One mile into my favorite 4 mile walk, I turned back. It was muggy and getting muggier, and I needed to use the next mile's worth of energy to get myself back home before walking became slogging. I checked my iPhone to see what the temperature was.
It was 70°.
July 12, 2017
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It doesn't help as much as you'd think, if the dewpoint's also 70. Maybe you need to live in the West.
You would thrive in Houston, no question.
I prefer low humidity. Give me 110 F with 0.05 humidity, I'll figure it out. But 75/90? No way.
There must be a simple curve to show how our human ability to dissipate the excess heat we all and always generate, is tied to local nominal T and (wet bulb) actual T.
Science, please!
"It doesn't help as much as you'd think, if the dewpoint's also 70. Maybe you need to live in the West."
When I'm in the West, it feels too dry. I like moisture and filtered light.
You obviously need two houses. One in Denver and one in Montana.
Just back from a week in Iceland. Try it. You may like it.
"Moisture and filtered light" is a beautiful first line in a somebody's quatrain.
Own it, Ann.
Give us the more that you are truly feeling.
Midwest humidity is pretty bad, though. Not everywhere south of Madison has bad humidity.
Too hot. Too cold. Too wet. Too dry. Just right is a moving target.
Why I live in the north."
I've always claimed that after I retired I was going to move north, away from the tropics of Madison. Since my wife's still working, I haven't had to really face that decision yet.
The sky conditions out west are far superior to Wisconsin for astronomical observing, but I agree with you; I like the soft, green, filtered landscapes of the Midwest.
Isn't like the North Shore of Hawaii the perfect temp? 70 in winter, 80 in summer, with a cool offshore breeze if you need it?
Course, there's no seasons, not really. The weather is always the same. Probably boring after a while.
I don't know, I'd like the chance to find out one day....
--Vance
Today WI has an optimal human temperature yet you were suffering. The part of the country you need to live in is called 'indoors'.
"Today WI has an optimal human temperature yet you were suffering."
Dewpoint approaching 70 is not optimal.
Dewpoint approaching 70 is not optimal.
Oh for chrissakes, fine: Today WI has an optimal human air temperature yet you were suffering.
The part of the country you need to live in is called 'indoors'.
I love it there!
Bike riders always have a wind so humidity hardly matters.
Have a fan handy when you get home though.
70.8 F and 89% relative humidity. Euwww!!!
Why I live in the North
If you lived in the South your anti-shorts manifesto would never be written!
72 here today. A short reprieve before the 90's return.
70 degrees? I assume you mean F, not C.
We call that a cold winter's day down here is the really deep south. (Puerto Rico)
We also call anything north of 90 a really hot day and thankfully we don't have many of them.
John Henry
My air conditioner came on when the outside temp hit 90. It's 93 now, and I burned my feet just walking to the mailbox up on the highway.
I need to buy some sandals for my hairy feet...
Seneca, the stoic philosopher, mocked the "skinny youths" who ate snow to keep cool rather than simply bearing the heat like a real Roman ought to.
Or you could wear short pants, Seneca! And invent the AC unit.
I don't want to say that Willis Carrier is My Favorite Yankee. But I'll bet he's in my top 10!
You do get used to heat and humidity if you step out of a/c comfort.
Keep moving. Don't let the mosquitoes get you today.
So you would rather adjust to colder temperatures, ice and snow. That's a trade off. At least you have another three months until freeze over.
Ever since 2013 when it snowed on May 1st, I don't complain about heat/humidity anymore. I just pretend I'm on vacation in the south. Summer is short & my central air works great and doesn't add much to the electrical bill.
But note to myself. Do not purchase a black car again.
"You do get used to heat and humidity if you step out of a/c comfort."
Third summer now without an air conditioner. I've learned it's not too bad if you seal up the house and turn on the furnace fan to circulate air between upstairs and basement.
I'm in my 42nd Ohio year without air conditioning. Tiny focussed fans hit the computer chair, and the house is shaded by huge smooth sumac trees. No problem at all.
Blogger traditionalguy said..."So you would rather adjust to colder temperatures, ice and snow. That's a trade off."
Hard as it may be to believe, some of us actually enjoy snow.
Hijacking this thread to say:
HELP!!! We need to find a way to 'save' Brennans
Maybe someone start a Facebook page or a gofundme? This beloved Madison institution has to be saved.
