# The most liveable place in Florida? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 26, 2018, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645 "2018-07-26T23:06:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/61 "2018-08-01T22:10:34Z")
Personally, I was surprised by the characterization of the weather in Hawaii as “perfect”. In my visits to the islands, I’ve always found the weather to be a bit…“hot and sticky”. But then I realized, it’s all relative to what you are used to. I grew up in California, and that set my definition of “good weather”. I took a look at the weather in several of the places mentioned in this thread: Honolulu, HI- 87 degree, 65% humidity California (where I grew up): 91 degrees, 25% humidity (It’s a dry heat! Like living inside an Easy-Bake Oven.) California (where I live now): 80 degrees, 65% humidity (everyone in the office agrees it has been hot and sticky all week- terrible weather) San Francisco, CA: 64 degrees, 70% humidity (like having outside AC!) Charlotte, NC: 88 degrees, 90% humidity (it’s raining! It just seems wrong to have hot rain.) Jacksonville, FL: 86 degrees, 80% humidity (more hot rain!) I guess it’s all relative to what you are used to and what your internal thermostat calls comfortable. Though I have always thought the Bay Area was my definition of the “perfect” climate. Especially since if you don’t like the climate where you are living, you can move 10 miles and be in a different climate (looks like Sunnyvale is about 75/50% today). ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/62 "2018-08-01T23:04:03Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > Personally, I was surprised by the characterization of the weather in Hawaii as “perfect”. In my visits to the islands, I’ve always found the weather to be a bit…“hot and sticky”. But then I realized, it’s all relative to what you are used to. I grew up in California, and that set my definition of “good weather”. I took a look at the weather in several of the places mentioned in this thread: > > Honolulu, HI- 87 degree, 65% humidity > California (where I grew up): 91 degrees, 25% humidity (It’s a dry heat! Like living inside an Easy-Bake Oven.) > California (where I live now): 80 degrees, 65% humidity (everyone in the office agrees it has been hot and sticky all week- terrible weather) > San Francisco, CA: 64 degrees, 70% humidity (like having outside AC!) > Charlotte, NC: 88 degrees, 90% humidity (it’s raining! It just seems wrong to have hot rain.) > Jacksonville, FL: 86 degrees, 80% humidity (more hot rain!) > > I guess it’s all relative to what you are used to and what your internal thermostat calls comfortable. Though I have always thought the Bay Area was my definition of the “perfect” climate. Especially since if you don’t like the climate where you are living, you can move 10 miles and be in a different climate (looks like Sunnyvale is about 75/50% today). North of the Bay Area is the city of Eureka, a really interesting place weatherwise. Summer average high 64 degrees; Winter average high 55 degrees. Most years the hottest summer high is only in the high 70’s. Its fogged in most summer days. If you don’t like it hot or cold year round, this is the place for you! ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/63 "2018-08-01T23:45:54Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > North of the Bay Area is the city of Eureka, a really interesting place weatherwise. Summer average high 64 degrees; Winter average high 55 degrees. Most years the hottest summer high is only in the high 70’s. Its fogged in most summer days. If you don’t like it hot or cold year round, this is the place for you! To be honest, that’s not a whole lot different than the averages for San Francisco proper. In fact, I bet it’s nearly identical to the averages for Golden Gate Park (close to the ocean). Both cities have the advantage of being hooked up to the world’s largest AC system. The year round temperatures that keep surfers in wetsuits ensure this clamping of the temperature in these cities. And of course, for those on the east coast, the casual phrase, “north of San Francisco”, is just about 300 miles (~6 hours drive time). I think we also also have our inborn biases on what, geographically, states ought to be like. I am always boggled by someone from the northeast casually taking a day trip to another state, and they are boggled by the sheer size of California (from Eureka, it’s still about 2 hours drive to the Oregon border) when they contemplate taking a vacation in California and “driving around the state”. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/64 "2018-08-02T01:26:19Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > And of course, for those on the east coast, the casual phrase, “north of San Francisco”, is just about 300 miles (~6 hours drive time). > > I think we also also have our inborn biases on what, geographically, states ought to be like. I am always boggled by someone from the northeast casually taking a day trip to another state, and they are boggled by the sheer size of California (from Eureka, it’s still about 2 hours drive to the Oregon border) when they contemplate taking a vacation in California and “driving around the state”. We had some people up to Oakland, from Birmingham. They wanted to drive to Disneyland after work. Also the Golden gate Bridge, which was doable. :eek::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/65 "2018-08-02T02:39:28Z")
> [@peccavi](#): > > Personally, I was surprised by the characterization of the weather in Hawaii as “perfect”. In my visits to the islands, I’ve always found the weather to be a bit…“hot and sticky”. But then I realized, it’s all relative to what you are used to. I grew up in California, and that set my definition of “good weather”. Bless you, I didn’t want to be the only one. The tradewinds can suck it - Hawai’i is a wonderful place to visit, but it is both too warm and too humid to live year round for my tastes. Though fair to say I _am_ kinda fond of the warm almost daily rain in many spots - Hawai’i in a light rain is peak Hawai’i. But the most comfortable I have ever been on the islands was in a cool and densely fogged in Alaka’i Wilderness Preserve. Reminded me of San Francisco in high summer ;). Humidity should mostly only come in the form of cool, refreshing fog and mist. And temperatures should never rise much above ~78 degrees or drop too far below ~60. And too much sun causes cancer :p. Also I hate wearing shorts and sandles. Ummm…I might be one of those extreme outliers **Corry El** referenced. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/66 "2018-08-02T03:59:03Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Weather: not so hot as to raise blisters, and tolerable humidity > Least danger from hurricanes > Least long-term danger from rising water due to climate change > Least danger from things that will eat me > Politically and religiously relatively neutral or liberal > > Does this fantasy location exist? Is either coast desirable, or how about the many inland lakes? Is the state as nutty as Carl Hiaasen makes out (and he’s not the only one)? Gainesville, where the University of Florida is located. We lived there for 10 years and it was filled with well educated middle class people from many backgrounds, lots of outdoor recreation activities, and because of the university above average cultural, sports, and restaurant scenes for a small city. It was no nuttier than the 5 other cities I’ve lived in up and down the East Coast. We did get hit by one hurricane while we were there that knocked out power for a few days but other than that weather consisted mostly of regular thunderstorms. We’d still be living there except my company moved to Raleigh to be closer to our customers (Pharma). ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/67 "2018-08-02T11:55:36Z")
Parts of Hawai’i are arid:[Climate of Hawaii - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Hawaii) (And mountain tops get snow) Brian ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645/68 "2018-08-02T12:35:51Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > If the book described in [this article](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/26/rising-seas-florida-climate-change-elizabeth-rush?CMP=share_btn_tw) is accurate, Florida isn’t going to be liveable at all in the near future. Oh, hardly. It’s just that large numbers of people live close to the coast, and their homes will go bye-bye, sooner or later. My in-laws live in Plant City, FL, which is \<25 miles east of Tampa. It’s ~128 feet above sea level, according to Wikipedia. It’s safe from sea level rise for the rest of this century, anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-liveable-place-in-florida/818645.md?page=3)