What's wrong with Utah's climate?

I'm trying to figure out if some of the conditions we have out here  
in Utah just aren't that good for growing AGs or if it's simply going  
to take some time for those of us here to start popping out some big 
ones. 

 The Utah  state record  is 620.5, grown by Bruce Orchard from a 
 Mombert 567.5.   My puny 428 pounder grown from a Bobier 779.5 took 
 second in the state last year.   Let me give you the run down on our 
 growing conditions and let's see if any of you out there have ideas 
 about what we need to do to grow big ones:
 
    It's very dry (15% humidity or so) 
    It's quite hot (92-100 degrees from July 1-Sept 1)
    I think the night-time temp. in summer is around 55 to 60 degrees
    We've got to be around 40 degrees north latitude
    We have plenty of sun. 15 hours on the solstice; very few cloudy days
    Our soil is quite alkaline (7.8 or so)
    The last two years the month of May has been quite cool and 
         rainy and I didn't get a very big plant until late July.  Use heating 
         cables and mini-greenhouses? 

I guess the big concern is the heat and humidity, but it seems that 
there should be some way to bring down temperature with misters or 
putting up some sort of partial shade.

So, why can't we duplicate the great growing conditions of the 
Pacific Northwest or Ontario?  Is it a latitude issue or night-time 
temperature issue?  Those seem to be about the only variables that we 
would have a hard time controling.

 Your ideas would be appreciated-- Matthew Isom

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