Ann, can you think of anything constructive we could do?
@Original Mike...I'll think of you every time I watch Fargo. Looks like fun.
We need to find a way to 'save' Brennan's
Simple, move to the Internet, and provide free pickup.
That's how Radio Shack got wiped out. That's how most towns will crumble.
Internet sales allow you to avoid sales tax. Just have UPS or FedEx as a front.
I am from Ga and live in western SC and when I left for work this morning the temp was 81 and humidity 86. By the time I get off, (5pm), the temp will be about 95-98 and humidity about the same, 85%. I work outside at home fri, sat sun at my sawmill. Its something you have to get used to. Relatives from Ohio cant stand it and usually end up with some sort of respiratory infections.
I prefer low humidity. Give me 110 F with 0.05 humidity, I'll figure it out. But 75/90? No way.
I'm with Owen. Low humidity with warmer is better than cooler with high humidity. If you feel too dry, an evaporative cooler in the house works wonders for that. The other solution is to have a home with some nice big shady trees. There is always a shady spot to sit on our property. Deck or patio under a tree. If all else fails....misters on the deck that spurt a fine mist of cool water into the air about every 3 minutes, will really cool you off and refresh you. It is easier to ADD humidity than it is to remove it.
It has been very hot lately, unusually so for our area, highs in the 90's and even 100+. The good thing about being out West is that it cools down at night. It was only 56 this morning at 5:30. You can do a lot of things in the cool mornings. Walk, ride bikes, do yard work, do more yard work, sit on the deck and have coffee, bake something early in the day. Sometimes I have put in a full day before 10:30. (Not so easy for hubby though. He often will have to work during the hot part of the day :-( So. He gets really pampered when he gets home.)
Humidity's everything. I'd trade a humid 75 degrees for a dry 90 degrees any day of the week.
We get the worst of both worlds in the northeast. Hot, humid summers, cold winters, allergy-plagued springs and plenty of rain. I won't be retiring here!
I let the dogs run on some hilly BLM land every morning and end up walking a few miles, and over the last few years any temp over 75F feels "too hot". Which is pretty wretched since I used to run 10-15 miles in 100+F (dry) and not think about it much ... when I was about 20.
Althouse says, "When I'm in the West, it feels too dry."
Yes, it's dry. The desert is dry. But if you're near the coast you get all that marine moisture coming in, so it's a matter of your location. I think you'd adjust quite well here, although perhaps not to the decrepit (left-wing) one-party politics.
In the Southwest, the dry heat buys you some days. Come to New Mexico, its full of decrepit left wingers.
Weather.com shows 10 days of 90-97 degree highs here, lows of 70, humidity in the 60s.
In six weeks, I've finished painting over 95% of the exterior of my house (not including 36x10 front porch and carport), but that may be it for a while. It gets too hot too fast. At least it's all in primer.
@n
Visited Iceland in the winter a couple of years ago. Really enjoyed it. Did you go to the Blue Lagoon?
Althouse -- I'm glad you like where you are. I prefer dry and most days Arizona is better for me than Wisconsin. However, once the temperature gets above 115 degrees, it really doesn't matter that it's a dry heat. However, yesterday evening, I had a very pleasant mile walk over to my parents'. It was only 105, so I took the long way home.
I love the humidity if I don't have to wear a suit or have physical work to do. The nice thing about really dry areas, though, is you usually don't get many mosquitos.
I recall the day when I lived in Superior Wisconsin and the high temp for the day was 32 below. I went out and did some winter photography. The air was very clear and the sky incredibly blue.
Had a manual transmission car and you had to let the car warm up for several minutes before you can shift. For good tv news item.....they used a banana to pound a nail into a board.
@Michael K,
How is the weather in Tucson? I have been hearing scare stories about unusually hot weather the last two years.
Hopefully that will drive down prices.
In Eastern Washington (the dry side), restaurants with outdoor seating use the same mist delivery system as the produce section in your grocery store. Thankfully, I'm a gourd.
"I checked my iPhone to see what the temperature was."
What makes you think that will work? Have you tested the calibration on your iPhone thermometer? Do you think that asshole Jobs was a physicist?
It isn't easy to make an accurate thermometer, but it also isn't easy to discover that your thermometer is inaccurate. Jobs was undoubtedly relying on the second fact to prevent the first fact from becoming an issue.
