Weather question for those from the Northeast (Tampa, Holiday: apartment, home)

[sharepoint128]

I have read so many posts about people leaving or not being able to handle the hot/humid weather.

So which of the two do you believe is the greater hardship (understanding it is subjective); the Winter cold and snow of New England or the Summer hot and humid of Tampa.

[jambo101]

Very subjective question but going by this forum the vast majority of people moving to Florida usually mention how they are fed up with 10 months of cold gloomy weather and they are tired of shoveling snow everyday and so moving to Florida seems to be their solution..
A few mention how they dislike Florida heat and humidity and a few of them actually move back up north.
In my opinion if you are outside a lot its easier to dress for cold conditions than it is to dress for hot conditions, If you spend most of your time inside it doesnt really matter as you'll have the heat on or the A/C on.

[ApolloBeachRetiree]

My wife, who is from Wisconsin, loves the heat and humidity...the hotter, the better. I am OK with the heat and will take year round pleasant weather over winter anywhere. I was born and raised in Toronto and lived for many years in winnipeg. I know winter and I know how cold and bitter it can be.

No more winters and no more snow for us.

It is nice to be able to drive on pavement year round that is not covered with salt. I always hated watching my cars rust.

[dothetwist]

I lived in DC for many years and the heat and humidity there from late July to early September is comparable to the h&h here, though the summers here last much longer. I still spend a great deal of time outdoors in the summers here, but I limit my gardening and biking to the early morning or early evening. As I've aged, my blood has indeed thinned and find myself wearing a sweatshirt when the temperature goes below 68 degrees.

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by sharepoint128

I have read so many posts about people leaving or not being able to handle the hot/humid weather.

So which of the two do you believe is the greater hardship (understanding it is subjective); the Winter cold and snow of New England or the Summer hot and humid of Tampa.

They are equal. While you are cold mowing snow up there, people melt mowing lawns to keep HOA's happy down there.

It boils down to what YOU personally can tolerate better. After being in the cold mowing snow you return to a nice toasty living room, after mowing grass you return to an AC's very cold living room!

Take your pick.

[Sunnydee]

We came from the Midwest and find the heat and humidity here no worse than what we experienced there, but it does last a bit longer. Being able to be outside year round, in shorts and flipflops the majority of the time, gardening, walking, biking, playing kickball, etc. trumps anything. We just love it here, but we like it warm and, as we age, find ourselves getting cold when it's under 70 degrees. Also having blue skies, sunshine, flowering plants, and natural beauty surrounding you cannot be discounted. It's just so visually appealing whereas the Midwest was just so gray much of the year. For people who like to be warm Florida is a blessing.

[cjrudy]

While it probably depends on each individual, my wife and I have decide we have had enough and after 47 yeas of living in the Northeast we are moving to Tampa next year.

Its not just about the cold and snow during the six months of winter but also the additional four months of gloomy rainy weather during the spring and fall. Ten months of gray skies will drive you insane.

For us, our number one reason for relocating is climate and many people just cannot understand that. Other people move for jobs, family, school etc, but not us. We need to be somewhere we can enjoy the things we love all year long, the beach, the sun, the ocean, boating, swimming, snorkeling, hiking, paddle-boarding, biking, etc.

We have been traveling to Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean for 25 years, we have spent weeks in Florida during the summer heat and love it. We have spent time in the jungles of Mexico during the middle of July and know the meaning of humidity. We'll gladly take the beautiful muggy, unbearable heat over the crappy cold of the Northeast any day.


Eight more months..........Just got to make it eight more months

[Jo48]

Let me first say that we did not move to Florida for the weather, but for my husband's job. When you are out of work for over a year, you will go anywhere for work. Having lived in Florida, also then not for weather when I was 21, I knew fully well what it would be like. I left after 6 months then.

I grew up in NYC back in the 1950s in a small apartment before home AC. Summers were horrible. To try to cool off I took two cold baths (no shower) a day. At night I went to sleep in just my underwear as a little child, but still woke up many times in the night with the sheets soaking in sweat. Fans did no good whatsoever. My parents took me down by the Hudson River at night to try to cool off. We went on the Staten Island Ferry just to try to catch a breeze.

Winters? A number of times the building oil burner would break and we would be without heat sometimes for days. Worse? Actually, there are far more ways to keep warm to cool off. We wore coats and hats INSIDE the apartment. A couple of times I even wore my coat to bed a night. Mom would put the oven on and boil water to wash up with. No hot water either.

Which was worse for me? The SUMMER heat. Even in the Winter you could just wear MORE clothes. Cold baths only worked for a short time. Taking off your clothes did not help at all.

I suppose my dislke of heat stems from my childhood. It has just gotten worse with aging and living in Florida. Does your blood also thicken when you age? lol If so, that would be me! Ok, we have AC in Florida, but can I push my AC down to 40 or 50 degrees????? Nope. I love wearing a lot of clothes; flannels, wool sweaters, down coats. I hate wearing shorts, even in my younger years, with my legs sticking together from sweat. Sunshine? Yuck. I prefer darkness. We do back to New York every year for the Holidays. No snow this year. Cold rain for days. While I would have preferred snow, 40s and 50s with rain was definitely more to my liking that 85 degrees and blazing sunshine in Florida. I am not looking forward to going back to all this heat.

My husband is retiring in 2 years. We are moving back North. At least the heat up there is only a few months. I can live with it for a short time, but not all YEAR. People are not all the same. Not ALL old people cannot take the COLD.

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by cjrudy

While it probably depends on each individual, my wife and I have decide we have had enough and after 47 yeas of living in the Northeast we are moving to Tampa next year.

Its not just about the cold and snow during the six months of winter but also the additional four months of gloomy rainy weather during the spring and fall. Ten months of gray skies will drive you insane.

For us, our number one reason for relocating is climate and many people just cannot understand that. Other people move for jobs, family, school etc, but not us. We need to be somewhere we can enjoy the things we love all year long, the beach, the sun, the ocean, boating, swimming, snorkeling, hiking, paddle-boarding, biking, etc.

We have been traveling to Florida, Mexico and the Caribbean for 25 years, we have spent weeks in Florida during the summer heat and love it. We have spent time in the jungles of Mexico during the middle of July and know the meaning of humidity. We'll gladly take the beautiful muggy, unbearable heat over the crappy cold of the Northeast any day.


Eight more months..........Just got to make it eight more months

We have several months of non stop storms in the summer; the summers are not just blue skies, and hot and humid, they are gray too, and it rains non stop...bank on that as well.

Its one thing to "travel" here and a whole other to "live here". Just keep that in mind.

[dothetwist]

This was our first summer in FL.

We expected lots of rain, but we got very little. Neighbors who have lived here a long time said that Gulfport is normally spared storms that fizzle out either over land (coming from Tampa). Or, they fizzle out after hitting the barrier islands (if coming in from the west, from the Gulf). As one neighbor put it: it's like Gulfport has an umbrella over it.

We live one block from Boca Ceiga Bay and hear the thunder, see the lightning over the Bay, BUT the rain rarely materializes on shore here.

I had to water my plants and run sprinklers all summer, only a few times all summer could I skip one of the twice-weekly sprinkler sessions.