While the situation is heating up (and appears to be taking on an uncomfortable air of permanence) in the Middle East, it is also heating up here in West Virginia. It is hot as hell, and I think I am going to do my best to avoid going outside today.
Every time it gets this hot I wonder whether I would rather be too hot or too cold, and I always come tothe same conclusion- too hot. At least you can survive when it istoo hot, provided you have ample water and shade. You die when it is too cold. Period.
Invariably, by posting it is hot as hell, two things are going to happen. The first is that a long and tortured (and usually wildly inaccurate) debate about global warming will start, and the second is that, inevitably, someone from AZ/NM/a place in the desert surrounded by sand, will state “You think it is hot there, you should try it here!”
Krista
Nutcutter, I believe that’s your cue, hon.
Hot here too…37 degrees with the humidity (that’s 98.6 Fahrenheit, in case you were wondering…)Of course, there’s no a/c in the historical building in which I work, and I’m up on the second floor.
db
John,
From somebody who resides in AZ and TX and spends a considerable amount of time in DC – there is absolutely nothing worse than that southern humidity that you get stretching from Eastern TX to DC. AZ/NM is a dry heat that is nothing more than the feeling of opening up a hot oven door. You burn a little, but you sure as hell don’t drown in your own sweat.
Currently, the air is so thick in TX that you got to chew it before you can even breathe it.
slide
db stole my thunder. If you think its hot in the desert, come to midtown manhattan on a day like today and feel the love. Then to top it off, jam yourself into an unairconditioned subway car with 50 other souls, the majority of which come from countries where apparently deodorant is an optional luxury, and you’ll be praying you were Lawrence of Arabia.
Ancient Purple
As a Phoenix native, I was here when Phoenix set its all-time high of 122F in 1990. The next day I flew to Houston to visit my grandmother. It was 95 degrees and 98% humidity. I have never complained about how hot Phoenix is since.
Dry summers, shorts and t-shirts on Christmas Day, more sunny days than even Southern California.
Yup. Livin’ the good life.
Straleno
Just get a Mac!
tzs
One of my acquaintances described summer in Texas as “like walking into a mattress.”
McNulty
You forgot the third part, which others have already taken, which is that someone will point out that in those states you mention, “it’s a dry heat”.
And wow, slide sounds like John Rocker.
Brian
I’d rather have it too cold than too hot. You can die from both, but at least when it’s cold you’ll fall asleep and never wake up rather than roast in your own juices. I find it much easier to get warm when cold than cool when hot. Also, and this is personal, excessive heat tends to trigger migraines for me.
KC
I absolutely agree with John on the hot and cold thing. I’d much rather be hot any day than too cold.
The Other Steve
When it’s cold you can put more clothes on.
When it’s hot, you just suffer.
We had the heat over the weekend. Minnesota broke 100 degrees, which is fairly unusual. Then the next day it rained. The temp came down to 90, but the dewpoint was around 89. It was what we call humid. Yes, you had to cut the air up and chew it.
Krista
I can’t in good conscience complain about the heat, though. Winter’s long enough as it is, so even though this heat might be uncomfortable, the time will fly, and soon it will be back to parkas and snow boots. So I’ll just relax, make sure there’s lots of cold beer in the fridge, wear as little clothing as I can get away with, and try to get to the beach whenever possible.
HyperIon
uh…it’s a bit of a drive for you, no?
srv
Ah, how I miss Austin. But it’s 69 here. I feel y’alls pain.
Polimom
In Houston last night — at 10:00 pm no less — it was over 90 degrees outside. Could hardly breathe…. which is why we’re heading to WV of all places this weekend.
From here, the heat there looks ohhhhh so refreshing.
BTW, John… this is my first comment here. What plug-in are you using for the live preview? Very handy!
