PSA: stop painting your Sandia Heights stucco in the afternoon sun
I watched my neighbor slap latex on his south wall at 2pm in July and by the time it dried it looked like orange peel. The paint skins over before it can level out, so anything above 85 degrees and full sun needs to wait for early morning. Anyone else here learned that one the hard way?
Learned this the hard way after years of thinking the heat would just make it dry faster. I used to be one of those people who figured hotter equals better for paint, and I would knock out exterior jobs at noon thinking I was being efficient. Then I noticed the same thing you are talking about, that ugly bumpy skin on the surface while the stuff underneath stays soft, and it finally clicked that fast drying is not the same as good drying. Latex needs time to flow out and settle flat before it starts to cure, and full sun sucks that time away in minutes. Now I am up at 6am with my coffee doing the south and west walls first, then I save the shady sides for later. Takes some planning but the finish looks a hundred times better, so you are right about waiting.