Denver Humidity (Longmont, Louisville: transplants, house, moving)

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by justsomeguy

I agree that Dallas is probably the place for you based on all of your criteria. I am sort of the opposite, I can't stand extreme heat. Actually I don't like the cold either, but there is something kind of "tranquil" about Winter that I like. Unfortunately I get cold VERY easily so maybe Denver isn't for me either. We'll see.

I figure you can always add more layers in the winter. But you can strip naked and still be miserably hot and sticky when its 100 degrees with 70% humidity.

[justsomeguy]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

I figure you can always add more layers in the winter. But you can strip naked and still be miserably hot and sticky when its 100 degrees with 70% humidity.

It's the sweating that I can't stand. I can't stead being outside and sweating and being wet and sticky. Frankly I just hate being wet. I also hate rain. I haven't had much experience with snow, but since snow gets you wet, I imagine it would grate on my nerves as well. San Diego, where I live now, is probably the ideal climate for me. It's just so expensive here! Also, even though it is ideal, it is starting to get a little boring. Sunny, mild days lose their luster when you experience them everyday!

[gpraceman]

Originally Posted by justsomeguy

Frankly I just hate being wet. I also hate rain. I haven't had much experience with snow, but since snow gets you wet, I imagine it would grate on my nerves as well. San Diego, where I live now, is probably the ideal climate for me. It's just so expensive here! Also, even though it is ideal, it is starting to get a little boring. Sunny, mild days lose their luster when you experience them everyday!

It does not sound like you would be happy in CO.

I was glad to get away from SD and its boring weather, not to mention the heat (if you don't live right along the coast) and going without rain for long stretches (6 months for one stretch). I like having 4 seasons and the spectacular thunderstorms that we can get many afternoons in the summer. In SD weathermen had to do other things, like gardening segments, since they had a cake job.

[Winter01]

Originally Posted by BSL63087

Thanks, this post gives me a better idea I think of what I was wanting to know. I keep hearing it isn't all that bad in the winter which leaves me thinking it will be pretty comfortable (maybe not shorts and a t-shirt, afterall it is Denver) but where you could wear a light sweatshirt or light jacket most of the time even into January and February. My definition of cold is pretty similar to yours and I'd say anything under about 45 or definitly 40 is too cold. 65-85 is my comfort range where it's not only tolorable but comfortable. It seems to me that while it may as you said sometimes warm up into the 60s or so on occasion, it's pretty rare actually in winter. That's the way it is here and I am looking for a place that is more mild for the most part but I could take a few days of cold here and there. I think Dallas fits my wants in a climate more. Yeah, really bad summers, but it has been above 95 for at least 3-4 weeks here now and while I will admit it's starting to become a bit of a drag but I can at least tolorate it. I go outside, I play golf in it, etc. and I can tolorate it. Basically the way I'm looking at it, I played 18 holes of golf in 102 a couple of weeks ago and I had plenty of water so I was fine... If it were extreme cold instead of extreme heat, say 15 degrees for the high one day, I would not even go outside much less attempt to play golf or anything else. (I just looked at the climatology data for Denver and there are some days where the high may only be 15 or even single digits on rare occasions )

I think I've come to the conclusion that Denver's climate is just not for me. I guess it was a bit of wishful thinking to think that it would be warm a lot in the winter time in Denver but then again, it's Denver it's supposed to be cold in January. I think I'm getting close to settling on Dallas and my dad seems to have Dallas at the top of the places he'd consider relocating to also so it might be a match. Some people don't like it, some love it. We thought it was great. I guess every place isn't for everyone. Denver will definitly be on the top of my list for vacation getaways though, I hear they have a lot of pretty cheap flights to that area from DFW because a lot of people like to go to the mountains for vacations from the DFW area so I guess Denver is more of a place for me to visit for a week or so rather than live there permanantly.

It's really interesting that you are moving to the Dallas area. That is actually where we are in the process of relocating to. My husband has a great job opportunity there so we have decided to go. Everyone has warned us about bugs, heat and humidity but we have decided we will take our chances because I just don't want to go through another winter here. I will say that the summers and the mountains are beyond beautiful here and you can't get that in Dallas but I guess we could always come back if it doesn't work out.....Good luck to you!! I've done a lot of research on Dallas so feel free to PM me if you want to.

[sberdrow]

Originally Posted by Winter01

It's really interesting that you are moving to the Dallas area. That is actually where we are in the process of relocating to. My husband has a great job opportunity there so we have decided to go. Everyone has warned us about bugs, heat and humidity but we have decided we will take our chances because I just don't want to go through another winter here. I will say that the summers and the mountains are beyond beautiful here and you can't get that in Dallas but I guess we could always come back if it doesn't work out.....Good luck to you!! I've done a lot of research on Dallas so feel free to PM me if you want to.

You'll be begging for that snow after you spend 5 months in that miserable place with heat and humidity like nothing you have ever felt before. Oh and don't forget the poisonous snakes in your back yard, and the scorpions.

[BSL63087]

Originally Posted by Winter01

It's really interesting that you are moving to the Dallas area. That is actually where we are in the process of relocating to. My husband has a great job opportunity there so we have decided to go. Everyone has warned us about bugs, heat and humidity but we have decided we will take our chances because I just don't want to go through another winter here. I will say that the summers and the mountains are beyond beautiful here and you can't get that in Dallas but I guess we could always come back if it doesn't work out.....Good luck to you!! I've done a lot of research on Dallas so feel free to PM me if you want to.

