Is dry heat overrated?/Houston/El Paso humidity? (Irvine, Tustin: home, new construction)

[Clodius et Claudius.]

Originally Posted by Marv101

Cities such as San Diego have been noted for having exceptional weather for decades, arguably the best in the nation, but irvine's weather (and most of the rest of the OC for that matter) isn't too shabby either, primarily because episodes of Teas-style humidity are nearly nonexistent, and the afternoon breezes which come in like clockwork in the early afternoon really minimize the duration of any super-hot stretches.

Consequently, dry-heat beats the heck out of Texas/Midwest/Deep South style heat anytime.

Actually, sometimes we do have episodes of monsoonal moisture with thunderstorms in the desert--the humidity does build up seriously, similar to NYC. But that happens only once a month.

Also, what about Phoenix?

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by Haowen Wong

Hello, I am from Irvine, a suburb 65 km/40 miles southwest of Los Angeles.

The summers there are very hot (often topping 35 C or 95 F) but the humidity is very low, averaging at 20%. I think the heat is intolerable here! In Hong Kong, it often reached 35 C and the humidity was on average 96% (reaching 100% occasionally) but the heat was better than Las Vegas, at 42 C (110 F) and very low humidity.

I have heard people claim that dry heat feels much more comfortable than humid heat because you sweat less. I certainly did sweat profusely in Hong Kong, but at least there was some ocean breeze and shade from clouds, whereas in Irvine/Las Vegas there is NO SHADE, NO CLOUDS, and NO BREEZE. The sunlight was immensely painful; it was like being barbequed, and I still sweated profusely.That's why I think dry heat is overrated.

Stereotypically, Texas is desert, but now I know that only the El Paso area has dry heat. I've heard Houston is humid. Is it as humid as Miami? Hong Kong?

I've heard someone say that they didn't want to get off the plane in Houston due to the humidity. Then, my mother (who has been to Houston in the summer) said that Houston was HOT but not that humid.

FYI, during the summer, Hong Kong averages 96% humidity in the daytime, reaching 100% w/o rain sometimes, and 85% is considered a "comfortable" level. It takes a miracle for the humidity to drop below 85%!

Would someone please tell me how Houston and El Paso stacks up to Hong Kong/LA and whether dry heat is overrated in your opinion!

Hong Kong is much worse than El Paso for instance, but not much different than Houston. We have been to Hong Kong twice, once in mid March and once in late Oct/early Nov. both times the humidity was awful.

Is dry heat over rated? That really depends. When temps get into the mid to high 90s and higher hot is hot, but below that dry heat is much more comfortable. We have lived in the LA area, Dallas, DC, Albuquerque and here in NW AR so we have lived in all climates.

[Marv101]

One key difference in the weather between LA, as well as Irvine & San Diego and the eastern 75% of the country is that when the high temperature drops from 80 degrees on Monday to 65 degrees on Tuesday, the only other change in the weather would be that the sun on a 65 degree day would potentially come out much later.

In a similar temperature swing in many other parts of the country, you'd be guaranteed to get lightning and thunderstorms, as well as the strong possibility of tornadoes.

Phoenix is an entirely different story; for July 4th, their average high and low temperatures are 107 & 81, as opposed to a downright perfect 82 & 63 for LA (USC Campus).

[tstwahine]

Originally Posted by Luke9686

I'll take San Jose's 92 over Iowa's 92 any day.

Completely agree, I grew up in the dry heat of south coastal orange county and now live in Iowa City, Iowa. There is absolutely a HUGE difference between humidity and dry heat. I absolutely hate humidity, during the summers i would play tennis several times a week inland in 95+ degree dry heat and would last 2 hours and pound the balls hard, i tried to play here in IC when it was 85 and humid and i lasted 20 minutes. As mentioned above, we cool ourselves by evaporation, high humidity doesnt allow us to do it as well.

[malamute]

Dry heat makes all the difference in the world. If it's 95 degrees in El Paso, it's very pleasant and you can do anything outdoors you would like, 95 degrees in humid places feels a whole lot hotter. A good rule of thumb is to subtract 15 to 20 degrees when talking about desert heat.

[malumot]

Howen Wong has no idea what he is talking about in one respect.....

Irvine is not "often" over 95 degrees...it is RARELY over 95 degrees. The average at the height of mid-summer (August) is 85 or so. We get perhaps 5 or 10 days per year 95 and over.

I've lived in Irvine 15 years. And I follow climate meticulously.

Tustin Ranch/Irvine station

TUSTIN IRVINE RANCH, CALIFORNIA - Climate Summary

[Clodius et Claudius.]

Originally Posted by ATUMRE75

If it's the same temperature then dry wins handsdown.

But if you compare an average Phoenix 110F with 68% humidity day to Miami 90F with 89% humidity, then it's a wash. 110 degrees does not feel good whether dry or not.

In the end SOCAL has an almost perfect climate. Sometimes it does get too cool at night.

Really? Perfect weather? Don't make such a sweeping generalization. Just go to the IE, San Fernando Valley, Bakersfield, or the Mojave Desert.

[Clodius et Claudius.]

Originally Posted by malumot

Howen Wong has no idea what he is talking about in one respect.....

Irvine is not "often" over 95 degrees...it is RARELY over 95 degrees. The average at the height of mid-summer (August) is 85 or so. We get perhaps 5 or 10 days per year 95 and over.

I've lived in Irvine 15 years. And I follow climate meticulously.

Tustin Ranch/Irvine station

TUSTIN IRVINE RANCH, CALIFORNIA - Climate Summary

Well, it's just these couple of years that have been cooling off. 5 years ago, it was insanely hot.

[nurserosie]

Sorry. We haves lived in oc for 35 years. It has never been insanely hot


Our nights are nearly always cool. We never use a/c to sleep.

And you can keep your hong kong humidity. Makes most people feel awful.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by nurserosie

Sorry. We haves lived in oc for 35 years. It has never been insanely hot

Our nights are nearly always cool. We never use a/c to sleep.

I don't know where you live or what your heat tolerance is, but I've lived that long within about 5 miles of the ocean and there's definitely about a couple weeks a year that are miserably hot. The nights might be cool but a house can stay hot long after dark. When I had to turn the ceiling fan up to full speed to get to sleep, I considered that quite hot. I have AC now but I'm upstairs so that makes it hotter than it would be downstairs. I wouldn't want to live upstairs without AC.