The Desert in Double Digits

You have to live in the desert to appreciate what a relief it is to see that the Weather Channel forecast high today is only 99 F.

Temperatures in the high 90s, which could cause a killer heat wave in Chicago, signal the onset of cooler days in Southern California's Mojave Desert.

Fall brings the return of double-digit days after more than three months of triple digits, including 110 just this past weekend.

Talk about a long hot summer.

The seven-day forecast calls for a high of 88 this coming Sunday.

To put that in perspective, we had nights here in August when the overnight low was in the 80s.

The overnight low tomorrow is supposed to be 62. The fall chill is definitely in the air.

Now, it will be possible to walk around the block without fear of heat stroke.

Smart shoppers in Palm Desert keep coolers in the back of their cars so the meat and milk won't spoil on the drive home. Soon they will be able to store the cooler until next summer.

Pretty soon it will even be possible to buy a candy bar in a store and not have it melt in your hand as you walk out into the parking lot.

When you live through a desert summer, these little gifts of fall mean a lot.

Relatively Cool

Thanks to Herr Prof. Einstein I understand why high temperatures in the 90s feel relatively cool.

Living in the desert we've just been through three months of temperatures with highs every day in the 100s, and sometimes 110s. (This summer gets a gold star however since we didn't get a week with highs in the 120s.)

Monday was the first day where the high was in the 90s and the forecast for today is 97.

If it ever got up to 97 in Santa Monica, they would call in the Red Cross to minister to overheated surfers.

But out here in the Mojave Desert, 97 is reason to celebrate with a walk in the park.

In our case, we got in the old Celica and drove up to Joshua Tree National Park yesterday.



We learned that the Joshua Tree is actually a giant member of the lilly family.

According to local legend, the "tree" got it's name from Mormon missionaries who came to California in the 19th century to bring the Good News to ranchers, miners and the assortment oddballs and misfits, who were the original sinners in the high desert.

The Mormons thought the tree with limbs reaching up to Heaven looked like the Biblical Joshua raising his arms in supplication to God.

Or maybe Joshua had run across and unrepentant highway robber who told him to "stick'em up."

Looking at the Joshua Tree yesterday, I imagined he was saying: "Thank God it's only 96 degrees."

I guess everybody's got their own idea of the Good News.