Chicago Winters vs. Houston Summers. Which is more bearable? (rates, Los Angeles, life)
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Say what you guys want but the cities known both domestically and internationally for beautiful people are Miami, Los Angeles and San Diego. No one thinks of Chicago and beauty in the same sentence
I think Montreal has the most beautiful women in North America, and it's colder than any major city in the US. LA/SD, not in my opinion. Miami for sure, but a good part of it is due to ethnicity, the appeal of which will vary depending on who you talk to and what they prefer. NYC over Miami, too, incredible variety of beautiful people.
It is not frigid cold and it does not snow every single day during Chicago winters. There are many days in the 40s and 50s throughout typical winters. Some years little to no snow falls until after Christmas. If it snows too much, you may have to stay home and miss a day of school or work. While it rarely goes over 100 in Houston during a typical summer, outside of a late cold front in early June, early cold front in late September, or a hurricane/tropical storm - EVERY-SINGLE-DAY in June thru September highs range from 92-99 and lows from 75-80 with dew points in the upper 70s. At 6am when you leave your house, moisture condenses on your a/c chilled skin, and coupled with the sweat that doesn't evaporate in near 100% humidity atmosphere of early morning leaves you dripping and soaking thru your clothes even before the heat of day approaches.
Those summer days in Houston feature enough sea-breeze from the coast to move the air, and induce some comfort. On top of that, the city has loads of natural shade, frequent thunderstorms, and lots of clouds in the sky, ensuring that comfort is induced in the city even with days in the mid to upper 90s. Summer nights are humid, yes, but they are full of cool breezes that allow for comfort most days. Unless you have a sweat gland problem, you will not be dripping with sweat on a summer evening, or morning in Houston.
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Originally Posted by RocketSci
Throw in a relentless sun thru milky white haze typical of Houston - as you approach your job in a city where over 1000 cars a week are added to the grid, and you are left in a hot soaking misery only to then be blasted into freezing by over-cooled buildings trying to chill down prior to the daytime heat soaking in.
These problem are entirely artificial and man-made. Summers in Houston are actually much hotter than what they naturally would be due to all the concrete sprawl infrastructure, and the loads of cars that spew exhaust; the chemical plants in the metro area don't help. As Houston becomes a more and more mass-transit oriented city, the populace will rely less on the cars, and the UHI/pollution produced will decline, allowing summer temps to cool to their natural state.
Effective ways of cooling a building without over-reliance on A/C exist, and without the over-doing that would result in chilling the building to the point of needing a jacket: https://www.city-data.com/forum/gener...ithout-ac.html
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Originally Posted by RocketSci
Then maybe, once you have resolved yourself to living in the hazy heat and near drought conditions over several days or weeks, in come the tropical rains - first in pop-up thunderstorms that always seem to appear during your commutes, steam rising from the scorching roadways like smoke, but never drench your thirsty lawn and garden - then in tropical waves that drop 1 to 4 inches an hour, drenching, and periodically flooding entire neighborhoods.
Nothing wrong with the frequent tropical rains Houston gets during summer; they help cool the air tremendously (daytime temps after such storms can be as low as the low 70F range after such storms). Those, along with plentiful natural shade and lush vegetation, lots of clouds in the sky, sea-breezes, help to ensure comfort in Houston. A little over-flowing of water in a poorly built neighborhood does not detract from that.
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Originally Posted by RocketSci
Then, if you have managed to avoid the storms by parking and staying on high ground, and think it is over and the drier heat returns for a few days, in come tropical depressions, storms, or even hurricanes from the gulf - and you hope and pray that if they do hit and damage your home that the damage exceeds the 5% hurricane deductible for your $5000+ near-gulf coast homeowners policy on your $150000 suburban home. You still debate whether to leave town since you got stuck in evacuation traffic for over 20 hours during Rita - and your dog died in the car from overheating when you ran low on fuel and couldn't run the a/c - but being at home during Ike was no picnic when the tornadoes hit the neighborhood and your back fence pieces kept slamming into your back wall while the tiles on your kitchen wall started falling off when the walls swelled at 3 in the morning, and wind-driven rain pushed thru your ridge vent into the attic and seeped thru your ceiling drywall. Anyway, I digress...
I pick Chicago winters.
Hurricanes are not a constant experience in Houston summers. But heavy snowfalls are typical of Chicago winters.
Heavy blizzards can knock out power like Hurricanes, but at least with hurricanes, you can have conducive temps to exploring the outdoors; if the power goes out during blizzard, you are stuck in a cold, freezing home.
