One reason people believe the climate is heating is due to air conditioning, which makes them much more sensitive to the heat.
Heat index here in Maryland the last couple of days is near 100 degrees – with the dew point well up in the 70’s. I don’t use air conditioning and absolutely love it. I wish it was like this all year round.
But when I left the air conditioned gym last night after a half hour of lifting, it felt really hot outside until I got moving on my bicycle.
Yes, but your dihydrogen monoxide footprint is gross (ew!) So there.
I grew up with out a/c in south Louisiana. The difference for me was when we got central air after we were married a few years. With an asthma history, the breathing with no problem living in central air shows how you are wrong regarding a/c as a corrupting agent. The only point, all you had to go to for any relief was the shade!!! before a/c.
” Heat index here in Maryland the last couple of days is near 100 degrees – with the dew point well up in the 70?s. ”
Welcome to every-summer-day in Texas!
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I lived in Houston and Austin for many years. Definitely hotter in Texas, and southern Arizona is much hotter this time of year.
Then you know; I thought the humidity in Florida was much, much worse. Several of us spent a couple days on company business mid-summer in Boca Raton touring Motorola’s Pager Production facility back in ’99. I think I much prefer the dry heat I saw while on vacation ‘out west’ though …
I grew up during the mid 40’s and 50’s in Houston mostly without air conditioning, particularly at school. Some summers it got up to 110 +, but me and my teenage friends thrived somehow. At age 70 I keep the air conditioning set to 80 degrees in Yuma. I can’t stand eating in restaurants set at seemingly 68 degrees without jacket. It is definitely easier to stand 110 degrees here than in Houston on a visit because of the lower humidity.
Texas is miserable in the summer.
Houston is the worst … getting west of Ft Worth the humidity begins to drop off ..
I used only swamp boxes in Tucson years ago. I had to carry something warm to the University or stores in summer because they were as cold as Antarctica thanks to air conditioners. I also rode my bike everywhere, too.
Back then, downtown Tucson had lots of trees so it was pleasant on the streets. Now, not so much and it is ten times hotter due to lack of any shade.
I think the true believers should give up their AC first to prove their commitment to the cause. If they do that, I may start to take them seriously (I doubt either will happen).
I actually know a few that have. I commend them for doing so, but the tendency to force others to live their lifestyle is what bugs about environmentalism.
I agree. I could not even go onto a grocery when I visited Florida. They feel like freezers.
In Southern Idaho it gets over 100 degrees many many times each summer. Sure it is a ‘dry’ heat but we never use our AC. Truly… why mask a nice warm day that we look forward to all winter long!!
You’re a neanderthal. Or something.
I live in central Florida. I’m outside whenever I can be. Being a computer guy, that’s not all of the time. It’s funny, but it’s often actually cooler here along the coast than places like Columbia, SC. I like sea level air and warmth. Afternoon thunderstorms on the porch are the best. Colorado gives me a headache. Really. Thought that I was going to die up there above Estes Park. Not going back there ever again.
It’s the altitude. Many people suffer from it. My experience over the decades with people coming to Colorado is that if your body doesn’t take it well there is no other solution but moving to lower elevations again.
I think its less the AC itself as it is the level they set it at. They probably put it at 68 but it would be more reasonable to put it at 75.
My Dad can’t take it below 89 degrees. He’ll be 102 year old in August. At 89 degrees, he still has a blanket around him.
Still haven’t run the AC here in FoCo despite having two young kids. But we haven’t had any sort of significant heat so far. Given the forecast, looks like I’ll be turning it on later this week. 🙁
I don’t know how many FoCo progressives have avoided their AC to date, but I’d wager <1%. Heck, it might have been <1% a month ago.
-Scott
Hottest I have ever been: in an unairconditioned house in Lewes, DE, July 1995.
Second hottest: Lackland, AFB, San Antonio, TX, June, 1972. 5 minutes after getting out of the shower, I’d need another shower.
Third hottest: Columbia, SC, August, 1970.
Fourth hottest: warehouse in Richmond, VA, at midnight. Hundred degrees at midnight. Inside.
