It’s all about what you’re acclimated to. I’ve lived with 105 and dry in west Texas AND 90 and swampy in Oklahoma and I’ll take the former. When the dew point hits about 70 degrees, you can sweat and sweat and sweat and sweat and none of it matters because it will almost never evaporate off of you. And 70 is baby humidity. We had a few days last summer where the dew point came up just short of 80. Which can make a 100 degree day yield a heat index of 125+.
And all that humidity really saps your AC’s cooling potential. It spends most of its energy pulling moisture from the air instead of actually making the air cool enough to be much use. It’ll be 80 degrees and swampy inside your house too, especially if it’s older construction. Nobody ever mentions this when talking about dry heat vs wet heat. If you can keep your indoor dew point below 60, you’re doing alright.
I’ll take this over Florida or Houston. We start to get some real relief by Labor Day and it’s usually gone entirely by Halloween.
there is definately a stifling effect you get a large metro over an open small town or country. Heck could even tell a difference coming home to a suburban area after being downtown. All the asphalt and concrete really soaks up the heat.
Live in NH, took a trip to Flagstaff AZ once. Phoenix was like 110 degrees, and it was so surreal. Like, it was super hot, but not unbearably uncomfortable. We weren’t ever out of AC long, hopping between buildings to vehicles etc, but I distinctly remember thinking about how easy it would be to get scary dehydrated. Flagstaff was high 80’s, sometimes low 90’s and felt fucking amazing. When we got home to high 70’s and humidity I felt like I was going to die, it was the worst.
Bit of a tangent, but I find it funny that Americans complain about it being hot when they have AC in most of their buildings, but then mock people complaining about a 40C/105F heatwave with relatively high humidity in countries where AC is anything but standard and sometimes with houses which are designed to keep the heat in during the winter meaning it can easily reach 45C/115F or more inside.
I assume it’ll happen again this summer, with the usual Marie Antionette level “let them use AC” comments, not seeming to grasp the environmental and financial cost of AC everywhere.
Some of us here are paying attention and are aware of the situation. We just aren’t all that common, unfortunately. You hear the same thing come up like clockwork when someone brings up the heat waves and wild fires in the PNW.
TBH I assume assume the least informed and biggest arseholes dominate discussions.
The rest of the world is simply lucky that our biggest and dumbest arseholes don’t speak English too well.
In the south, you’re probably driving around in an air conditioned vehicle, sitting in an air conditioned house, visiting an air conditioned business. You’re spending as little time outside as possible. In NYC, you’re walking all over the fucking place, waiting for a subway car, standing on a platform surrounded by 50 other people, climbing three flights of stairs to get out of the subway station and on to the street where you still need to walk 5 blocks to get where you’re going.
See, a lot of people are saying variations of this. And that’s fine. I agree.
The thing is, it’s not at ALL what I usually hear, when this topic comes up.
Usually, it’s a bunch of unhinged rambling, about how New York’s heat bubble is more effective, or something about the tall buildings funneling the heat through the urban canyons, or something about the air from the subway, etc. Oh, and there’s ALWAYS some shit about humidity, as if New York City is somehow more humid than Houston.
It’s not. They’re both on the fucking water. Humidity is humidity. Water in the air. We get it. NYC doesn’t have special water.
EDIT: I mean, maybe not “special water” in a good sense. It’s probably got more rat droppings and leftover heroin residue from the 1970s than you’ll find in Houston. At least by a little bit.
Seattle is humid but never sticky or uncomfortable. Dew point matters kids!
Seattle is humid but never sticky or uncomfortable
Not yet. But climate change is a seven-titted demon bitch.
That doesn’t make 81F hotter than 108F.
That’s obvious, but the sentence implies that we are talking about the experience of living in those temperatures in those places, you know, as a human and not just a computer comparing two numbers that are larger or smaller.
As a human, living in 108F is noticeably hotter than living in 81F and it is because one number is much larger than the other.
The point they’re making is that folks aren’t typically experiencing 108 as a significant part of their lives, because they’re oftentimes shuttling around from air conditioned refuge to air conditioned refuge. There is minimum discomfort because if you don’t have AC you legitimately might die.
However the portrayed lifestyle of NY folks involved much more engagement with the outdoors, resulting in lower instaneous discomfort, but added up over time.
So the claim being made isn’t that the number 81 indicates a hotter environmental temperature than 108, it’s that the experience of those at 81 add up to be just as, if not more uncomfortable.
Just agree with them and say NYC sucks
NYC doesn’t, but enjoy your stinky little corner haha.
Patrician NYC enjoyer. There is no other city where you can both pick up a good bagel on the corner and also say badda boom and get a badda bing back in no time
Humidity changing temperature feel?
Yeah. Sure. That’s absolutely true. Humidity will indeed make 81 degrees feel like 90 degrees. But there’s high humidity in Dallas and Houston and all of Florida, too. So, when it’s humid and actually 108…well, then it’s not even worth it to calculate how hot it feels. It’s just dangerously hot.
Sure, Nevada and Arizona don’t have the humidity. But they’ll get to 115-120. Humidity REALLY doesn’t matter, then.
