Part one dealt with location. This post deals with climate.

Payson has four distinct seasons.If you are familiar with the Arizona deserts, you'll know that the desert basically has TWO seasons, warm and hot. But Payson, at 5,000 ft. elevation, truly has FOUR.

Winter:
Nights get cold, with 20s, and even teens not unusual. We may get rain, sleet, hail, or snow. But there are also a LOT of sunny days. Even in the middle of Winter, if it is sunny, it isn't unusual for the daytime temperatures to be in the 50s. We are now at the end of February, and they are predicting 72 degrees, we've had an unusually warm and mild Winter so far.
About Payson snow: Payson has the best snow in the world- it falls, it looks beautiful, and mostly it melts before it gets to be a problem. Most of our snow falls in the Spring- I've seen two feet over Spring Break, but usually it is inches, not feet.

Spring:
Payson goes back and forth from Winter to Spring through March, April, and sometimes even May.Last year it was in the 30s at night on Memorial day and I couldn't put tomatoes out in my garden until early June. While the unpredictable weather may play havoc with gardens, most of Spring is very pleasant.
Spring flowers and shrubs pop up, fruit trees blossom, lilacs are all over town.

Summer:
Some years May is warm as Summer, and June is always warm. Often there are dry winds. Just before the Monsoon (the rainy season in July and August) the humidity may creep up and make days uncomfortable, but once the sun goes down the evenings cool off nicely. Monsoons storms may bring high winds, thunder and lightning, and rain by afternoon from July through August, and often into September.

Fall:
When the Monsoon dries up Payson has lots of lovely sunny days, with cool enough nights to start the leaves changing by October. The great weather may last into November.
Cool days, crisp nights, beautiful leaves, what more could you want.

If you can't tell, I LOVE Payson weather. I like changes in the weather, and I like storms. While mostly sunny, Payson has enough of both changes and storms to suit me just fine. Payson is ideal for a four season climate without extreme conditions, not TOO cold or TOO hot.

Here is a link  to long term weather data for Payson from weather.com It gives average highs and lows monthly, as well as average precipitation (last year we were ABOVE the 30 year average for precipitation, so MAYBE we are out of the drought).

Pictures by ME- isn't Payson pretty?