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Comment by mrbonner | Hacker News Reader

I was in Tempe/Phoenix region during the peak of summer (August I remember). It was 115°F+ everyday. Even after dinner, when I wanted to stroll around outside the mall near ASU, it was 90°F. It was insane how hot it was. I’ve lived in Houston and the heat was not even that high. But Phoenix has almost zero humidity in the summer which makes the heat a lot more bearable comparing to the sauna in Houston. Anyway, would not go there during summer again!

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The amount of concrete and lack of green cover is a major problem.

We’re currently away from home in a city that has waaaay more concrete than where we live and the temperature increase is horrible, even when the reported temperature is the same.

The US has built horrible cities for a couple of generations now. The incoming increase it temps will hopefully force them to redesign ie the tree plan for NYC

Is the lack of green cover really problem? Seems like the lack of green cover would be natural for that area.

Are most cities naturally occuring?

Yeah, NYC's tree plan would be quite the disaster in Phoenix, I would think.

Phoenix and Tucson are in the main swath of the Sonoran Desert, which to the unaccustomed eye (as mine was, initially) is all just burning hell dirt and rocks. The undisturbed state of the Sonoran Desert is actually pretty amazingly green. Not like a forest. But cast an eye on the Mojave Desert, which is what Eastern CA deserts are. Or, for the biggest contrast I've ever seen, the irrigated lands next to the Nile and then the utterly barren dirt and rocks beyond.

So in Tucson where I live we lightly irrigate several 50' heat happy trees with a nice canopy providing great shade. Next door, providing great morning shade for our backyard, is a 50' mesquite tree with upper branches at least 3' in diameter. No irrigation. In the alley behind our house is an old Palo Verde maybe 30' tall and it does a nice job shading the front part of the yard in the afternoon. Also no irrigation.

To sum up, lack of green cover is a choice, and I don't know but suspect people will value that more as things heat up ever so inexorably. The Sonoran summer sun is a mutherfucker, and shade helps a lot (but doesn't fix it).

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