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...and I'm talking strictly heat/humidity/weather here. Not the people. (As that's a whole 'nother can of worms, I'm sure. Ha!) Anyone lived in Florida for a period of years? Would you consider the summers in Raleigh semi-tolerable or even comparable to the Gulf Coast of FL? TIA!
I live in both Raleigh and Miami and can tell you that Raleigh's Summers are much more tolerable IMHO. The temps might be higher in Raleigh during some days but the humidity is stronger/higher in Miami across the board and the evenings in Miami are pretty darn hot from late May through October. Overnight lows of 80 for months on end are not unusual in Miami where overnight lows in Raleigh during the peak of the Summer heat seem to be consistently about ten degrees cooler.
On the plus side for Miami, the air in the Summer never gets stagnant because the city is on the ocean and it rains a lot.
It's a mixed bag. "Florida" is a broad term, I suppose depending on what part of FL you lived in. We were in Delray Beach, a mile from the ocean. There was constantly a breeze so the summers were manageable. Nowhere near as bad as I thought they would be. On the plus side, with the breeze, there were little to no insects, but here you have flies like mad during the summer (they drive me nuts). You can have those stagnant days here.
I actually enjoyed the daily thunderstorms as the humidity built up over the Everglades.
I think the one plus for Raleigh is that although the summer is bad here, there is less of it. In all honesty, you're looking at maybe 2 weeks to a month of what I would consider really bad (heat/humidity) weather. As bad as the summers are here, the spring and fall make up for it, in my opinion. Something I really missed in SoFL.
I moved here from Florida and lived both in the Tampa and Ocala areas for my first 50 years. And I have to say: I have *never* been as hot as I've been here in Raleigh the past three summers.
I think what bothers me is the change in humidity. In Florida, let's face it: from mid-May to mid-September, it's hot and humid. It never really changes. You wake up: it's sticky. You go to sleep: it's still sticky. The lows at night are the high 70s, the highs max out at mid 90s. So, your body gets used to it, I think.
Here, the humidity changes day to day, hour to hour. And there's no ocean breeze to waft it away. And for me, anytime the temps are over 95, it feels like being pressed down in an oven hot.
I'm actually going to Savannah on business in mid-August, and it has virtually the same weather as Ocala. I'm curious as to how my body reacts to the mega humidity and 90s. Has my blood "thinned" from being up here, and will I be miserable?
So, from a native Floridian, I find the summers here more uncomfortable. However, they do end, and usually by early September the sun has shifted and the humidity takes a break as the north air begins to spill down.
Bottom line: not really comparable to the Gulf Coast, hotter in temps, but the summers don't last as long. July/August can be awful in a way that July/August on the coast isn't.
That's a good point beatkay. I really struggled to pick a clear winner here. The temp/humidity may be miserable in FL but at least it's constant. You get acclimated to it.
I grew up in Boston...so it's kind of like the southerners talking about how bad the winters are up north. At least they are constant and you get used to it.
I've learned that whether Boston, Raleigh or Delray Beach, there is good and bad in every location.
I grew up in SoFL, Coral Springs, specifically and lived there until I was 22. From FL, I moved to Gaithersburg, MD, then Charlottesville, VA, then Raleigh. I still don't care for winters here, but they are much better than VA/MD. The gray kind of gets to me and I get a little jealous watching all my FL friends post pics on Facebook of the beach in February.
I don't think the summers are that bad here. Yes, it's hotter and usually drier. We don't get the daily afternoon thunderstorms that clear out in time to watch the sunset. I really miss that.
However, the change of seasons, the beauty of the area, proximity to both beaches and mountains (although I still miss living at the beach and have kicked around the idea of moving to Wilmington) far outweighs any climate discomfort. Winters are relatively short and so is the hottest/most humid part of summer. I don't think the heat and humidity is that bad, personally. For me, anything under 95* is great, IMO. And there aren't that many days hotter than that. I personally like the inconsistent weather patterns. If it's super hot/cold/rainy/snowy just wait a few days and it'll be beautiful.
When we moved up here from West Palm Beach 13 years ago, I thought we were moving to the Great White North because it was so far north. But in all my years in south Florida (and they were many), I've never been as hot as I am in the Triangle in the summer. I don't believe I ever experienced temperatures over a hundred degrees in the Sunshine State, but it's happened many, many times here. Combined with the oppressive humidity, summers here in Wake Forest are nearly unbearable. The only good thing, as someone else pointed out, is that the heat doesn't last as long as it does down south. But in the middle of July, that's scant comfort.
Thanks so much for the responses!! I was born and raised in Sarasota (south of Tampa), lived there for 21 years until moving here to the PNW. The weather here honestly was a relief after living so many years in a 'constant summer.' Now I have two young kids though, and between the insane cost of living and the lack of sun - we've decided it's time to move on to the next adventure. My oldest complains when the weather hits above 85. Poor kid has no idea what a hot day can truly feel like.
I grew up in SoFL, Coral Springs, specifically and lived there until I was 22. <> I personally like the inconsistent weather patterns. If it's super hot/cold/rainy/snowy just wait a few days and it'll be beautiful.
+1 After grade school, I lived in Palm Beach and Miami, then moved to PA. Then back to Raleigh in '07.
I was just commenting to a neighbor how nice it will be until the end of June. Fall starts being nice in September. You can always run off to the beach or the mountains if you don't like where you are in the seasonal cycle.
Lived in Raleigh for 8 years and now on the Florida GC. Raleigh has fronts. Florida is just hot night and day from May till October.
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Anyone lived in Florida for a period of years? Would you consider the summers in Raleigh semi-tolerable or even comparable to the Gulf Coast of FL? TIA! 