But I guarantee, there will STILL be New Yorkers coming into this thread, pitching weird ideas about how the buildings still make it seem even hotter than that, somehow.
I mean the heat island effect is real.
But as someone who lives in NYC but grew up in the south: It’s not hotter in NYC.
We just are actually outside, unlike all southerners who don’t do manual labor. Rain or shine, freeze or burn, NYC is in the 100 year old unventilated subway tunnels with trains venting the heat from their ACs in the summer.
It’s not actually hotter.
But if you come to visit in August you’ll sweat more in NYC than August in Dallas.
NYC does empty out a bit in August, but yeah I’ve been in Houston in the summer. People pre cool their cars in their garages and move from one ac island to the next.
Yeah I get to commute in that heat. It’s not fun.
But I’ll keep it over car dependant sprawl any day. I moved from the south to NYC for a reason: and it wasn’t just better job opportunities.
But if you come to visit in August you’ll sweat more in NYC than August in Dallas
You just HAD to get that last little thing in there, I guess just to prove that you’re a real adopted New Yorker.
I mean, you literally just explained how it’s NOT really hotter in NYC, but you couldn’t resist pushing back on it. Yes, if you go outside in the summer, you’ll be warmer than if you stay inside. I will indeed have to admit that. But if you do the same amount of walking around in Dallas as you do in NYC, in August? You might actually get heatstroke.
Wait. I guess that DOES mean you’ll sweat less, in Dallas. Like, as long as you keep walking around long enough. One of the symptoms of advanced heatstroke is a sudden inability to sweat. You die dry as a bone.
EDIT: I’m not saying you can’t get heatstroke in NYC. You can. But it takes a lot longer for it to happen, if you’re walking around in 80-90 degree weather, versus 100-110.
I didn’t say hotter, I said you’ll sweat more.
Grew up in the south: I know how little you fuckers go outside. I was one of those fuckers.
AC to AC with the exception of going to the swimming pool/beach/river/lake.
If you’re a manual laborer you’ll sweat more in the south, no doubt. Otherwise?
NYC is the capitol of white collar sweat.
NYC is the capitol of white collar sweat.
Fair enough. I mean, if you have to gerrymander the exact, specific terms that you’re talking about, then yes. I have to agree. Stockbrokers spend more time outside of climate-controlled spaces in NYC, compared to other major cities.
When it comes right down to it, it was simply idiotic to build cities in the hot-as-fuck zones of the planet, to begin with. Even suburbs have heat-bubbles clinging to them, so that we really can’t be outside all that much, without actually risking heatstroke, like I was saying.
As a civilization, it would have made a whole hell of a lot more sense to keep building even more densely in the Northeast. There’s shitloads of land in upstate New York and New Jersey that would have supported more cities, let alone the whole region.
I guess it comes down to the pure, unbridled evil of colonial-era white people. Moving out West and down South, into areas that are literally deadly for three months out of the year was just fine, as long as it was the black and/or brown people being worked to death in the heat.
And, ya know, poor folks in general. Same as ever.
I’m a Canadian who hates all temperatures above 60, and I’ll tell you that humidity always matters. I had the luxury of traveling to Phoenix in July, and that was still more tolerable than anywhere that was 20 degrees cooler but 100% more humid. Heat isn’t so bad when sweating still works.
the luxury of traveling to Phoenix in July
I once had a July layover in Moon Moon airport, as I like to call the ridiculously named travesty that is “Sky Harbor Airport” and went up to the roof to smoke. I’m telling you, going out towards the edge where it was more windy was like standing in a fucking blast furnace!
Add that, after getting maybe an hour of sleep since it was hotter than Beelzebub’s butthole, I missed three flights because their self check in machines couldn’t deal with me having a Scandinavian character in my name and they had one customer service worker for every 40,000 travelers and it wasn’t a great first visit to my then GF.
Conclusion: settling Arizona was a mistake.
Okay, then maybe the hot and dry areas in the West aren’t as bad, as long as you have enough water. But in Texas and Florida, it regularly goes up above 105 and it’s 100 percent humidity, for long stretches of time. Basically 100 percent of the time, in Florida (and a lot of the Gulf Coast, in general).
I guarantee, there will STILL be New Yorkers coming into this thread, pitching weird ideas about how the buildings still make it seem even hotter than that, somehow.
No they haven’t and no they won’t
Ehhh, we’ve already had a couple “but ackshually” type situations.
Lmao I’ve read all these threads and you’re the one moving the goalposts and doing the most “Well akshaully” stuff in here.
Are you really reading this shit?
They’re ABSOLUTELY moving the goalposts. It’s all these New York motherfuckers talking about “well, you guise don’t actually spend any time outside of the air conditioning.”
The non-goalpost-moving response would just be to say “yep. NYC is not hotter than the South.” And just leave it at that. But nobody can fucking do that, because New Yorkers have a fucking complex about their city NEEDING to be the biggest, the bestest, the mostest at EVERYTHING.
I didn’t see those. I saw people saying “yeah humidity matters but you’re right”
Those guys are fine. It’s the “b-b-b-but y’all southerners don’t actually ever go outside, you’re in the air conditioning all the time, so NYC is still REALLY hotter, because people are out in the streets sweating more” responses that are annoying me.