Some time when you've nothing better to do, ask yourself how you calibrate a thermometer.
You can get "too hot" because you're slightly dehydrated or low on salt - I found that out in New Mexico.
Had a couple of days in June with 100+ F and 3% relative humidity.
In Arizona, it's a dry heat, except when it isn't (like now thru end of August, when we get some gulf humidity). But generally, anything under 110 is comfortable in the shade. We go biking in the evenings, before sundown sometimes. We put on our bike duds and jump into the swimming pool, then head out riding. The evaporation keeps you cool for an hour or more. When we get back from the ride, we jump in again. The evaporation keeps us cool while sipping a beer or something. When we dry off, we go inside.
Last month when it pushed 120, we were biking in France. Now, 120 is too damn hot to bike, no matter what. But Provence was no picnic, with many days of 100 or near it, and more humidity than Arizona for sure. Still, what's to complain about - we were biking in Provence.
It really cannot be that hard to post a chart that shows how we dump calories at a given temperature at a given humidity.
This should be a standard because it is measuring how well the system moves energy down a gradient.
Really, not folks. Not that damned hard, OK?
Remember the olden days when the 70s were colored green on a weather map? Now they are orange because global warming. It's effects are everywhere!
"How is the weather in Tucson? "
Before we moved here around the first of the year, I told my wife it rarely to never went above 105 in summer but it could get cold in winter.
Shortly after we arrived it was in the 30s and she accused me of misleading her. She said I told her it never got cold.
Then, in June, we had two weeks of around 110, to 115 a couple of days. Fortunately we had cancelled replastering the pool in the new house. That will wait til fall. That was record setting.
Then this week we had the first big thunderstorm of Monsoon Season. The temp dropped to 70 the next morning and has stayed in the 90s during the day, which is normal.
I look forward to the rainy season, then fall which is delightful.
I live where the heat is generally dry. It's also generally hot (especially now). It's no more pleasurable walking in 105°/no humidity than it is in 70°/high humidity.
Just returned from Sequim, Washington (pronounced Squim) west of Seattle. It is in the rain shadow, as in no rain. High temps were in the 60's and low's in 40/50's. We are talking July!!! Always sunny, but always gale-type winds. Talking a walk after dinner requires a jacket. I thought I was in Maine in the fall.
Another point: the town's demographics resemble SW Florida (read: old and gray).
High point of the trip - was able to get a pic of two bald eagles at very close range.
" The good thing about being out West is that it cools down at night."
It cools off very nicely in Wisconsin as well, although perhaps not as much in Madison as it does in places closer to the Great Lakes. I have yet to turn on my AC.
In DC, it can be 95 degrees with 100 percent humidity at 11 pm. It's a miserable place to be in August.
Not me.
See. Northern climes are not hot enough for me. Despite the fact that the northern lights have seen queer sights. Still ain’t cuttin’ it.
So I moved to hell. Because I’m good at it. I’m just competent at moving there despite myself and I don’t even have to try. It’s freaky, I don’t know how it works. I just get to hell and I'm standin' here.
Speaking of slogging. I can’t slog. I can't even die. I'm in hell and I can't slog or die. And they’re playin' that fucking Genesis down here (Genesis in hell?), "I can't dance!"
Phil: “You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life.
...
Phil: “I'm a god.
Rita: You're God?
Phil: I'm a god. I'm not *the* God... I don't think.”
I forget the rest of the lines. Somewhere in there, I think, (or is it *believe,* or *feel*? - I forget. It must not be a positivist hell. Or, maybe ...) the lines say something like, “I can’t die! I been killed a billion times, Rita.”
Me?
I’m not slogging. Hell, no. It’s hot down here.
Ha! I work outdoors in Georgia. It's about 8000 degrees today and humid
Everybody has a weather issue. As I tell people who wonder about living in hot South Texas I say "I haven't had to shovel a bucket of heat yet!"
we were biking in Provence
There's a name for the wind in Provence and I don't think it's Mariah.
I googled and they name all their winds. Mistral (NW) is the one I was thinking of.
But REALLY humid!!! (I am in Chicago and just came back inside after a walk)
"If I had a house in Hell, and a house in Miami, I would rent out Miami and live in Hell." - Mark Twain
I looked at Sequim years ago and thought about buying a lot.
