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Question regarding Arizona winter low temperatures


bubba

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I am attempting to understand an anomaly that I have observed in temperature recording stations near Lake Havasu, Arizona (Bullhead City Airport)and Yuma, Arizona. Bullhead City, Arizona is located at latitude 35.15° north and is 547 feet in altitude. The location at Yuma, Arizona is located at latitude 32.97° north with an elevation of 200 feet. Notwithstanding this rather substantial difference in latitude, Bullhead City, Arizona is consistently warmer in the winter months compared to areas surrounding Yuma, Arizona.

One prime example is during the 2007 January freeze experienced throughout the western United States. Bullhead City, Arizona (Airport) recorded a low temperature of 32°F during this event with an average monthly January medium temperature of 54.54°F. Substantially further south at Yuma, Arizona, the Yuma airport recorded a low temperature of 26°F with an average monthly January medium temperature of 54.26°F. What differentiates the lake Havasu/ Bullhead City region so as to make it warmer than Yuma, approximately 200 miles to the south?

 

What you look for is what is looking

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Higher elevation? Cold air drain pathway? 

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5 year high 42.2C/108F (07/06/2018)--5 year low 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)--Lowest recent/current winter: 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)

 

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Thank you Alex. The Yuma Airport is at elevation 200ft. The Lake Havasu/Bullhead City Airport is at 547 feet.

Airports, by nature, are large open areas for obvious reasons. Accordingly, I dismissed the cold air drain pathway possibility.

Once again, Havasu is a distance of over 200 miles to the north of Yuma. In Florida, that would be a climate contrast comparably of Orlando and Palm Beach. This is certainly an odd anomaly that perhaps only a desert dweller, familiar with the climates of the two regions, would be able to provide a valid explanation. I found it to be interesting and pregnant for explanation. I am curious if the difference in climate can be viewed in the nature of the vegetation.
 

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What you look for is what is looking

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On 11/30/2022 at 5:15 AM, bubba said:

Thank you Alex. The Yuma Airport is at elevation 200ft. The Lake Havasu/Bullhead City Airport is at 547 feet.

Airports, by nature, are large open areas for obvious reasons. Accordingly, I dismissed the cold air drain pathway possibility.

Once again, Havasu is a distance of over 200 miles to the north of Yuma. In Florida, that would be a climate contrast comparably of Orlando and Palm Beach. This is certainly an odd anomaly that perhaps only a desert dweller, familiar with the climates of the two regions, would be able to provide a valid explanation. I found it to be interesting and pregnant for explanation. I am curious if the difference in climate can be viewed in the nature of the vegetation.
 

Bullhead City is built on a hill.  So is Havasu.  Yuma is at a valley bottom.

Here in the desert - when there is no humidity and the winds are calm - the cold air drains off the hillsides and down to the valley bottoms at night, warming the hills.  If you have ever been to Bullhead, the entire thing is built on the side of a hill.  Same with Havasu.  There are parts of Bullhead / Laughlin that I think are probably 10b climate zones.  I can think of one area in particular that I would be surprised to learn ever actually hit below 30.

As for difference in the vegetation - there isn't much different in what you see in landscapes, just because the palm / tropical bug hasn't really hit those places all that hard.  There are certainly people that grow things like that, but Havasu and Bullhead don't really have real soil - only crushed sand - and what they do have is massively alkaline, so plants that are not desert natives generally look like garbage there.  There are always exceptions.  In the natural environment, the differences are also limited.  Most of what grows in those areas that isn't Larrea tridentata grows in the washes.  Psorothamnus spinosus, for example, is native to both places.  Both are hot as shit in the summer, fairly mild in the winter, and get around 3-5 inches of rain per year.  One key difference is that every few years or so, Yuma gets whacked by the remnants of a hurrican (or, in the case of Norma or whatever it was in 99, an actual hurricane), whereas Bullhead is far enough north to escape most of that.

Bullhead is one of my favorite places on Earth geographically.  Just strikingly beautiful.

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Thank you for the explanation! Could not figure it out. This is completely different from Florida, where it is all latitude oriented. 

What you look for is what is looking

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