Just say “yes, NYC isn’t the hottest place” and leave it at that. That would be the non-cringe thing to do. But they CAN’T leave it at that. They’re not physically able to.
maybe you could point to such an example.
it sounds like you just have cultural issues with city dwellers.
I thought you said you went all through the thread. I guess you didn’t. You just lied and said you did. But okay, that’s fine. Here we go:
In the south, you’re probably driving around in an air conditioned vehicle, sitting in an air conditioned house, visiting an air conditioned business. Doubt your spending as little time outside as possible. In NYC, you’re walking all over the fucking place, waiting for a subway car, standing on a platform surrounded by 50 other people, climbing three flights of stairs to get out of the subway station and on to the street where you still need to walk 5 blocks to get where you’re going.
We just are actually outside, unlike all southerners who don’t do manual labor. Rain or shine, freeze or burn, NYC is in the 100 year old unventilated subway tunnels with trains venting the heat from their ACs in the summer…if you come to visit in August you’ll sweat more in NYC than August in Dallas.
AC to AC with the exception of going to the swimming pool/beach/river/lake.
So, again, you’re saying you read all through this thread? And you somehow missed those? Really? Okay.
Tbf if it reflects off of concrete/asphalt its worse but america has big cities in the south too so that doesnt work.
Exactly.
It isn’t the heat so much as the stench.
When a man is tired of Ankh-Morpork, he is tired of ankle-deep slurry.
Eew.
I mean if they seriously think it’s hotter than somewhere with warmer climate that is also experiencing heatwave then yeah they’re stupid, but for someone in colder climate, that’s hot.
It’s relative.
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No one thinks this, the meme is meant to criticize people by over exaggerating their claims
They are talking about how humid heat is worse than dry heat. I’ll take 100°+ Arizona summer over 85° and 90%+ humidity NY summer any day.
I work in a factory on long Island and am surprised I’m not dead yet from the suffocating humidity+ heat combo we get :/
NYC Weather:
Winter- Smells like cold piss
Spring- Smells like piss
Summer- Smells like hot piss
Fall- Smells like piss and pumpkin spice
Fall- Smells like piss and pumpkin spice
Guaranteed, some guy is getting a creepyboner just from reading this.
A someone familiar with both… Yeah they’re 100% correct.
It’s all relative ;P
As an overseas tourist, the worst part was how air conditioning was so overused it turned every inside space into a refrigerator. I once almost fainted while boarding a subway because the station was like over 30C and the car was like 16C. Such extreme and sudden temperature were super stressful on the body. I always dressed in shorts and a tshirt and carried a scarf and sweater but still caught a cold very quickly.
You don’t catch a cold because of temperature shifts.
At most you might be very, very slightly more vulnerable to infection, but the degree of vulnerability between that and normal levels is absurdly small on any real scale.
You caught a cold because viruses like close up contact with poor ventilation and an immune system that hasn’t encountered the strain before.
Like, I get it, that’s not the real point of what you said, but you could have been naked except for a good mask, and you wouldn’t likely have caught the cold, but no amount of clothing without that mask would prevent it.
Oh yeah that’s true. It still felt like my body was under too much stress for my immune system to work like usual. But who knows
It makes planning difficult, especially for those who don’t know. I started wearing hats to protect against the downdraft of air, and long sleeve shirts that I could take off or put on at will. I’ve heard Russia is similar in the winter with their water pump heaters being highly efficient indoors but then when you come inside from the outdoors it’s jarring. At least as a tourist you got to experience it firsthand so now you know!:-)
I was skeptical at first, but “Pepe via solstice” DOES sound like it would be very uncomfortable…
Trying to explain that 25 degrees Celsius in the UK is considered hot doesn’t really work. It’s something you have to experience. Here the perception of heat and how we handle it is so different to elsewhere. For reference today it’s highs of 9 and lows of 4 where I live. And it’s nearly the end of April. For context that’s highs of 48F, lows of 39F.
You need to go vacations to the usual place uk people go. Last 3 days were 27 and 28. Not fun. Too hot for barely April.
Ey. We gotta have something to complain about, if nothing else.
Keep cool during the day, live it up at night. Nothing like summer in the city.
I wanted to say something to the effect of “me when I hate on a place with good bagels” or something like that, because I only know like two or three things consistently about new york, but it does pass the smell test for me over most other US cities because it has good urbanism. Maybe not the smell test in terms of like, the city’s ability to consistently manage it’s own utilities, but that’s a bonus I think, if it ends up cutting down on housing prices.
At the same time, after looking it up, I feel completely scammed. Temperature high is 95, low is like fucking 27, in new york. Where I live, temperature high is 115 and temperature low is -10. What the hell? Why the fuck do I live in this shithole? Looking at the temperature averages it’s more even between the two, but then if you look at temperature graphs or variations, seems like new york has really very consistent weather and where I live has not very consistent weather.
I dunno, weather is dumb. We should all live in big judge dredd style superblocks or something, with air conditioning, that’d probably be better.
