How hard is it to get throught the summer, really? (Tampa: unemployed, tile)

[BucFan]

Originally Posted by marcopolo

Nobody ever slipped on the humidity and broke their arm. Rain doesn't form drifts that you cannot drive through a day after it falls. Pipes never freeze and burst because it got too hot.

I've lived in Europe and have seen several deadly/horrific car crashed due to "black ice" and slippery roads. I deal better with a heavy rainshower than skidding/sliding in snow. Easy tradeoff for me.

[marcopolo]

Originally Posted by graphix

There are two sides to every coin. Some like it hot. You have the choice to move if you think cold too unbearable. You seem to really hate snow and cold so why not move if it's that bad?

Bingo--you think just like I do! We are moving, part-time anyway. Bought a fabulous (for us) condo on the cheap, and will skip the worst three months of the next few midwest winters beginning next year. After that, having had a chance to experiment with Florida summers, maybe we'll make it permanent. We love the Tampa Bay area, especially our piece of it. We are 8-10 years from retirement but my occupation gives me flexibility to work from anywhere.

We were not under the impression we were moving to heaven, but if you like sunshine, fresh seafood, water, and beaches--Florida is a heck of a lot closer to it than any other place we can afford.

[marcopolo]

Originally Posted by BucFan

I've lived in Europe and have seen several deadly/horrific car crashed due to "black ice" and slippery roads. I deal better with a heavy rainshower than skidding/sliding in snow. Easy tradeoff for me.

A short small blizzard blew through our area on a Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago, just half an inch of snow but zero visibility because of high winds. People died on the highway, lovely people. I hate that. It is a free country--head north if you like the cold, south if you like the heat. Life is trade-offs, choose the ones you want to make. But I am with you, Bucfan.

[graphix]

Originally Posted by BucFan

I've lived in Europe and have seen several deadly/horrific car crashed due to "black ice" and slippery roads. I deal better with a heavy rainshower than skidding/sliding in snow. Easy tradeoff for me.

Perhaps you don't drive a Mustang and have a lead foot. I have to be really careful during the rainy season!

Originally Posted by marcopolo

Bingo--you think just like I do! We are moving, part-time anyway. Bought a fabulous (for us) condo on the cheap, and will skip the worst three months of the next few midwest winters beginning next year.

Thanks! I might do the same in reverse later on. My eventual plans will allow me to work from anywhere, so I'll probably spend summers somewhere more temperate, like San Fran or something. I could use a place that's 68 all year round. For some reason though, I just love Tampa. I'll always have a house here, even if I decide to move away. It's kind of like a big city that's also small.

Also, the culture and history in the place are somewhat amazing. I heard that there's even been some recent research to suggest that Tampa is one of the oldest inhabited places in the US by non-natives. I'm a good bit spanish, among many other things, and though I don't speak much it helps that a lot of the places in the area are authentic because a lot of the people came from Asturias and other regions in Spain. That means I can find food almost as good as my grandmother makes! Speaking of Spain, if you like Spanish food whatsoever make sure to check out The Spain on Tampa St. downtown!

[graphix]

Originally Posted by magijasakymaro

Really?? I've only met one other person from MI so far. It seems like most people are from NY, NJ, and Ontario. I haven't been here long though.

It could just be the people I know. It seemed like for a bit everyone I met was from Michigan. There are definitely a lot of people from the places you mentioned. I wonder why many people end up here. I figure it has to do with the fact that it's warm here, we have a major airport, and well-known—for good or ill—sports teams.

Originally Posted by magijasakymaro

OK, I will get the Rain X. I did get dumped on a couple times so far. Once when I was driving over the causeway and suddenly literally could not see more than an inch in front of me. It was scary. I don't like rain like that. But I've also driven in lots of snowstorms where I could see just about as far, and it lasts for hours and hours on end.

Definitely use Rain X. They even make washer fluid, though make sure you mix it with water, otherwise it kind of films up the windshield for a bit if it's dry. I've only used the washer version for a while and even it was able to keep rain off easily. My last trip to visit some friends in GA found me driving for about 70 miles in the rain. I didn't use the wipers once. It was awesome!

