To paraphrase William Shakespeare when it comes to summer in Arizona: “Methinks thou doth protest too much.”
After living in Mesa for more than six decades, I can say we have become a community of wimps. Every summer, for at least four months, complaints about the broiling heat grow louder and climate change and the urban heat island have added to our misery.
When I arrived in Arizona, evaporative cooling – a more “modern” and efficient form of the technique used by our predecessors to keep cool – was the best we had. Few cars were air-conditioned. Some people attached evaporative coolers to car windows in an attempt to bring interior temperatures down a degree or two…