Tucson, AZ

The Arizona Microwave Group (AMG) is happy to host Microwave Update 2025 in our little slice of heaven on Earth. Tucson is a great place to live year round and boasts some of the wildest weather in the world and why it may seem a little tough to live here. The fact of the matter is Tucson has great weather from October to April and an amazing history. Tucson is in the middle of the Sonoran Desert, home to the largest population of Saguaro (Sa whar oh) cactus and the O'odam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tohono_O%CA%BCodham) and Pasqua Yaqi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascua_Yaqui_Tribe) tribes ancestral land.

MUD 2025 is pleased to receive a sponsorship from Visit Tucson, a local group promoting Tucson Arizona and all our city has to offer.  They are helping us support our event in the hope you will spend some time here and take in some of the sites while you are at the conference and hope you will come back to visit Tucson again. They were a big help getting the tour information set up and for more information, please visit  https://www.visittucson.org/

And for those attending who enjoy playing golf, you are in luck. Tucson is home to The Tucson Nationals ( https://www.tucsonnational.com ), and boasts some of the most beautiful and challenging golf courses in the world along with several driving ranges. https://www.arizonanationalgolfclub.com Casino Del Sol has it's own golf course (of course!) and they can help you make arrangements to set up a tee time for you. https://www.casinodelsolresort.com/sewailo-golf-club/course-details I recommend you book your tee times well in advance of your expected arrival, there are no penalties for cancelling, mention you are a MUD 2025 attendee and get a discount on your booking which also includes a practice facility.

We enjoy some of the driest humidity on the planet (currently 69 F with 18% humidity and going down below 10% as I write this at 10am in early April) and why you should always carry a water bottle or container, everywhere you go. Note to 47GHz and 122GHz ops, this is a huge advantage for DX. With mild temperatures for half the year, the other 6 months include a period known as the 100 days of over 100 where the temperatures at 3am will still be in the high 90s and as high as 113, 115 F (45 C) at the peak during the day. But its a dry heat, right up until the monsoon season starts when the humidity will swing from below 10% to a down pour rain in less than 15 minutes. The wall cloud will blow through town at 40-50 mph and flash flood the low lands and then be all rainbows an hour later. It's why we have air conditioners, concrete tile or flat roofs, swimming pools, putting greens and cold beer.

October weather is generally warmer and drier than usual compared with the year round average, with an average temperature of about 72.6°F (22.6°C), ranging from 59°F (15°C) to 86.3°F (30.2°C). The average high temperature decreases from 91°F (32.8°C) to 80°F (26.7°C) throughout the month and by the time the conference rolls around the highs will generally be in the mid eighties. Most of the dessert bloom that causes allergies is gone this time of year and the prickly pears will be out on the paddle cactus, and the saguaro will have their little white blossom hats where the birds like to land. Once in a while, we might get a haboob which is an energetic storm front with extremely high winds and kicks up a wall front of dessert dust, which is so fine it gets into everything and why there is very little top soil here. Those events tend to only happen during daylight hours. On other occasions some weak storms will gather up at night with a chance of producing "dry lightning" which as the name implies are lightning without the thunder and very little if any rain. These clouds are formed from the air which gets pushed up from the tropics over Baja and hits the numerous mountain ranges to our south to produce the turbulent clouds which produce the frequent lightning flashes (dozen a minute), jumping between clouds and the earth giving us a great light show.