It's HOT! It's COLD! It's WINDY! It's DRY! It's WET! It's OUR Weather! (Dallas: local, complex)

[kenshi]

Originally Posted by highcotton

You may want to keep an eye on the Dew Points and 'Feels Like' Heat Index for all the southeastern states and along the Mississippi River from the Gulf all the way to the far north.

Yes, the heat index is a whopping three degrees higher in Chicago than in Dallas at this moment. The difference is their relief is coming in two days. Our relief is coming in October.

The one thing I will give to Chicago though is that since this kind of heat is so rare, a lot of people there don't have air conditioning. This would be hell to suffer through without air conditioning. Of course a few people here have broken air conditioners so they're really no better off.

[-Focused-]

Originally Posted by MobileDave

I think another thing that makes a difference is the amount of rain the SE and Gulf Coast gets when compared to Dallas during the summer. Of course this would be the case in a more humid climate.

Focused, if you don't mind me asking when was the last time this happened where you live?

Not sure, Dave. I live in the Midwest, so I'm used to it being hot and sunny one day and cold and hailing/snowing/coming a tornado the next.

As of right now, it's 105. That's been standard the last couple of weeks, but it's definitely not "normal." That said, I've just kind of gotten used to it. You walk outside and it feels like you've just stepped into a sauna.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by kenshi

The one thing I will give to Chicago though is that since this kind of heat is so rare, a lot of people there don't have air conditioning.

Er, I take it you've never been to Chicago? Unless by "a lot" you mean "a small minority of people". I can assure you that the vast majority of people have air conditioning there. If they don't have central air they have window units.

Also, define "this kind of heat". Chicago gets over 90 every summer, it's just that it doesn't do it very frequently. However, since it's usually more humid there, the heat index at 90 is pretty darn bad. The difference is that in Chicago 90 is unusual and 95 is maybe 3-10 days a year, whereas in Dallas 90 is "average high for over 4 months of the year" and 95 is "average high for July and August".

[kenshi]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

Er, I take it you've never been to Chicago? Unless by "a lot" you mean "a small minority of people". I can assure you that the vast majority of people have air conditioning there. If they don't have central air they have window units.

I stayed there for a week with a friend whose apartment had no air conditioner. This was a decent apartment in a fairly nice part of town. She said you had to put your own window unit in if you wanted air conditioning and this was pretty common in apartments except the high-end ones. Houses may be different but a lot of people don't live in houses so that doesn't invalidate my statement.

Have you been to Chicago?

Also, define "this kind of heat". Chicago gets over 90 every summer, it's just that it doesn't do it very frequently. However, since it's usually more humid there, the heat index at 90 is pretty darn bad. The difference is that in Chicago 90 is unusual and 95 is maybe 3-10 days a year, whereas in Dallas 90 is "average high for over 4 months of the year" and 95 is "average high for July and August".

This kind of heat is the kind of heat going on right now, hence "this" and not "that". Don't say that every summer is like this; highcotton has posted enough links about records being broken.

[synchronicity]

Originally Posted by kenshi

I stayed there for a week with a friend whose apartment had no air conditioner. This was a decent apartment in a fairly nice part of town. She said you had to put your own window unit in if you wanted air conditioning and this was pretty common in apartments except the high-end ones. Houses may be different but a lot of people don't live in houses so that doesn't invalidate my statement.

Have you been to Chicago?

Well, not for very long. I did live there briefly before moving to Dallas. From 1994 to 2011. And for almost as many years on top of that in my youth.

Now, it IS true that a fair number of apartments in the city and some of the older burbs don't have central air (it's hardly "pretty common in apartments except the high end ones", I would say it's fairly common in OLDER apartments. Depends on where your friends were living, maybe that described their particular area well. Any idea where they were?), but the thing is that, as I stated in my earlier post, MOST people in that situation have window units.

To be fair, I did live without AC from 1994 thru 1995, but it was in a small, older apartment and I was pretty darn broke at the time. Then a heat wave came thru in 1995 (look up some of the record temps, we're talking 105+ with heat indices WELL over 110, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Chicago_heat_wave) and in went the window unit AC.

Then I moved to an apartment in the burbs, and lo and behold, that one had central air. As was UNIVERSAL in that area.

Originally Posted by kenshi

This kind of heat is the kind of heat going on right now, hence "this" and not "that". Don't say that every summer is like this; highcotton has posted enough links about records being broken.

100 is rare and most summers the temp doesn't hit that at all. 90's are not and heat indices over 90 (which happen when the temps hit the upper 80's) generally occur on and off throughout the summer. highcotton posted a map showing a projected high in Chicago on a given day of 93 - that's hardly "so rare" for heat by Chicago standards.

Yes, Dallas is hotter than Chicago, even when one goes by heat indices rather than temperatures (although the gap is not quite as great going by heat indices, but it's still sizable). I noted that.

And the vast majority of people in Chicago DO have air conditioning. Most homes have central air and every new home does. Most if not all high rises do. Yes, there are older apartments don't have AC built in, but most people have window units, your friends (or me for one year out of 30+ living in the area) notwithstanding.

[highcotton]

[highcotton]

Wow! That Chicago and Washington, D.C. area is really nasty. So is coastal Virginia and the Carolinas, not to mention NC, SC, Georgia, Florida and all the southern states. Hell, the entire eastern half of the U.S. (with the exception of the far NE) has sticky high Dew Points. Seems to me there are far worse places than Texas to experience an uncomfortable summer...

[Double-G]

HC's gonna keep this thread going until Doomsday.

HC - spice it up a bit. At least reference AGW or Aliens or something.

[kenshi]

Originally Posted by synchronicity

Now, it IS true that a fair number of apartments in the city and some of the older burbs don't have central air (it's hardly "pretty common in apartments except the high end ones", I would say it's fairly common in OLDER apartments. Depends on where your friends were living, maybe that described their particular area well. Any idea where they were?), but the thing is that, as I stated in my earlier post, MOST people in that situation have window units.

She did certainly live in an old apartment, and most of the apartments in the area looked the same way. I figured it was a Chicago thing, Chicago being a much older city than any I've ever lived in. She lived near the intersection of Sheridan and Bryn Mawr. I could get off the train there and walk to her apartment in about five minutes. I'll try to talk to her about it again. I think that was her first apartment in Chicago (and the United States for that matter) although she'd been in it for a while but now she's been in two others. I never asked her if the others had air conditioning.

[ReppingDFW]

It's 75 degrees outside here in my area of DFW.