• 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    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.

    • HubertManne@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      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.

    • AEsheron@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      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.

    • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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      8 months ago

      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.

      • 𝕾𝖕𝖎𝖈𝖞 𝕿𝖚𝖓𝖆@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        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.

        • Hyperreality@kbin.social
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          8 months ago

          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.