Last night was the warmest night ever in Albuquerque according to John Fleck, who covers these kinds of things for The Albuquerque Journal and blogs about them.
That is, the low of 73°F was the highest low ever, breaking a record set in 1925.
Albuquerque has not had one day with a below-average temperature in more than five weeks.
Could this in part be due to all the dying trees and rock “lawns” that now typify Albuquerque landscaping? People think they are saving water by replacing their green lawns with rocks, but how much longer are swamp coolers running because the rocks hold the day’s heat for most of the night? Replacing lawns with low-water-use ground cover is one thing; piling up heat-absorbing rocks in large quantities all over town is another. Has anyone else noticed how WARM the tap water is that’s coming through the cold water faucet these days? Blame the rocks.
Oops, sorry, I wasn’t very clear in my blog post. It was the warmest July 20 ever. The all-time record was 78 – July 15, 2003.
Seems it has been hot all over the US this summer. We did have a cool spring and very wet one also. So there goes the rock heating up the city idea. Rock cool much faster than the black top roads. But if what you say is true think what it is doing for are heating bill in the winter.. wow I like the savings