Thanks, good luck to you guys too. Dallas is humid but it's not quite as humid as Atlanta or Houston or Florida. Some people think the heat is unbearable and that you are totally miserable which may be true for some but I seem to handle it a little better I guess. Some people can deal with it better than others just as some people can deal with the cold better than others. Hopefully you can adjust to it. I would even have to adjust if I moved to Dallas... it's as hot here as it is there from late July into August but it's probably a little hotter there than it is here in May, June, and September. March and April and then October and November are usually pretty pleasant in Dallas. December-February can sometimes get cold but it's usually only for a couple of days and it can warm up into the 60s, 70s and even 80s on rare occasions in the middle of the winter so that's what I'm looking forward to.

As for the bugs, I don't know if Dallas is any worse than here (Louisville) but if it's not then it won't be bad at all. There are some bugs around here and mosquitoes and such... I don't ever wear bug spray or anything and I rarely get mosquito bites. I don't know if Denver has them but basically it just itches a little for a couple of days and goes away. It's not a big deal really. I never even really notice any except at night. They do seem to come out at night here but that is one thing I haven't really done any research about for Dallas. I don't think it's that big of a deal. It's not like there are hundreds of thousands of bugs just swarming you at all times of the day outside or anything.

[jkcoop]

Ok, I grew up in Nebraska (hot, humid in summer, cold winters) then lived in East Texas for 10 years, Dallas for 5 and now here in Colorado for 8.
I would never live anywhere else.
I hated, hated, hated the Dallas weather. The humidity is unbearable to me and the fact that it is still that way at 11pm at night....
Here, even if it gets hot during the day it cools off at night.
As far as the winters, I don't even own a big coat. My son, even on really cold days just wears a light jacket over a hoodie to school. The intensity of the sun/altitude here make all the difference in the world. 45 degrees can be outright hot in the winter if the sun is out.
I love the seasons - that was another thing I disliked about Texas - just two seasons. Dallas tends to be pretty wet during the winter and the wet combined with humidity makes it feel bone chilling to me.
We love the outdoors and can do things year round here. When we go back to Texas for visit family it's pretty much running from one air conditioned place to the next. It is just to miserable to be outside. I always feel like I can barely move in that humidity!

[BSL63087]

Originally Posted by justsomeguy

I agree that Dallas is probably the place for you based on all of your criteria. I am sort of the opposite, I can't stand extreme heat. Actually I don't like the cold either, but there is something kind of "tranquil" about Winter that I like. Unfortunately I get cold VERY easily so maybe Denver isn't for me either. We'll see.

Where are you at now? It gets pretty hot especially in July and August just about everywhere but I guess the humidity is what makes most people miserable. I have never lived in a dry place so I have no idea what the differences are other than what people tell me. Louisville isn't exactly really humid (usually mid 40% range in the middle of the day, 70%-80% in morning and at night) but I have been comparing the weather for here and Dallas for a couple of months now and unless it's unusually drier this summer for whatever reason in Dallas, it's maybe slightly more humid there than it is here... Not a huge difference. Currently, here, it is 88F with 39% humidity. Dallas is 93F with 45% humidity.

I don't exactly like the heat but I can still function in it without being miserable. Same goes for cold above about 40 but anything colder than that I am miserable depending on the situation. In high school I kept the stat book for all of the baseball games since I sucked too bad to play but I still wanted to be part of the team. I can remember some days in March and early April where it was down right miserable. Gloves, jackets, etc and still freezing. The wind was blowing too which made it even worse. I can remember times trying to play basketball outside with gloves and stuff and it was still too cold. I think a lot of it has to do with the wind chill. It seems like it's somewhat windy here in the winter time so that probably has a lot to do with it. If it's not windy even 40 isn't THAT bad. Dallas is one of the windiest cities in the country (I heard it's even windier than Chicago ) so that may be something for me to take into consideration but then again it isn't under 40 during the day that often there.

[BSL63087]

Originally Posted by jkcoop

Ok, I grew up in Nebraska (hot, humid in summer, cold winters) then lived in East Texas for 10 years, Dallas for 5 and now here in Colorado for 8.
I would never live anywhere else.
I hated, hated, hated the Dallas weather. The humidity is unbearable to me and the fact that it is still that way at 11pm at night....
Here, even if it gets hot during the day it cools off at night.
As far as the winters, I don't even own a big coat. My son, even on really cold days just wears a light jacket over a hoodie to school. The intensity of the sun/altitude here make all the difference in the world. 45 degrees can be outright hot in the winter if the sun is out.
I love the seasons - that was another thing I disliked about Texas - just two seasons. Dallas tends to be pretty wet during the winter and the wet combined with humidity makes it feel bone chilling to me.
We love the outdoors and can do things year round here. When we go back to Texas for visit family it's pretty much running from one air conditioned place to the next. It is just to miserable to be outside. I always feel like I can barely move in that humidity!

Was it windy in Dallas in winter? We went in April and it was pretty windy but it was also 75 so it felt good. If it's as windy as it was then on a 40 degree December day...

[jkcoop]

Well, I guess it depends on what your definition of windy is....I don't recall it being that bad - nothing sticks out in my mind - but that may be because the wind here during the winter takes the cake. It is the one thing I hate here. But when it windy here during the winter, it isn't cold - it's because we are getting downslope winds and that is what warms everything up. It's just that it literally rattles the house. And we're talking 50, 60 and more mile an hour winds.
We get snow here when there is an upslope - weather coming from the east and pushing up against the mountains. I'm in Longmont - which tends to get less snow because we are slightly away from the foothills but not far enough out in the plains - and we are also in a river valley. It seems to go around us quite a bit.
So to answer your question - my perspective might have been skewed since moving here, but I don't remember horrible winds. At least not compared to here.
If weather really is such a huge factor in your decision of where to move I'd really visit Dallas during the summer and again in the winter. April really is one of the nicest months. I think the one week of spring is sandwiched in there between the wet, chilly winter and the hot summer