Now that hot weather is upon us (and by hot, I mean highs in the mid to upper 70s), I really appreciate our cool mountain nights for sleeping. I grew up in a incredibly hot and muggy place — St. Louis, Missouri. You could barely go outside in summer without immediately dripping sweat. The only way to survive in that climate was to go quickly from your air conditioned house, to your air conditioned car, to your air conditioned work place. During the dog days of summer, the oppressive heat hung around all night long as well, making air conditioning a 24 hour a day necessity. I couldn’t imagine surviving, much less enjoying a place in summertime without A/C. Well, in the mountains of Colorado where it is quite dry, you can have a 40 degree temperature swing from daytime to nighttime. In fact, the other morning, the low was around 36 degrees and I had frost on my car when I left for work. By late afternoon, we had reached 75 degrees. So even though our house was quite warm when I arrived home this evening from all the sunshine, once the sun set, it started cooling off nicely. We just put a fan in the window, and pull in all that cool night air, and it makes for perfect sleeping weather. I can only remember a couple of nights in the last four years, that it felt even slightly warm sleeping at night. And it sure makes for a much cheaper electric bill in the summer!
