It's hot in Arizona, Weatherbug says so

This popped up the other day on my Weatherbug app...

An Excessive Heat Warning Remains In Effect Until 8 PM MST /8 Pm
Pdt/ Sunday.

• Affected Area...Lower Deserts Of Arizona And Southeast
California...As Well As Higher Elevations East Of Phoenix...
And Joshua Tree National Park.

• Temperature...Afternoon Highs Between 115-121 Are Expected
Across The Lower Deserts...And Highs Between 98-110 In The
Higher Elevations.

I've lived in the metro Phoenix area most of my life and remember the historic 122 degree day in 1990 that made a stroll to the mailbox akin to a hike through Death Valley.

At this point, that anything over 95F makes national news  is laughable to me.  Thing is, Arizona's known for being one big dusty frying pan.  Sure we have pine covered mountaintops and even ski slopes but in the end nobody thinks winter wonderland when it comes to Arizona. 

That is, unless you're a snowbird seeking refuge from the worst of the four seasons in our fair (and I do mean FAIR as in so-so) locale.

The environmental types will point to global warming while the corporate types will just accept the desert for what it is, hot and dry.

I don't believe nature has much to do with 122F temps, however.  I live in an area that's quadrupled its population in less than a generation and occupies a developed land mass larger than some states.  All the concrete and asphalt that comprise what developers call "planned communities" turns into one giant solar oven for half the year.

Home values are increasing even though wages and the cost of living aren't but still they come.  The state competes with 4 others for dwindling water sources but that doesn't stop them.  So long as the chamber of commerce is handing out bottled water all is well.

More people, more pollution, more needless aggravation.  Backward standards of labor stuck in a 19th century sweatshop mentality make it worse.  More traffic means more roads means more concrete tombs where hapless victims spend 8 hours a day with air conditioners spinning up the fortunes of the power companies. 

The result...

122 degrees.