Rain here used to last for a long while. In the last few years it's become more quick thunderstorms. It just to rain earlier as well—about every day around 4pm. Last year the 4pm schedule returned, but the few years before that it's was more like 7pm. The weather patterns are seemingly returning to the schedules that existed when I was a kid. If that's the case, this summer might be more mild than the last few, which I'm all for.

Originally Posted by magijasakymaro

So I guess it's a trade off. I know I won't like it, but I imagine I'll learn to live with it.

That doesn't happen too often. Maybe 10-15 times during the summer. Normally it's just a large amount of rain for about 30 minutes to an hour each day during the summer and then it clears up as if nothing happened.

Originally Posted by magijasakymaro

I'm surprised you have so much trouble tolerating the heat having grown up here! I always thought that would make heat much more preferable to cold. Interesting!

I've come to find in my travels that location has nothing to do with one's ability to tolerate the elements. When I was in Paris, it was summertime and most people were wearing sweaters. It was probably 75-80 each day I was there.

Still, I always joke that I should have been born in Canada, due to my love of cold and hockey. Unfortunately, I still have yet to see snow in abundant levels. I've seen straight up ice fall from the sky though! I think our ski trip may happen this year. I can't wait. I've always wanted to do at least one run in a T-shirt.

Originally Posted by magijasakymaro

We've actually already had a pipe burst here. Well, it was broken when we moved in anyway. One of the outdoor pipes. It may have broken because of the cold.

Yep.

A lot of people didn't expect these freezes. This winter has been especially harsh, in terms of this area anyway. Although, it's seemed like it's been really cold across the board.

Usually we get about one freeze, maybe two, and it doesn't make it longer than noon. I think this year we had a few multi-morning freezes. All I know is that all our plants are pretty much dead and we're waiting to replant them in case it happens again.

[thethinktank]

Originally Posted by graphix

I imagine that driving in a snowstorm is pretty horrible. Still, I'd wager that driving in a Florida rain is much worse.

I'd take that wager in a heartbeat. Two times.

During a recent snowstorm, on the 45 minute drive from Iowa City to Davenport, I counted 55 cars and 12 semis on the median and the ditches to the sides. No exaggeration. Two of those semis literally had their trailers bent in half. Having lived here for about two-and-a-half years (after 8 in chicago and 19 in detroit), I usually experience this a good three or four times a winter, and I rarely drive on the freeway. It brings new meaning to the phrase "white knuckle driving".

Driving in snow has a lot more to it than just poor visibility (white outs cut visibility to a good 25 feet), but roads that redefine the word "slick", where a single slip outside of the fading tire tracks of the car ahead of you can put you in the ditch. I've seen many freeways blocked off by police with flares, and never once seen that as a result of rain.

---

That aside, I'm moving to Florida this May, having visited four weeks a year for the last ten years. I don't pretend to have much experience with how difficult driving can be during those heavy rains, although I've been through several. I've seen the same up here, especially during the flood of 2008.

Originally Posted by graphix

I'd definitely shovel snow in a t-shirt, though I've unfortunately never seen much of it.

Two degree weather, a 12-inch snowstorm with 3 foot snow drifts on your driveway where each shovel load weighs ~ 25 pounds ain't any kind of fun. No exaggeration, no hyperbole.

Originally Posted by graphix

1. You'd speak differently if you slipped on algae that can grow on surfaces due to humidity.

Oh come on now...

Originally Posted by graphix

2. Rain can create mudslides and sinkholes. Also, hurricanes can flood areas for weeks, especially if there have been drought conditions.

The red dot is my house, june of 2008.

Originally Posted by graphix

I got a few for you. No one gets a day off from school or work because it's raining too hard to see through. No one drowns in a snow drift. No one gets struck by lightning in a snowstorm.

Those "snow days" happen to prevent death. Those snow drifts cause them. And I'd love to see a comparison between snowstorm deaths and lightning deaths.

Back to the original point of this thread, I can definitely agree with the "grass is greener" philosophy. Hey, I'm jaded, and can't wait to be joining the rest of you in Tampa in two months. But let this comment be a testament to the fact that the grass certainly isn't greener up here-- especially when its dead and covered with snow for five to six months.

