north and
south, the mountain plateau breaks down
abruptly to broad valleys and broken plains
crossed and bOrdered by many ranges OF
hills and mountains, and declining in altitude
toward the south. where 1t is only a few
hundred feet above sea level. This is the
Arizona Of the average imagination; Of the
health seeker who would turn winter into
summer the Arizona of semi-tropic products
and deserts covered with strange cactus
and unfamiliar plants.
Yet here. as in the North, the climate
varies much with location and altitude,
and there is a wide range Of selection for
the home seeker. While the winters are
everywhere mild and delightful, the sum-
mers are nowhere as hot as popular fancy
and the stories of JOIN Phoenix would paint
them. The dryness of the atmosphere
makes a temperature of 100 less oppressive
than ~ would be in a moister land, and
general health is never better than in the
summer season.
Unlike her next door ~neighbor. California,
where rain in summer is an almost unheard-
Of thing, Arizona has a distinct summer
rainy season. which usually begins about
July | and may extend TO the middle
of September or later. The rain IS not
continuous or unpleasant. but merely a
series of heavy showers that in a few days
transform the country into a great green
garden, 30 that Arizona has really two
springs in her year. and the most beautiful
one follows the summer rain.