I ended up buying ten acres on Vashon, which is in the rain belt but close to Seattle without being in the city.
I thought about building a house but finally gave up and sold the property. Too soon, I might add.
I did a search for homes for sale on Vashon last simmer and the first one that came up was $35 million.
Arizona is better for my wife's health.
Why I wear shorts.
"Donald Douglas said...
I think you'd adjust quite well here, although perhaps not to the decrepit (left-wing) one-party politics."
She lives in Madison, WI. And worked in the UW system. No adjustment required.
Born out on the desert--I like it dry. Of course it does get hot enough that the natives of Wellton Arizona (about half way between Yuma and Gila Bend) claim that when they die and go to Hell, they have to take a blanket to keep warm. So there is that.
I'm also very bummed that Brennans is going out of business.
The downside of becoming acclimated to life in the Desert Southwest (after 40 years in the Twin Cities) is that when it gets down to around 50 you freeze your ass off.
Have you thought about going to a cardiologist for a stress test?
And don't forget your salt. Humid or not just slows or speeds the evaporation of perspiration which is a salty process.
Except for a rare few high blood pressure heart patients, lots of salt is very good for you.
I was so excited when I started reading this. I thought it was going to be one of those North Pole riddles. (You know, like I walk out my door, walk a mile north, a mile east, and a mile south, and I'm back where I started. What color is the bear?)
Jupiter said...
"What makes you think that will work? Have you tested the calibration on your iPhone thermometer? Do you think that asshole Jobs was a physicist?"
I used to have a saying taped to my computer monitor: "The man with one thermometer always knows the temperature. The man with two thermometers never knows the temperature."
What's filtered light?
It's the kind that gets through the Madison bubble.
Shortly after Al Gore shows up in your town, you get filtered light.
What's filtered light?
No tar or nicotine.
Ann, become a Rust Belt girl, Gary or East Chicago, IN, Zainesville or Toledo, OH, Zelienople, PA!!! You can do it!!!!
"What's filtered light?"
Cloud cover and shade — but not 100%.
You go out to those western deserts, and there's no walk in the woods. You have to walk next to a rock cliff to walk in shade. The word that I use to describe it so much I have to rein it in to keep from being really annoyingly repetitious is: brutal.
Someone advised us to look at Sequim, but I am concerned about going to live in a place that might cause me to think: death's antechamber.
Filtered light.........I've also heard it called "cloudy bright".
I can almost always guess when it is exactly 80 degrees F. because it feels perfect.
Someone advised us to look at Sequim
My parents had a place up there on Diamond Point, Discovery Bay. Very scenic and very little rain compared to the rest of the Peninsula. But it's windy much of the time and it never really gets warm [by my standards].
Wisconsin's state motto: It's not the heat, it's the humidity.
I like moisture and filtered light.
This sounds positively amphibian, but if one is sun sensitive probably all for the best.
Personally, though, the more I've experienced them the more I've come to perceive the cloudless, 95+-degree days of Texas summers as expressions of unbounded joy. No Kurt Cobain Finlandias for me.
Janet Reno lived in a house in southern Miami - built by her mother - for her entire life (except when in Washington). No a/c.
there's no walk in the woods
I realized at 20 that dogwoods are essential to life. The main road into Davidson from the east was absolutely glorious for 2 weeks a year.
"There's a name for the wind in Provence and I don't think it's Mariah."
We had one day of Le Mistral this year - luckily we were in Provence in June. Once you get to fall, the Mistral usually lasts 3 to 4 days at a time. Biking can be almost impossible.
"...I don't think it's Mariah."
Out here they have a name for things like Wind and Rain and Fire.
The wind is Wind, the rain is Rain, and they call the fire Fire.
Or something like that.
I like moisture and filtered light
I was walking behind a student yesterday, a good whole block behind him, but I could see he was walking so that he was avoiding shadows, staying in the Sun. (Shadows were covering from 10% to 90% of the sidewalk).
In contrast, I was making sure I stayed in the shadow.
Someone advised us to look at Sequim, but I am concerned about going to live in a place that might cause me to think: death's antechamber.
Near where I live there used to be an old folk's home called "Journey's End". I get that it's most likely true, but still...
