Summer - Weather & Bugs (Charlotte, Wilmington: waterpark, new house, neighborhood)

[anonentity]

Having never lived in the south, escpecially Charlotte, could someone comment on...


...Summer weather: I see data for a couple-three months at 90deg/90% humidity. How would this feel, compared to say 100deg dry heat (California inland summer)? Do many homes have pools? Are there community pools in parks? How long to get to the beach?

...Summer bugs: mosquitoes, especially - are there lots? do you folks sleep with nets? do you need repellant? do they spray to control? Are there any really cool bugs?

...Kids in summer: do the heat/bugs make for more indoor activities? are after-school outdoors limited? Waiter...there's a <blank> in my soup!

...Summer festivals: any music, local folk/art, food, other cultural festivals?

[megassel]

Summer weather - it's hot and sweaty. We regularly has stretches of 95+ with heavy humidity. I think it's more uncomfortable than the drier heat in the West. But that's just me. Some homes have pools, but I think more often there is a community pool in the neighborhood. And for those who don't have neighborhood pools, our YMCA network has incredible waterparks all over town. Lots of fun. You can be at the ocean in three - four hours. And you have your choice of which beach within that timeframe - anywhere from Wilmington, NC area, all the way down the Grand Strand (Myrtle Beach area) to Hilton Head and Savannah, GA.

Or if you want to cool off you can be in the mountains in 2 hours. You can swim and slide at Chimney Rock, or go all the way up Grandfather Mountain and enjoy the breeze. Or golf right at the base of the mountains in Lake Lure, where Dirty Dancing was filmed.

Tons of mosquitos. Almost everyone I know has a mosquito magnet or some other contraptions. We're actually putting a bat house on the new house we're building to try to control the mosquitos. They make it hard to enjoy the outdoors in the evening. You need a lot of repellent. We don't sleep with nets, but after May most people have their windows closed and the air conditioning running. It doesn't cool down at night like it does in some other parts of the country.

If you consider palmetto bugs cool, then we do have cool bugs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cockroach

I don't think kids' activities are curtailed much. My older daughter went to Y camp last year where they were outside 95% of the time, including 1.5 hours at the waterpark every day. They just made sure we sent PLENTY of water. And she never complained about the heat.

Summer festivals - this is a great thing about Charlotte. Every weekend night from spring through fall you can choose from close to a hundred places to listen to live music outside on a plaza or in a park, or you can bring wine and cheese to the Pops in the Park, where the symphony plays at the outdoor band shell, or go to an arts festival or a gallery crawl, etc. Or go to one of the parties at the International House to get to know some of the locals who hail from other cultures. There is plenty to do. Not as much that I'd call "cultural", like you'd find in a more metropolitan city, but enjoyable just the same.

[anonentity]

megassel, thanks for the reply.

i didn't expect to see high temperatures AND high humidity! all the realtor brochures and relo packages we've received note "average" summer temperatures around 80 degC. perhaps theirs is a longer view of summer!

so, the kids go the waterparks after school? what about summer sports?

bat-houses! now this i had to google!
backyardbird.com/bathouses.html

the roaches shall inherit the earth. actually, we have a pair of madgascar hissing roaches...large sedentary beasts until one of the kids let one of them out in the house. we haven't found it yet...

.

[lovethecarolinas]

I am originally from Southern California (3 years now in Tega Cay, SC...just outside of Charlotte, NC). I had heard the humidity was bad prior to us moving...so I just prepared for the worst. I was surprised as it never got as bad as I had imagined it would be. While I will admit there have been some days here and there that have been real scorchers...for the most part I feel I have adapted really well.

Now I am probably going to get made fun of...but here goes. Have you ever been to Palm Springs when it was 110 degrees outside and you just happen to walk through one of those cool misters that they have around town to try and keep you in a state of shopping...but every once in awhile there will be one that will spray out a warm mist of water on you....That would be what July and August would feel like here...your still hot..but now your a tad sticky too.