Houston summers > Chicago winters. People experience conditions like Houston's summer climate when they live, play, vacation, and relax in tropical resorts around the world; Houston summers, thus, obviously aren't hard to deal with at all. Same can't be said for Chicago winters.
I think Montreal has the most beautiful women in North America, and it's colder than any major city in the US. LA/SD, not in my opinion. Miami for sure, but a good part of it is due to ethnicity, the appeal of which will vary depending on who you talk to and what they prefer. NYC over Miami, too, incredible variety of beautiful people.
San Diego has some of the most beautiful people of any U.S. city I've seen. I wouldn't even mind saying more than Miami or Los Angeles despite me loving both of those cities much more compared to sleepy and bland San Diego.
Anyways point stands. All 3 cities are warm weather climates. As you go up the coast of California you get less and less pretty. The Bay Area is a noticeable step down from SoCal and by the time you hit Seattle it's a diseaster almost as bad as Chicago.
New York City is a mega city, let's leave her out of the discussion
Houston summers > Chicago winters. People experience conditions like Houston's summer climate when they live, play, vacation, and relax in tropical resorts around the world; Houston summers, thus, obviously aren't hard to deal with at all. Same can't be said for Chicago winters.
Oh good grief, the same argument can be used for ski resort areas.Quite a few people enjoy those too.
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Unless you have a sweat gland problem, you will not be dripping with sweat on a summer evening, or morning in Houston.
I call utter BS on this too, having lived there in my twenties as a little 110 lb bit of nothing I hated how sweaty I would get doing any kind of outdoor physical activity in the mornings and evenings (because let's face it, it's too freakin' hot to do those activities midday). I suppose if all you do is sit around sipping your ice cold drinks while swinging in your hammock or lounging around the pool or beach it's ok, but you know that gets old after a while when you're young and active.
Oh good grief, the same argument can be used for ski resort areas.Quite a few people enjoy those too.
Those actions are done differently in ski resorts vs tropical resorts, and have different connotations too.
Ski resorts are for taking part in the extremity, and dynamism of winter sports like skiing, snowboarding, etc, not with the relaxing, more easy-going flair you have in tropical resorts. Often times, unlike in ski-resorts, weather often is used as a draw, and many such tropical resorts are oft-said to have desirable, easy-to-deal-with climates. Considering that such tropical resorts experience essentially year-round what Houston only see's during the warm season, I then say that Houston's summers are quite easy to deal with as well, compared to Chicago winters.
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Originally Posted by DubbleT
I call utter BS on this too, having lived there in my twenties as a little 110 lb bit of nothing I hated how sweaty I would get doing any kind of outdoor physical activity in the mornings and evenings (because let's face it, it's too freakin' hot to do those activities midday). I suppose if all you do is sit around sipping your ice cold drinks while swinging in your hammock or lounging around the pool or beach it's ok, but you know that gets old after a while when you're young and active.
Oh please, when I was in Houston during summer, I saw loads people doing all sorts of activities, even in the middle of the day. I played pickup basketball in downtown Houston, and nobody felt overwhelmed overwhelmed enough by the summer heat to quit playing. Basketball, baseball, softball, tennis, football, soccer, swimming, jogging, skate-boarding, out-door shopping, kite flying, barbecuing, etc all were being done with ease, with no qualms about heat or humidity. Houston's heat and humidity may not be the most ideal weather condition for such activities, but it is far better than Chicago's winter cold. You won't see that vibrant outdoor activity buzz in Chicago winters like would with Houston summers. The heavy gear needed to keep comfy in Chicago winters would make it very cumbersome to enjoy such outdoor activities described.
Houston summers are a walk in a park compared to Chicago or any midwestern winter. I know a lot of people will come in and adamantly disagree with me. This is CD after all.
In Houston, there was a healthy percent of locals who looked forward to summer and the warmer weather which meant boating, trips to Galveston, and BBQ. I do remember we had a late start to our summer, some cold weather came in late April/early May and people complained.
In the midwest (I never lived in Chicago but have in Detroit and Minneapolis), a late start to winter has people cheering. During the winter all you hear is people complaining.
In Houston, during the summer, there is maybe a 4-6 hour window period when it's hot, and you will sweat, and you will want AC especially if you're in a suit or business casual. But the rest (18-20 hours) is beautiful, nice, warm but not sweaty. In the midwest, a cold day is an even colder and more miserable night. It's non stop misery basically.
I agree with you. Plus, in Houston you don't have all those annoying salt stains all over your shoes, and your car doesn't look like it's been covered in a thick layer of salt- hideous. Bye, Bye, Chicago. I'll never return.
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