[galactic_hombre]

The Tampa Bay area has a humid subtropical climate with mild winters. Much of the lower South is similar. The Tampa Bay area, however, has higher humidity and a lower high temperature. The proximity to the ocean has a subtle cooling effect. This area tends to stay in the low 90s in the summer. In comparison, other areas of the South, such as Atlanta, typically reach the upper 90s. I lived in East Tennessee and dealt with some awful summers where the temperature hoovered at or above 100 degrees. The benefit of living here in the summer is that there are plenty of places to swim or cool off. Be careful though. The sunburn index is higher. The rays of the sun can feel very intense at times. You will cook if you do not wear sunscreen. Overall, I would suggest that you not think "tropical" when you think of the Tampa Bay area. As you travel toward Ft. Myers and cross over to Miami--then you should think tropical, meaning less of a gap between day and night temperatures. The landscape changes are noticable as well.

[tilli]

Nobody ever slipped on the humidity and broke their arm.

People do slip on wet pavement and concrete and break bones, especially when they try to run out of a torrential downpour on mossy sidewalks. Just walk, people - you are going to be soaked to the bone either way, might as well pay attention to where you are placing your steps.

Rain doesn't form drifts that you cannot drive through a day after it falls.

Rain causes flooding that will kill your engine if you try to drive through it. I see it all the time. Puddles can be deceptively deep. I knew a girl once who had a little convertible. One day the thundershower was unusually long. Her car was up to the windows in water due to a clogged drain in the parking lot. It miraculously started and she was able to move it to higher ground, but the interior carpet and upholstery had been thoroughly soaked and it mildewed basically overnight. It was never the same.

As for how hard it is to get through the summer, I used to dread the coming of summer. Then I got a car with a good AC unit and that has made it far more bearable. Yes, it is very hot and humid. The humidity increases the heat index but they never seem to mention that although weather people always harp about wind chill when talking about cold weather. Tampa is cooler than many places in the Southeast as far as that actual number on the thermometer, but it does not FEEL cooler when it is so humid that your sweat can not evaporate and you just stew in it. Few people around here would say the summer is their favorite part of the year, and that's ok, because (usually!) the winters are so lovely.

For my part, the only thing I really like about summer is the daily afternoon thundershowers. At one point last year I remember them showing more than 1000 lighting strikes in the bay area in the space of fifteen minutes. Don't play in the rain in Florida, at least not in the summer.

[algia]

This is REALLY a matter of personal preference......and I think we can all agree that if we could live somewhere where summers are not scorching hot and come back to FL in the winters we would all be VERY HAPPY!

I for one am NOT looking forward to the summer right now, not after last year when we were stuck in the house for most of it because there was no air to breathe outside...AlaskaKash said it best just how you burn your heat up north you will be burning your AC down here.....it would be really foolish to think or expect that you can go through the summers here without the ac running all day and night long.......THEN ADD humidity on top of that......at 6AM all my windows were fogged.....pretty much all summer long.....it does NOT get cooler in the evenings here, THAT may happen in Arizona NOT here.......AND after a down pour it gets HOTTER and even more humid!

But you can always buy an oxygen tank and sit in your pool all day!!!!!!!! LOLOLOLOLOL

[Mike1306]

Originally Posted by algia

This is REALLY a matter of personal preference......and I think we can all agree that if we could live somewhere where summers are not scorching hot and come back to FL in the winters we would all be VERY HAPPY!

I for one am NOT looking forward to the summer right now, not after last year when we were stuck in the house for most of it because there was no air to breathe outside...AlaskaKash said it best just how you burn your heat up north you will be burning your AC down here.....it would be really foolish to think or expect that you can go through the summers here without the ac running all day and night long.......THEN ADD humidity on top of that......at 6AM all my windows were fogged.....pretty much all summer long.....it does NOT get cooler in the evenings here, THAT may happen in Arizona NOT here.......AND after a down pour it gets HOTTER and even more humid!

But you can always buy an oxygen tank and sit in your pool all day!!!!!!!! LOLOLOLOLOL

The thing is that those of us that like the heat do not have the AC running all day and night.

I can breathe just fine outside during the summer.

The only time I can remember getting overheated was when I had 60 stumps to grind one weekend. That was due to the heat coming off the motor of the stump grinder though.