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However, I am telling you guys...you'd be shocked / amazed at just how many people nationally think Santa Fe's climate is going to be "like Phoenix."
Ummmm...no, EnjoyEP, I would hardly be shocked / amazed at that. I have spent years correcting dozens of people about that point...and still AM correcting people who feel sorry for me because they think I have moved to a Phoenix-type climate.
Heck, many of my friends back in other parts of the country think I HAVE moved to Arizona!!!!!
I think dry heat is much more comfortable because (1) It actually does some good to sweat, and (2) the shade feels a lot cooler in dry heat than in damp heat. Also, dry heat usually means a large diurnal range; it gets cooler at night! I realize that really hot places like Phoenix and Las Vegas, NV aren't that way.
But when you get right down to it, it is all one's perception. Some people like humid heat.
EnjoyEP, I know what you mean about dew points, but dew point, absolute and relative humidity are all different measures of the same thing: the amount of water in the air. Dew points are perhaps the easiest to use. The dew points where I am, in Ft Worth, are nearly always in the 65-75 degree range all summer. I'm looking forward to October.
Heck, many of my friends back in other parts of the country think I HAVE moved to Arizona!!!!!
Here, they think we are moving to Mexico!! I am like NO, New Mexico IS one of the 50 states.
My mother told all of her sisters we are moving to Arizona, then she had to go and correct herself.
> ... years correcting dozens of ... people who feel sorry for me because
> they think I have moved to a Phoenix-type climate.
> ... gives us a chance to educate some people. ....
I don't see the big hurry. If they stumble into the forums, OK, do it. Otherwise, the less people that know the truth the better as far as I'm concerned.
catman claimed:
> ... dry heat usually means ... it gets cooler at night!
> really hot places like Phoenix and Las Vegas, NV aren't that way.
Sure they are. When it's 118 in Phoenix, it will get down to 85 or so at night - down 30 degrees like Albuquerque.
In general, the closer in to the city center of Phoenix or Las Vegas, the less it will cool due to the heat island effect, but Atlanta and Houston have the same effect + humidity.
If you are out in Coolidge or Casa Grande (in between Phoenix and Tucson) or even Tucson, you'll find nighttime temperatures are comfortable before sunrise. However, many was the time that I got into my car and drove to work in temps of 90-95 degrees before the sun had even risen in Chandler.
Whether visiting the northern or southern parts of the state, I think people are surprised to find out that it can get really, really cold in NM in the winter. The first time I visited Taos, the lovely folks that owned the bed and breakfast where we stayed (also transplants from NJ) told us that the cold combined with the dry air can make your nose bleed spontaneously if you are out and about for extended periods. It was right then and there that I knew northern NM, beautiful as it is, was not for me. Yes, it does get cold in LC in the winter, but, it doesn't last as long as up north and again, there is virtually no snow (YAY). I am blissfully happy in my 100+ weather right now, finally warm after half a century of always being cold whether from just plain winter cold or excessive northeastern AC Love, love, love my swamp cooler - wouldn't have anything else. It just feels so much more natural to me than refrigerated air. Mind you, I am not insane, I stay out of the sun in the late afternoon, but, isn't that what siestas were invented for?
> ... gives us a chance to educate some people. ....
I don't see the big hurry. If they stumble into the forums, OK, do it. Otherwise, the less people that know the truth the better as far as I'm concerned.
Okay, that's true ... I am going to start telling them that New Mexico from north to south, east to west is a blast furnace, is an Arizona-wannabe, there is not one bit of green as far as the eye can see, and the food here stinks.
I think dry heat is much more comfortable because (1) It actually does some good to sweat,
Yes, isn't it basic physics that evaporation of moisture on your skin requires heat and thus lowers your skin temperature? Thus dry heat -- assuming that you have the capacity to sweat -- is cooler than moist heat because more evaporation occurs.
Sure they are. When it's 118 in Phoenix, it will get down to 85 or so at night - down 30 degrees like Albuquerque.
It all depends on your perspective. 85 degrees when it's pitch black outside is NOT comfortable ANYWHERE, even AZ.
Granted, better than a hellacious 118, but still horrible.
Yeah, but Cathy, in that particular statement, what I believe mort was driving at wasn't that 85 for a low at night in Phoenix is "comfortable" compared to say, ABQ or SF's summer overnight lows, rather, he was noting that people often are surprised in ABQ that it can be 101 during the day but then 71 for an overnight low (as in the desert the overnight lows in the summer often drops 20 or 30 degrees).
There is a semi-misconception out there that places like Phoenix or Vegas don't experience this same desert drop in overnight temps. To a certain degree, as mort noted, they don't in their more central cores due to the massive heat island effect they now endure to their sheer size. However, as mort pointed out, if you go to the more outlying areas where the heat island effect is much less pronounced, you get the same sort of drop in temps...it happens in any US desert city. It is just that, as you correctly noted, going from 118 to 88 or 85 is still not terribly comfortable compared to ABQ's 101 going to 71.
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Love, love, love my swamp cooler - wouldn't have anything else. It just feels so much more natural to me than refrigerated air. Mind you, I am not insane, I stay out of the sun in the late afternoon, but, isn't that what siestas were invented for?