Steve, I agree that air conditioning changes people’s perspective, but it still gets damn hot many places.
It is funny when they say when it is 90 that it feels like 100. With DC humidity, that is typical. So for people in DC, 90 feels like 90 has always felt.
This week its bee 89-92 outside, with a heat index of 102 in Louisiana.
When I worked in DC during ’68 through ’73 once in a while the basin temperature would hit 110. The government would then shutdown giving us a day off. Big deal that was. We sat home indoors because it was too humid to do anything outside in that kind of heat.
MD has had a rather cool summer so far. I went over my records last night, (end of June), and see my worst high temp was 89 here in Anne Arundel Co. But the DP…that’s another story. According to my Davis Vue instrument, it peaked at 78 yesterday.
Didn’t even uncover the a/c until (I think) June 17, but without it, my household turns into a mold/mildew haven.
Factor in that most of the modern MD population appears to come from NJ and other points north, and a/c is ever more common.
For the record….DP hit 82 today.
It’s precisely why I refuse to use air conditioning. When I was a kid my parents air-conditioned one room in the house (& no-one was allowed in until after dinner), which was worse than having no air-conditioning at all.
Heat index? What kind of Shinola is that? Anyone remember when we used to have a “temperature”? Now the grossly exaggerated media reports “heat index” or “chill factor” as if it is some real condition rather than a bogus falsehood to exaggerate news. I would expect to see that coming from NASA or other Obama Regime scare mongers. Lets talk reality on this site. Thank you.
You try to do hard work outdoors in the Colorado River area with a heat index of 95 and a few hours later somebody may come along and collect your body. Every summer in the Yuma area we have people die ignoring the summer heat after the monsoon season starts. Many others suffer heat exhaustion and lose their heat tolerance permanently. It can cost you a great job with a government contractor.
99°F on the shaded back porch. AC is on.
I’ve lived in Eastern North Carolina, New Orleans, SW Michigan and central Virginia. I didn’t have AC until I was 23. I’ve done the no AC (and even no heat in the bedroom), outdoor plumbing, no AC in the car I drove, even in NOLA, farm work, chemical plants with no walls, Army with no AC, no heat in the Michigan winter and so on.
I have more checks than I need in the blocks on life’s job card that say “practice being miserable.” I’m fully practiced and don’t need any more. I’ve told my kids what my mother told me: as long as I have the money I’m going to be cool in the summer and warm in the winter and when I run out of money, I’m moving in with you.
I have to work out in it, & in uncooled (& sometimes unheated) houses. I prefer to just stay used to it.
You’re in Glen Allen, so you know all the little hotels and motels along Rt. 1. In the mid 70s I rewired most of them for MATV and PABX. Most were built on slab, so all the cables had to be pulled through the attic in JULY and AUGUST!! 140F in the attic meant no more than 15 or 20 minutes before bailing out into the chilly 95F, then the really cold 75F inside where the cables had to be terminated. Being a brash 20 something country boy who never saw AC, it wasn’t too bad. Now, at 67, working, living and driving in AC demands that I stay under cover when the temps hit the 90s. The body just can’t make those rapid adjustments.
It might also have something to do with another 47 years. 50 years ago the tobacco fields and barns 150 miles south of here didn’t feel all that hot in July and August. Attics and roofs always seemed pretty hot this time of the year.
I agree – summer is hell.
Yesterday the temperature here was scorching 68 degrees F. I almost started sweating. Luckily it quickly dropped to current 55F. I much preferred the temperatures (33,6F with snow raining horizontally killing all flowers from our apple trees) we got a week before midsummer’s eve.
Now they are forecasting as warm as 72F on monday! That’s almost record warmth for this summer! I don’t know how I can survive it! Maybe I take off my sweater and extra pair of socks.
“Oh, it’s so warm here!”
You lucky b*****ds, you!
Today in DC. 98 with heat index of 109. Will gladly trade places with you any day!
I work in an air conditioned office, in a highly eco-friendly building. Same temperature inside all through the year. Problem is that when the temperature outside hits 65F (not often – I live in the North of England) I don a jacket. The air conditioning offsets the warmer temperatures by blasting cool air from the ceiling.