The strangest thing happened today. We had a ton of rain on Friday night, but Saturday and Sunday were muggy and warm as one would expect in these last monsoon weeks of September. It was wet again this morning with continuous rain until shortly after noon, but the skies had cleared out nicely when I decided to take a short break from work and check out the pool and pool filter. I opened the door and there it wasn’t. For the first time in months.

No heat.

You have to understand that here in the Valley of the Sun, walking outside to heat starting in mid-March or early April is something you just accept, as if seeing shadows on a sunny day or the street lights on at night. You don’t think about it, you just accept it – at least until July when the monsoon raises the humidity along with the heat. So to walk outside and not feel any heat was strange, almost disorienting. It actually felt like late-October.

After all the rain the rain we had my first inclination was to check the pool temp – Friday’s rain knocked the temperature below 90 for the first time in months, and yesterday’s swim was in a perfect 88 degree water. Seeing it was already down two more degrees to 86, and seeing the extended forecast for the rest of this week (no 100 degree days) and lower nighttime temps (all below 80), it’s not hard to imagine this year’s pool season might be ending earlier than usual. I’m not complaining about the rain or the lack of 100-degree days, it’s just strange to see a weather pattern like this com in so early.

Given that next week looks more seasonal there’s a good chance the pool might recover a few degrees before it drops off altogether, but between the days getting shorter and the sun angle leaving the pool in shade longer each day, the writing is on the wall…