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Mount Lemmon is in the Santa Catalina Mountains located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. It is 9,157 feet (2,791 m) above sea-level, and receives approximately 180 inches of snow annually. Mount Lemmon was named in honor of botanist Sarah Lemmon, who trekked to the top of the mountain with Native American guides by mule and foot in 1881.
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Summerhaven is a small town near the top of the mountain. It is a summer residence for many but there are some year round residents. There are many small cabins most of which are being rebuilt after the Aspen Fire. Much of this town was devastated by the Aspen Fire of July 2003, and recovery is still taking place. It is near Ski Valley which is the southernmost ski destination in the continental United States.
At the peak of Mount Lemmon is an astronomical observatory, which was formerly the site of an USAF radar base of the Air Defense Command, and the building that formerly housed a military emergency radar tracking station for landing the Space Shuttle at White Sands Missile Range. Although the United States Military had a presence on the mountain for several decades all their facilities have been abandoned and were given to the US Forest Service. The area and buildings that makes up the Mount Lemmon Station Observatory are leased from the Forest Service by the University of Arizona. The telescopes on the mountain are still used for astronomical research today by organizations such as the Catalina Sky Survey, The University of Arizona Astronomy Camp program,[2], the University of Arizona, the University of Minnesota, and the Mount Lemmon Sky Center. The educational resources at the top of the mountain make it a unique research, Biology and Astronomy, and teaching destination.
The location 'Windy Point' was built by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, using a large number of prisoners over a period of 18 years, and is a popular place for outdoor weddings.
The Catalina Highway, also called the Mount Lemmon Highway, as well as the Hitchcock Highway (after Frank Harris Hitchcock) runs up the Santa Catalina Mountains from the east side of Tucson up to Summerhaven, at the top of Mt. Lemmon. The beautiful, curving road is a favorite drive for tourists, for locals escaping summer's heat, for motorcyclists, and cyclists, and has been recently designated as the Sky Island Parkway, part of the US National Scenic Byway system.[3] The highway has been improved recently, but the speed limit has also been lowered to 35 MPH (56 km/h) due to concerns about the highway's safety during peak traffic times.
The highway and other roads around the area were used for the first training camp for professional cycling Team Radioshack in December 2009.
2010 saw the inaugural running of the Mount Lemmon Marathon.[4]
A dirt "access" road to the summit on the "back side" of Mount Lemmon starts in Oracle, which is on state highway 77 northeast of Tucson. It offers a secondary route to the top. Follow East Mount Lemmon Road southeast off East American Avenue. This route is popular with off-road 4x4 drivers and with off-road or dual-purpose motorcyclists, but should not be attempted by regular passenger cars or street motorcycles. This road ends at the Catalina Highway near Loma Linda.
| Climate data for Mount Lemmon, Arizona (1958-2009) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °F (°C) | 49.2 (9.6) |
48.3 (9.1) |
52.9 (11.6) |
60.8 (16.0) |
69.1 (20.6) |
76.4 (24.7) |
76.5 (24.7) |
73.6 (23.1) |
70.4 (21.3) |
61.7 (16.5) |
56.3 (13.5) |
50.6 (10.3) |
62.15 (16.75) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 36 (2) |
35 (2) |
39.3 (4.1) |
46.3 (7.9) |
52.9 (11.6) |
60.4 (15.8) |
63.1 (17.3) |
61.7 (16.5) |
57.7 (14.3) |
49 (9) |
43 (6) |
37.5 (3.1) |
48.5 (9.2) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 22.8 (−5.1) |
21.8 (−5.7) |
25.7 (−3.5) |
31.7 (−0.2) |
36.6 (2.6) |
44.4 (6.9) |
49.8 (9.9) |
49.8 (9.9) |
45.1 (7.3) |
36.4 (2.4) |
29.7 (−1.3) |
24.3 (−4.3) |
34.84 (1.58) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 3.15 (80) |
1.69 (42.9) |
1.17 (29.7) |
0.50 (12.7) |
0.25 (6.4) |
0.62 (15.7) |
4.41 (112) |
6.99 (177.5) |
3.39 (86.1) |
3.05 (77.5) |
1.75 (44.5) |
2.60 (66) |
29.56 (750.8) |
| Snowfall inches (cm) | 16.5 (41.9) |
20.4 (51.8) |
6.8 (17.3) |
2.0 (5.1) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
2.0 (5.1) |
6.2 (15.7) |
11.0 (27.9) |
64.9 (164.8) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 59 |
| Sunshine hours | 241 | 243 | 299 | 325 | 374 | 372 | 327 | 319 | 315 | 301 | 260 | 242 | 3,618 |
| Source no. 1: [5] | |||||||||||||
| Source no. 2: [6] | |||||||||||||
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mount_Lemmon Mount Lemmon] at Wikimedia Commons
