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All I can tell you is this: Many years ago around this time of year, I drove from Chicago to Los Angeles in two and a half days, still the greatest travel accomplishment of my life. I started the second day in Amarillo, Texas, which was freezing. I don't remember where, but I must have stopped somewhere in Arizona, or maybe western New Mexico, to gas up -- still freezing. Finally, I pulled into Phoenix around midnight to spend the night, rolled down my window and was shocked to find that it was something like 75 degrees outside.
I was in Phoenix last winter. While I was there it was 65 degrees and sunny while it was -15 degrees back home. Hard to over estimate that kind of difference.
You're comparing extremes to a norm. If you're going that route, the other day it was 48 here in Phoenix, and 51 in Chicago. Yes, of course Phoenix is warmer in the winter than places up north, but the topic here is people do underestimate how cold it truly gets here in PHX. Living in the PHX area, I get to interact with a lot of snowbirds and seasonal vacationers. They ALWAYS mention that its a lot colder than what they were expecting, even though its warmer than where they left from.
Idk but I was in Las Vegas a few days ago and found it colder than I would have expected. Good thing too, because I had just flown in from Portland and I did not want to walk around either sweating or lugging around jackets.
Tomorrow we have Winter in Miami. The high will only be 70 and the low will be 60. BRRRRRR....
After a weekend warm up, the highs are back in the low 80s by Monday.
The big secret about Vegas is they usually have a couple or more cold snaps each winter. And by cold I mean a high that might struggle to make 50, and a low in the upper 20's. (In fact, next week is bringing up one of these snaps). Not terrible, but not exactly the Vegas reputation. Keep in mind, while a desert, it still has a somewhat high elevation at just over 2,000 feet.
The big secret about Vegas is they usually have a couple or more cold snaps each winter. And by cold I mean a high that might struggle to make 50, and a low in the upper 20's. (In fact, next week is bringing up one of these snaps). Not terrible, but not exactly the Vegas reputation. Keep in mind, while a desert, it still has a somewhat high elevation at just over 2,000 feet.
2,000 is not that high out here (non-coastal West). Tucson is also at that elevation. Phoenix is the lowest at a 1,000 but really it's a mere exception especially considering the other desert cities in NM and El Paso are even higher than Vegas and Tucson. But naturally they are colder because of that. And the Colorado River valley like Yuma is sea level and it's painstakingly warm there all the time. I mean if they wanted Phoenix but a tad warmer in the winter Yuma was the way to go, and cheaper too.
Vegas however is in a different desert which has much lower precipitation and reaches similar highs in the summer as Phoenix every year (they are siblings nonetheless) they also get winters colder than Tucson. I mean it's not drastically different but it's noticeable. The Mohave desert sits in huge rain shadows that support this and it's why Death Valley is the way it is. Vegas gets half roughly the precipitation as Phoenix and Tucson which both sit around 8" per year.
Vegas winters are more preferable in my book, but the summers are no escape. Also Vegas being Vegas is probably why it's not as popular for snowbirds on top of greater temperature differences.
Las Vegas gets a lot colder than a lot of people think it does. Freezing nights are common every winter there, while in Phoenix some years don't see frosts and in years that do, it's usually only a few nights.
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