During summer in Phoenix we don’t have luxuries like hot and cold running water. Instead we have hot and hotter water. This photo shows me measuring the “cold” tap’s water emerging at 102°F:
If you haven’t run water recently you might enjoy a few moments of water as cold as the indoor air. But during summer the water supplied by the city routinely breaks 100°F.
Is this because it spends its time baking in water towers? Surprisingly no: Phoenix stores potable water underground and uses variable-speed pumps to deliver it on demand. And the ground gets really hot: Next photo shows me measuring the temperature of pavement in early afternoon sun at 173°F. (This was with temperature in the shade running 115-120°F.)
Is this normal? Those temperatures are so hot! It’s hard to imagine temperatures in the shade of 115-120. It must cost a fortune to air condition everything.
This is at the high end of summer heat in Phoenix. It’s somewhat amplified in the city by the “urban heat island effect.”