The Great Heat Wave

[Drover]

Originally Posted by hank0604

How hot was it? I've never heard anything about that, but growing up in Louisiana we always laughed at the news reports talking about 90 degree "heat waves" in Chicago, New York, etc.

I lived in Wisconsin at the time, and it got up to 103 degrees up there. I staffed part time at a Boy Scout camp that summer, mostly doing lifeguard duty that summer. For a couple of days they basically shut down the entire camp and told everyone to go down to the lake and go swimming. Those were very sucky days for us lifeguards.

And while you may have laughed at us in Louisiana, you probably don't have a lot of people living in 20-story highrises (many without air conditioning) down there either. 90 degrees on the street can mean 120 degrees on the upper floors. Not a laughing matter.

And as much as you laugh at our 90+ degree heat waves, we laugh whenever half an inch of snow utterly paralyzes an entire Southern city and sends everyone into a panic.

Originally Posted by hank0604

I'd just like to know what I can expect once summer hits. I decided to move here to get away from heat. This past summer we set a record in Austin, TX for most consecutive days over 100 degrees. It was like 25 or 30. Anyway, I just don't want to deal with that here as well.

This past summer I ran my air conditioning for less than two weeks combined. And for about half of that period, it was simply to clear some of the humidity out of my apartment, not because it was particularly hot. If I had a ceiling fan in my living room, I probably wouldn't have needed the A/C for half the time I used it. But here's the key: I'm also in a first-floor apartment, and I pay the price for that come winter. If you're on a third or fourth floor, count on using A/C more often than your first-floor neighbors. I don't think we've hit 100 degrees since the summer of 2006.

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Drover

And as much as you laugh at our 90+ degree heat waves, we laugh whenever half an inch of snow utterly paralyzes an entire Southern city and sends everyone into a panic.

Most of the time all it took was a threat of snow to cancel schools, etc. I remember living in Tennessee and there was a chance of 2-3" of snow and they shut down EVERYTHING, including the military base (Fort Campbell)! Ive never laughed so hard in my life.