The other comparsion of what I thought of when we moved here was (now I am only speaking weatherwise here)...Hawaii w/o the palm trees.

Now luckily it is not every single day of July and August that is unbearable...add having some form of water near by and a/c makes things that much more enjoyable.


Mosquitoes..yes, we have them and we lather up with insect repellant (but there again we were attacked alot in CA too).

We do have alot of things out this way (summer concerts, fairs, parades)..but I think you are more interested in Charlotte itself..so I won't elaborate.

Originally Posted by anonentity

Having never lived in the south, escpecially Charlotte, could someone comment on...


...Summer weather: I see data for a couple-three months at 90deg/90% humidity. How would this feel, compared to say 100deg dry heat (California inland summer)? Do many homes have pools? Are there community pools in parks? How long to get to the beach?

...Summer bugs: mosquitoes, especially - are there lots? do you folks sleep with nets? do you need repellant? do they spray to control? Are there any really cool bugs?

...Kids in summer: do the heat/bugs make for more indoor activities? are after-school outdoors limited? Waiter...there's a <blank> in my soup!

...Summer festivals: any music, local folk/art, food, other cultural festivals?

[lovesMountains]

Originally Posted by anonentity

Having never lived in the south, escpecially Charlotte, could someone comment on...


...Summer weather: I see data for a couple-three months at 90deg/90% humidity. How would this feel, compared to say 100deg dry heat (California inland summer)? Do many homes have pools? Are there community pools in parks? How long to get to the beach?

...Summer bugs: mosquitoes, especially - are there lots? do you folks sleep with nets? do you need repellant? do they spray to control? Are there any really cool bugs?

...Kids in summer: do the heat/bugs make for more indoor activities? are after-school outdoors limited? Waiter...there's a <blank> in my soup!

...Summer festivals: any music, local folk/art, food, other cultural festivals?

90% humidity - not very often.

copying a prior post from mm34b concerning this issue:

The average relative humidity does not vary greatly from season to season but is generally the highest in winter and lowest in spring. The lowest relative humidities are found over the southern Piedmont, where the year around average is about 65 percent. The highest are along the immediate coast, averaging around 75 percent. The least amount of actual moisture is found in the higher mountain areas, but the lower temperatures there result in relative humidities that are about the same as elsewhere in the State.

Tropical hurricanes come close enough to influence North Carolina weather about twice in an average year. Much less frequently, perhaps averaging once in 10 years, these storms strike a part of the State with sufficient force to do much damage to inland property. Coastal properties occasionally suffer severe damage from associated high tides.

National Climatic Data Center (NCDC)

Climate of North Carolina Report

http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/climatenorm...Clim_NC_01.pdf

[muse1110]

By making sure one has no standing water available (all mosquitos require water to breed, can't breed any other way), one can eliminate much of the problem. Course, man made lakes make for a perfect mosquito environment...no individual can overcome the problem there!

I'm hoping no aerial sprays happen in Charlotte or surrounding counties.

[clt_gator]

I bought land in Sedona, AZ a couple years ago. Plan to move there in a few years -- 0% humidity and more importantly... NO MOSQUITOS!!!!! I've spent my whole life on the east coast. I'm ready for a change!

[Markh]

I was surprised last year that we had hardly any mosquitoes at all in our area of Huntersville. Maybe because of new construction??

Back in MA they'd be flying in and out of your mouth they were so bad.

I've had several run-ins with mojitos in our backyard though that have made me feel ill for a day or two

[BxRosie]

Originally Posted by Markh

I was surprised last year that we had hardly any mosquitoes at all in our area of Huntersville. Maybe because of new construction??

Back in MA they'd be flying in and out of your mouth they were so bad.

I've had several run-ins with mojitos in our backyard though that have made me feel ill for a day or two

Got to watch out for those flying Mojitos, I hear they're the worst!!

Back in NY, I was in the NYC watershed area in Putnam County...LOTS of lakes. Very hot & humid in July & August with mosquitos that needed landing lights! Huge & alot of them.

BxRosie

[Pikantari]

Mojitos?????