By Phoenix standards, summer has been tolerable

PHOENIX — For a Phoenix summer, it’s been relatively bearable.

Sky Harbor Airport hasn’t topped 110 degrees this month but temperatures are still ahead of last year when it comes to reaching 110 or above.

Several tropical storms possibly tied to the warming of the Pacific Ocean known as El Nino helped minimize the high pressure systems that typically and periodically set up over Arizona.

“We had 10 days last summer when we topped 110 degrees. This year we’ve had 11,” Dan Leins with the National Weather Service said.

In 2013, Phoenix had 25 days of 110 degrees or above.

There is, of course, plenty of time to add to the list of 110-plus days, but it likely won’t happen this weekend, the weather service predicted:

“All we need is a prolonged break in the monsoon where things dry out and it heats up. We still have a long way to go,” Leins said.