Personal Examples of Climate Change

 I live in Morenci, Arizona, which is in Greenlee County. Our climate is a little cooler than the Phoenix area due to less asphalt and concrete buildings. We also have more plant life that absorbs the reflections from the sun and the CO2 that keeps the heat in the atmosphere and reflects the infrared radiation back down to the Earth. 

I found a site that gives some great insight on long term historical Arizona climate information determined from studying tree rings. I would like to point out that the data specifically claims the current drought is not as widespread as historical data proves it has been in the past.

I found the website gave good descriptions of the many different climates one can find in Arizona. Some people are amazed to know that it snows in Arizona. It just depends on the elevation. Sometimes we even get snow at lower elevations. This being a desert, we get extreme high temperatures and extreme low temperatures. I can't tell you how confusing it can be deciding what to wear. It can be below freezing in the morning and we wrap up to go out, but by the middle of the day it is sunny and warm. For this specific reason many brave the few hours of cold with a light jacket or simply long sleeves and pants just so they don't have to carry around a bulky jacket for the rest of the day. Fact! I have gotten snow while living in Phoenix and Southern Tuscon. It snows every once in a while and we love it!

Mount Graham 

You can see the line of elevation

A few times we've gotten snow in Morenci. The elevation to the mine rises just enough in the time it takes to drive 15 minutes that we get heavy snowfall there. It will snow in town too, but it doesn't stick. It doesn't snow every year. In fact this year we have had little precipitation compared to when we first moved to Morenci in 2016.

January 2017

191 North 

Morenci Mine Pit

Sorry you can't see all the way down. It goes way further than shown in the text book this week in chapter 22. But the book is a bit outdated...

In fact, if you don't mind the distraction of the people in the picture, this is this year. The photo in the book show the same angle, a bit to the right of this shot, but it is probably only at half this depth. 

December 2018

Just beyond the mine on 191 North at Granville Campground.

My boy's eating clean snow, promise.