I’m with you, thorny_locust. For some reason humidity just doesn’t bother me, unless it’s tremendously hot at the same time. But dry heat turns my lips and cuticles to dry, flaky scales. Maybe it’s because I’m of Nordic ancestry but brought up in southern California, and my skin just can’t endure it. I’ve had enough of dry, desert-y heat.
‘But it’s a dry rain!’
When I lived in L.A.: ‘This will be the biggest storm so far. It’s expected to dump two inches of rain. Unfortunately it will do nothing to alleviate the drought.’
I don’t do well in extreme heat, period, but I would generally take an extra 5 degrees F at least to get rid of high humidity. I feel so uncomfortable when my sweat won’t dry. I’ve also found that a bit of shade and a spritz from a mister can do magical things in a dry heat, whereas going inside with the AC is the only solution to humidity.
I feel uniquely qualified to answer this question, as I’ve spent time (months at least) in Mississippi, North Carolina,
Nevada, Korea, Japan, New Jersey, Saudi Arabia, Quatar, and Diego Garcia.
Hot and dry is way better for me.
I can handle either for a week or so, but my tolerance to heat in general has declined over the years.
On my last road trip to Florida I went from hot/dry to hot/humid and back again. I did okay on the way out but on the way back through Texas and Arizona I was really starting to wilt.
When you’re standing outside in a bitter cold it doesn’t help to say “It’s cold, but it’s a dry cold”.
I’m biased in large part because of gardening issues.
I use at lot of tropical and subtropical plants that typically flourish in warm, humid conditions. They do not like blast furnace weather. If I was heavily into cacti and succulents things might be different…
So, we’ve moved from the muggy-uggy zone to the dry zone (hot summers, cold winters).
Much, much more preferable.
Yeah, it only gets a bit above a hundred sometimes but still quite survivable with good gear: big floppy wettable hat, a sweat pulling shirt, a wet cooling towel around the neck, etc.
As a kid I lived in and visited similar climates. I remember once someone calling to a bunch of us kids playing outside that a new record of 113 had been set. We just kept playing. (And the record has since been well beaten.)
I’ll take 110 and no humidity, thanks.
I’m the opposite. I have a lot of cacti and succulents, and I live near the beach. I have to be really careful. And some plants go weeks without me watering them.
Admittedly Islamabad has had a cooler than normal summer as we head into the Monsoon (it lterally snowed in the hills on the summer solstice), but I miss the summer, Its easy to cool down in the summer. Its impossible in the monsoon.
Hot and humid. The humidity makes it harder to cool down.
When I was in Las Vegas in July, it was 106 and it was much more comfortable when I was walking around than when it’s was the 80s and humid at home.
Mercifully, I don’t have to endure either much. I’ve lived all my life in the West and the majority of my life near a coast, so cool and humid is my preferred climate environment.
I’d never experienced hot and humid until I went to a gathering of friends in Nashville in late May. It was mid-80s and very humid. I spent the entire long weekend in the hotel pool with the locals laughing at me. It was horrible.
In the West, at least when it’s hot we can slather up in super moisturizer, keep the Chap Stick close to hand along with a bottle of water. I don’t know how folks in the East tolerate hot and humid. You’re made of sterner stuff than this PNWer!
This morning I had my windows wide open while it rained. Temperature was 60F with 88% humidity. I smiled, listening to the water trickle down the downspouts. My kinda weather.
The basic fact is, we cool off by sweating, and when the air itself is damp, that works poorly. Hiking in inland California, if it got hot, I could just get wet. I used to hike with a wet bandanna tied around my neck. Presto, comfort.
Now I live in New England, and while it is nothing compared to most other parts east of the Rockies, it can be quite humid and warm. The only thing you can do is go swimming (at least the water’s always cold!).
That may be part of it for me. If it’s hot and humid, I’m surrounded by plants (both farm crops and naturally occuring) that are lush and full of life. If it’s hot and dry, as I said above, it feels to me as if everything, not just me, is dying of thirst.
I don’t think that’s all of it, though.
Definitely hot and humid is worse.
I’ve experienced 85° and 90% humidity: Horrible.
I’ve experienced 110° and 30% humidity: Very hot, but bearable.
Yes. In hot but dry you can use a mister, or a swamp cooler, or sit in some dark shade. Generally such places cool down 20-30 Degrees F later at night.
A light longsleeved shirt and a big straw hat helps a lot, oe even one of those hats you soak then wear. Just stay hydrated.
There is no escaping humid heat short of air conditioning.
Yep.
Try driving by an alfalfa field in the desert. 
I once was in Hell in July. No wait, it was Phoenix AZ. Already brain addled by the heat for some reason I ventured outside of the convention center where there was a fountain spraying water through 100 or more nozzles in different directions up in to the air. The pavement around the pavement was dry. All of that water was evaporating in the 120° 0% humidity air before hitting the ground.
How can you tell the newcomers to Phoenix?
They’re the ones with the tans.