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Both very different cities. I'd take Miamia simply because I enjoy thunderstorms and the vicinity to the beach. My skin is also healthier in humid tropical-esque weather. Phoenix is way too hot in summer and dry!
I don't like Phoenix's extremely hot summers and aridity, but it's cooler winters and low humidity make it the obvious choice for me. Though even if I thought Miami's weather is better, I would still choose Phoenix because it's easy to escape the heat or seek snow for a weekend by driving a couple of hours or less. Can't do that in Miami.
Miami. 1,000 times over. I'm more qualified than most to comment on this because this summer I lived in Miami in June and Phoenix July, August, September.
While it's true that humid heat feels hotter than dry heat. It's not an apples to apples comparison. It's not 90 and humid -vs- 90 and dry, it's 88 and humid -vs- 118 and dry. YES it got that hot here this year. Phoenix can be 30 FREAKIN DEGREES HOTTER than Miami's already too hot summers. I don't care how dry it is 110+ is BRUTAL. Brutal. Just awful.
We never hit 90 once in June in Miami (I was near the coast). 89 a couple days. And humid. Sure it's hot. But no worse than NYC or Jersey in the summer.
The difference between Phoenix and Miami in the summer is you can actually go outside in Miami. If it's not the middle of the day, you can go on a bike ride, you can walk somewhere for 20 minutes. I wouldn't lay out on the beach between 10am-2pm, but outside of that it's fine.
I was there without a car and walked to my office every day. 15 minutes, sometimes in the morning, sometimes at noon. Yeah I was hot and a little sweaty when I got to the office, sure the AC felt great! - but my LIFE WASN'T IN DANGER like it is in Phoenix in the summer.
118 is like the hottest it will get, and it only hit that maybe 3 or 4 times. But it routinely hits 110 in Phoneix in the summer. And exposure at 110 is life threatening. There is a limit to how well your body can cool itself. Your sweat evaporates immediately before it can do what it was designed to do, when it's bone dry. There's literally a limit to how long you can be outside, before you basically start dying! Lol, I'm not kidding.
I got the first signs of heat exhaustion twice in Phoenix - just from being outside a little too long. I was drinking water the whole time, didn't matter, my body just couldn't sweat fast enough to keep up and keep cool. 115, is 17 degrees over your body temp. You think a breeze is going to cool you? 115 breeze makes your body hotter. In Miami the worst I got was sweaty.
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