TEMPERATURE HITS 100 DEGREES

Forecasters expect dip into 80s, 70s Thursday, Friday

Splish, splash! Summer has arrived in Green Valley!

Well, not officially. (That date would be June 20, the longest day of the year...)

But with Monday’s high peaking at 102 degrees — the first day of 2008 with temperatures soaring into the triple digits — Green Valley residents are ready to hit the swimming pools and ice cream shops to cool down.

It’s about one week early for Southern Arizona to reach temperatures in the 100s, a spokesperson for the Tucson office of the National Weather Service said Tuesday. But as quickly as those extreme temperatures arrived, they’ll be gone — for a few days, at least — due to a low pressure system from the Pacific Northwest making its way across the state, he said.

By Thursday, temperatures should be in the lower 80s with winds around 30 mph and gusts of nearly 50 mph, the spokesperson said. Friday will feel like spring again with temperatures in the mid-70s, possible thunderstorms and a 30 percent chance of rain.

Temperatures next week will be back up to the mid-90s, he said.

Las Campanas Recreation Center volunteer Bill Snyder said the temporary break in the heat will be good for traffic at the center’s swimming pool.

“Surprisingly, there seem to be more people at the pool in spring, when it’s not too hot outside,” he said, which may have something to do with Green Valley Recreation’s heated pools maintaining a comfortable average temperature of 86 degrees year-round.

In the early days of summer, the shock of the heat drives people indoors, he ventured.

“But on an average mid-summer day at the rec center, there are people lining up, waiting their turn to swim,” he said.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726