Climate
Average summer daytime temperatures range from 90 °F (32 °C) to over 100 °F (38 °C). Because the clear skies of the park allow for rapid cooling at night, summer lows are sometimes 40 °F (22 °C) below the daily highs. July is the warmest month, with an average high of 92 °F (33 °C) and an average low of 60 °F (16 °C). January is the coldest month, when highs average 48 °F (9 °C) and lows average 21 °F (−6 °C). The highest recorded temperature was 107 °F (42 °C) in 1998, and the lowest was −27 °F (−33 °C) in 1971.
Winter winds can reach 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). Summer breezes are lighter, but the 10-mile-per-hour (16 km/h) average wind causes frequent sandstorms and dust devils, some of which reach altitudes of several thousand feet.
Rain is heaviest from July through September, when about half of the park's annual average precipitation falls during short, violent thunderstorms. August is generally the wettest month. At an elevation of more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m), Petrified Forest National Park has a chance of light snow from October through March, although snow cover rarely persists. The average relative humidity of the area is well below 50 percent and at times less than 15 percent.
| Climate data for Petrified Forest National Park | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °F (°C) | 48 (9) |
55 (13) |
62 (17) |
70 (21) |
79 (26) |
90 (32) |
92 (33) |
90 (32) |
84 (29) |
72 (22) |
59 (15) |
49 (9) |
70.8 (21.6) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 21 (−6) |
25 (−4) |
29 (−2) |
35 (2) |
43 (6) |
52 (11) |
60 (16) |
59 (15) |
52 (11) |
40 (4) |
28 (−2) |
21 (−6) |
38.8 (3.8) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 0.65 (16.5) |
0.69 (17.5) |
0.80 (20.3) |
0.40 (10.2) |
0.53 (13.5) |
0.30 (7.6) |
1.45 (36.8) |
1.62 (41.1) |
1.33 (33.8) |
1.20 (30.5) |
0.79 (20.1) |
0.78 (19.8) |
10.54 (267.7) |
| Source: The Weather Channel | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Petrified Forest National Park
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“The question of place and climate is most closely related to the question of nutrition. Nobody is free to live everywhere; and whoever has to solve great problems that challenge all his strength actually has a very restricted choice in this matter. The influence of climate on our metabolism, its retardation, its acceleration, goes so far that a mistaken choice of place and climate can not only estrange a man from his task but can actually keep it from him: he never gets to see it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“A tree is beautiful, but what’s more, it has a right to life; like water, the sun and the stars, it is essential. Life on earth is inconceivable without trees. Forests create climate, climate influences peoples’ character, and so on and so forth. There can be neither civilization nor happiness if forests crash down under the axe, if the climate is harsh and severe, if people are also harsh and severe.... What a terrible future!”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)