I’ve you’ve spent time in climates that are hot (say, summer highs around 90F/32C) and humid, and climates that are really REALLY hot (say, summer highs around 110F/43C) but bone dry, which is harder to live with?
Somewhat smaller range, but you essentially describe Houston vs. Dallas or Austin.
Houston is hot- the summer temps tend to top out in the mid-high 90s, but it’s always humid there. To the point where my car’s vinyl top grew mildew, in fact.
Dallas and Austin are usually 4-8 degrees hotter, but usually a lot less humid.
For example, Dallas’ high is forecast to be about 102, but Houston’s is forecast to be 98.
In my experience, it’s six of one, a half dozen of the other. It’s just hot no matter how you slice it.
I’d prefer the drier climate. Where I grew up, the summers were hot and humid, and that was unpleasant.
Hot and humid is worse.
Granted, the Antelope Valley had more Summer days in the 105ºF area than 110ºF or over; but we did see temperatures in the teens. It’s not so bad. But then we had the monsoon season in August. It was like summertime in New Orleans. Very uncomfortable to go outside, and if you have a swamp cooler (as we did) you’re out of luck.
When I was 18 I played tennis in Sacramento, California. It was 93 degrees with near zero humidity and I was fine. That night I flew back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The following day it was 80 degrees and very humid. It sucked just to walk down the street.
“It aint the heat, it’s the humidity”.
We have a sauna in my bathroom. It gets used once every few years. When you sit in the dry heat and it’s 95 degrees it’s pleasant. Splash some water on the rocks, though, and it becomes uncomfortable very quickly.
Barcelona is less hot than Madrid, but is by the sea and very humid. Madrid can easily reach 40°C in summer, but bone dry. Madrid is better.
Still hefty though. The heat in the early afternoon is the reason Spain invented the siesta.
That’s what the heat index measures.
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/html/heatindex.shtml
95F/35C
15%=91F/33C
50%=105F/41C
80%=134F/57C
Yeah my experience was similar. I’ve lived most of my life in the Midwestern US (hot and humid summers), and one summer I was in Modesto. I remember seeing the temperature on a bank’s sign and it was like 107F and I wasn’t even uncomfortable.
I was seeing a girl from New Orleans. She came out to visit me in L.A. We went up to the AV to say hi to dad, and to show her the Mojave Desert. The car didn’t have air conditioning. As we drove through the desert she asked how hot it was. I told her about 104ºF. She was like, ‘Really? It doesn’t see that hot!’
Saying, “it’s hot, but it’s a dry heat” is like saying “I have the heaves, but they’re the dry heaves.”
In a dry heat, sitting in the shade mitigates so much of the impact. But humidity follows you into the dark and keeps you miserable. Sweating doesn’t work in the humidity. And a lot of folks don’t realize how effective sweating can be when it’s able to work.
“We needed this rain” is what I say whenever it rains, whether it’s the first precipitation in a month or there is flooding going on.
I remember a June night in Phoenix where the thermometer was reluctant to descend below 90F.
I’ll take a Houston night over that.
Right now in St. Louis (10:00 a.m.) the temperature is 92, with 65% humidity. Today’s high is expected to be 100. I’ll put that up against Phoenix for misery any day.
These days, 90 is not especially hot. So 110 and dry vs 90 and humid goes to 110 being worse.
But 95 and humid vs 110 and dry is closer to a toss up. I’d personally say 95 and humid is worse.
For reference, we had an unusually warm June in the Houston area with several 100 degree days (the historic average is ~6 for the whole summer - usually these come in July/August) but with the typical regional high humidity (muggy at best - oppressive at worst).
The average June heat index in the area is 111F. This year has been worse. I’d prefer 110 and bone dry (heat index 110) to heat indexes above that. Of course, I’d most prefer moderate daily rainfall (we’re also in a rather bad drought at the moment).
Yeah, this. As long as you have adequate supplies of things to drink, our bodies actually work quite well with evaporative cooling. It’s what we evolved for! We often have humid summers here, with temps around 30-35C, and I’d much prefer a Vegas 44C day, any time.
I’ll stay inside with the air conditioning, thankyouverymuch. I cannot tolerate any heat, to be honest.
Humidity contaminates heat. Even inside, sitting next to the air conditioner, you are affected by the overall humidity. As soon as you try to do anything more strenuous than breathing, the humidity sucks all the energy out of your body.
Humidity also has BUGS.
~VOW
Dry is better, but be aware that when it starts getting really REALLY hot there is an exponential effect of the heat load.
When it’s dry, your body sweats to cool you off with evaporation.
When it’s humid, all your sweat does is get you even more wet.
I really think this one depends on the person.
I’ve had more people than I can count tell me that dry heat’s better than wet heat. I live in a climate where wet heat is far more common, and I agree it’s unpleasant – but I took a trip around the country once, and found myself driving (before most cars had air conditioning, and mine didn’t) for a couple of days through dry country, in a relatively drought year, and with temperatures in the 90’sF. It’s the only time in my life that I’ve felt as if the weather was deliberately trying to kill me. I had a gallon jug of water in the seat next to me and kept pouring water in, but I couldn’t seem to get enough water in me. And not only did the weather feel like it was trying to kill me – it felt like it was trying to kill everything; to suck every last drop of moisture out of everything alive, until there was nothing left but rock and dust.
Give me a soggy 97ºF about-to-thunderstorm-but-can’t-quite-bring-it-off any time at all, compared to that. But that’s not the way everybody feels about it.