The heat in Phoenix....Is it really that bad?!?! (house, scorpions)

[observer53]

Originally Posted by Finger Laker

i
i'd take either of the intense snow & cold though

So true. I like to say, yes, it's hot here, but we don't have to shovel it.

[Finger Laker]

exactly - it may be boring, but you know what you're going to get on most days

you don't need to shovel it, you don't need to worry about rusting out your car and ruining your shoes with sun block (like you would salt in snow/ice), the sun doesn't make your feet wet so they freeze up in the cold, i've never had to make an alternate location in case the sun showed up - you can schedule a BBQ a month in advance and expect that it will go off without a weather related hitch

it's hot, but it's a convenient heat

[synapse]

Originally Posted by Daniel414

Phoenix really does get hot. I have seen 132 degrees at 10 am. And, PS, the dry heat is much much worse than the humidity and heat. I grew up in North Carolina so I know that it does get hot in the south, but 95 is nothing compared to Phoenix. In Phoenix, you can go 150 days without rain, all bearing nonstop temperatures over 110. Plus, it dries out your eyes and throat, and takes the breath right out of you. You sweat the minute you walk outside. The heat kills any flowers and small plants, and the dryness kills, well, everything.

That's just silly. The warmest it's ever been is 122, and thats briefly. Yes, it does get very hot, and it's annoying. On the other hand, it's dry, and that makes it MUCH more tolerable than anything out east. 95 and 95% humidity is disaster; 95 and dry is actually pretty pleasant. And the heat makes some of the desert flowers bloom. I don't particularly like Phoenix in the summer, but it's not like there's been a thermonuclear blast.

[NJ2AZSusan]

Originally Posted by synapse

95 and 95% humidity is disaster; 95 and dry is actually pretty pleasant. And the heat makes some of the desert flowers bloom. I don't particularly like Phoenix in the summer, but it's not like there's been a thermonuclear blast.

A dry 95 IS pretty pleasant. 115...not so much. But it's still better than hot and humid. But be aware of monsoon season in July and August, when a little humidity on top of triple digits makes it even more challenging.
And yes, I forgot to mention the beautiful desert blooms. People always think it's nothing but brown here, but that's not true. We have lots of color and green. It's just not a DEEP green, but it's still green!

[he's so hott]

To the OP, I'm from FL, lived in PHX for a couple of years and can tell you that while it gets hot in the summer in AZ being from FL you can handle it.

[khkenberg]

I am from Illinois and moved out here ten years ago. The winters and cold can get bad out there near Chicago, just like the summers out here with the heat. Is one better than the other?

I like both so there are advantages to living in Arizona where you can travel up to the mountains and get the winter snow and cold just a couple hours away from Phoenix.

I was in Chicago this last January, it was record breaking 24 below zero. my Mom's car wouldn't start, my brother was out shoveling snow every day even though he has a gall bladder operation. The local schools were closed for two days while the schools in in all of the Chicago metro area for one day. I didn't mind it too much but I was just there a week.

The heat here is like standing next to a bonfire. Sometimes, the heat is comfortable and it feels good, other times its like walking out into a sauna and you know it will be hot all the way to work in your car, but you don't have to wear winter clothes, boots, track in mud, scrape ice off of your windshield all winter, and buy gallons of windshield washer.

I have lived in New Jersey for a summer, and Arkansas for a couple weeks, and I lived in Tucson for three weeks years ago. I don't think the weather would stop me from living anywhere. Now if there were no jobs, that would be the big factor for me. I almost moved to Oregon and once to Colorado, but jobs are scarcer out there than here. I had a job offer in gorgeous Mountain View California but when I saw the price of houses I told them they would have to triple my pay or forget it. I am still here in Arizona so obviously they tried to find someone else. Glad I moved here. Are there other places better? I hope so but I don't know of where these places are yet.

[thegirlinaz]

It is just a very intense-hot heat. It feels like an oven.

[roosevelt]

Originally Posted by thegirlinaz

It is just a very intense-hot heat. It feels like an oven.

I was in Orlando when it was 20 degrees at Disney World, the fountains were frozen solid in mid air; I was in Orlando when it was 90 degrees and the humidity was 90; I will take Phoenix anytime. 105 here is not so bad, anything higher can be too hot but then everything is air conditioned now.

[§AB]

Originally Posted by Daniel414

Phoenix really does get hot. I have seen 132 degrees at 10 am.

In the sun

[Daniel414]

Actually, the newest record for phoenix is 134, though most areas around it are much lower. death valley has recorded 143 and an area in the atacama desert in chile reached 146. All of these were during an la nina year, and was recorded in 1994, though most sites about weather records are not updated very often, and are often the average of the entire area. And, i guess in a way the humidity is worse, but at least you don't sweat! Sorry for any confusion.