Tom in Texas
My steering wheel melted while I was at a shopping mall in Tucson in August a few years back. That being said, Houston is far worse. Fortunately, the average Houston pretty much never steps foot outside anyway. They go from their house to their garage to their car to their parking garage to the skywalk/tunnel connecting the garage to their job… on it goes. They run marathons through the miles of downtown tunnels. I’m pretty sure the average Houstonian spends under 10min a day actually outdoors. We are the fattest city in America, after all.
Jim Allen
Yeah, it’s a “dry heat”, but so is the inside of a pizza oven.
Tom in Texas
Put another way, the longest amount of time we spend outdoors is filling our tanks at Exxon.
Krista
Uh, no. Where do you think I live?
I can see the Northumberland Strait from my office window. There are tons of beaches here.
Nikki
I’m with Brian. I’d rather freeze to death than roast. Give me spring and fall. I don’t care for winter and I LOATHE summer! I state this as a child of Central American heritage who grew up in amidst the muggy, sticky, fly-infested summers of North Carolina. The DC area ain’t much better.
Ian
Speaking as a Canadian – I’d trade your hot for my cold anyday.
Nutcutter
First of all, it’s always the humidity, not the heat.
Desert dwellers know that 100F is very tolerable when the relative humidity is 15%. Or the dewpoint is 25F.
Whereas, 95F and a dewpoint of 70F is just miserable, suffocating, drenching and intolerable.
Dewpoint is king. When dewpoint is way down, even if the afternoon is a scorcher, as soon as the sun goes down, it cools off and it’s balmy. When dewpoint is up, it never cools off at night.
Here in Phoenix, misery is July and August when the dewpoints are up and it’s 100F at midnight and it just never cools off and you think you will never feel a cool breeze again.
Then just before we say Goodbye Cruel World, it’s October, and …. we enjoy six months of spring while the rest of you are freezing your butts off.
Nutcutter
I also grew up here, and I also remember that day. The dewpoint was around zero — no humidity. It actually wasn’t that uncomfortable …. I was outside pulling weeds that evening and wondering what all the fuss was about.
The main fuss was that airplane operating manuals don’t have charts that go above 120F for takeoff calculations. That means once the temp gets to 121F, they can’t operate the airplanes. The airport shut down. Phoenix is one of the busiest airports in the world. When you stop takeoffs here it affects the whole country. Happens very seldom because of our good weather, but on that day, it happened during the busy travel period.
Nutcutter
Didn’t Admiral Byrd try to winter there once, and almost die?
Oh, that was ANTarctica. Sorry.
Vladi G
I suggest not playing golf and dragging your own bag. I had a qualifier for the Illinois State Amateur Championship yesterday, and it was just brutal. My brain was jello by the 13th hole. It sucked.
Generally I’d rather it be cold than hot. I can take steps to combat the cold, like a big coat, and I can sleep under the covers. When it’s too hot, there’s only so much you can do to compensate.
Krista
Nutcutter – hardee-har-har. Very funny.
ET
My “favorite” hot story.
New Orleans, 100 degrees and 100% humidity. I don’t think I went outside all day.
Tom in Texas
100% humidity? was this last summer by chance?
Dave Ruddell
I’d rather be too cold, only because it’s much easier to make your self warmer than cooler. Air conditioning has been around a little over a hundred years; fire has been with us a wee bit longer.
Sstarr
Ahem. Yesterday in my neighborhood in Seattle the temperature got all the way up to 68.9 degrees. Soooo close to 70. Last night I was startled as the furnice kicked in when the indoor temperature got down below 60.
Today It’s going to be 71. Time to get out the fans.
You must realize that around here anything over 80 is considered too hot.
zzyzx
Sstarr – beat me to the Seattle gloating.
Sstarr
zzyzx – We shouldn’t gloat too much. It’s supposed to hit 92 by Saturday. 92! Get your box fans now!
zzyzx
PANIC IN THE STREETS!!
demimondian
Yeah, I feel so sorry for the folks in Phoenix and in the East. We here in the Pugeot Sound region are suffering through the hot days of July, when the sun is above the horizon for 16+ hours but the temperature gets all the way to 72. Oh, dear, it’s harsh.