You don't have to be North, just up high ... even at the Equator
"This sounds positively amphibian, but if one is sun sensitive probably all for the best."
Ha ha.
Yes, that is my situation. My skin makes a very physical demand for filtered light and moisture. I cannot live in the desert. It's not my habitat. Love to visit though, but need to take care to go out when the light is low.
"I was walking behind a student yesterday, a good whole block behind him, but I could see he was walking so that he was avoiding shadows, staying in the Sun. (Shadows were covering from 10% to 90% of the sidewalk)."
Yes, that's what I do, pick a route through the shadows as much as I can.
I love the Lake Mendota path. You get great sunny views and a cheerfully dappled path, but you can keep in the shade almost all the time in the summer.
I just came in a little while ago after helping a neighbor prune his evergreens. It was FREEZING in here. So I turned the thermostat up to 72 . And it's still chilly.
But it looks like we'll go down in the 50s this weekend. Perfect.
Payson, AZ?
I like the dry heat here in SoCal, great for golf year round. Grew up in Florida but lost my tolerance for tropical weather. After having lived in the north, I like it here in the southwest. Just wish the people were nicer.
The joke when I was stationed near Marquette, MI was when a person retired they were going to tie a snow shovel to the front of their car and keep driving south until someone asked what that thing was on the front of the car. That was where they were going to retire.
Michael K said: "Shortly after we arrived it was in the 30s and she accused me of misleading her. She said I told her it never got cold."
If I recall correctly, you once lived in Chicago.
That's not cold!
-ex Chicagoan
Just replaced the circuit board in my furnace. Apparently The AC drain got clogged and the water backed up and flooded the circuit board. $365 for the HVAC guy to do it. $175 delivered and half an hour later....................AC!
The guy who invented air conditioning should get a Nobel Prize.
My Aunt Elsie and her husband had a "swamp cooler" in their 1940s Dinuba, CA home. Now called by their technical name of "evaporative cooler" they are perfect for desert climes. Energy efficient (you pay for a small amount of H2O and electrical for the fan--usually 50% < less than cost of refrigerated systems--and eco-friendly as well with no pollutants or chemicals. Usually located in the attic of older homes they usually come in two types: the "waterfall" kind in older attic homes that draws air thru the falling recirculating water or the newer "soaked pad" kind that can be installed in more places. They work quite well..
"If I recall correctly, you once lived in Chicago."
She didn't. She is third generation California.
Wait til it snows in Tucson. I've seen it snow.
I'm told that swamp coolers work here pretty well except in Monsoon Season. The humidity has to be really low.
"Someone advised us to look at Sequim"
There's nothing particularly special about it.
Despite all the blah, blah to the contrary, Almost all of Western Washington and Western Oregon have more or less the same weather. Obviously, if you're on the Coast (Puget sound is NOT the "Coast") you'll get more rain and wind. Or if you're in the so-called Mountain Sun Shadow - more wind.
i had a relative who actually got sick when she went to Hawaii. Couldn't take all that sun.
I like sun, but I don't like high heat/high humidity or even high heat.
It really sucks when you can't go outside from 10 am to 6 PM because the heat index is 95.
Meade says: I turned the thermostat up to 72 . And it's still chilly.
Damn right 72 is chilly!
So chilly that I'm actually considering putting on long pants.
Meade, Ann would let you back into the house if you had long pants.
Heat stroke, Wisconsin-style?
The sun sucks. Wish I lived on Mars.
72 is cold alright. The cleaning lady who has hot flashes, resets the thermostat on the HVAC to 72 when she arrives. And we went out before she finished and upon arriving home 6 hours later found she had forgotten to reset it to 78.
But I liked it that cold. The next Georgia Power bill is going to be scary.
Muggy night. I jumped the gun on opening up the house.
@Michael K - You have that right. Swamp coolers do work well until the humidity suddenly increases as a result of the monsoons. Then you'll notice you can run the swamp cooler all day and the house won't cool down.
Tucson is gorgeous especially the surrounding areas in the south along I-19.
Have you seen the Titan Missile Silo in Saguarita? Someday I'll get there but I hear it's pretty neat.
The problem in Central Indiana is the winter: the GLOOM, not the cold. Clouds set in around Nov 30 and don't relent until late March.
No wonder Prozac was invented in Indianapolis.
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