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It’s true the temp does drop at night, but that doesn’t make it comfortable. It doesn’t feel like a cool down with high dewpoints. The temperature is only part of the picture here.
75 degrees with a high dew point is never comfortable. There is no coolness to the air with a high dewpoint and our long summers here are more about the high dewpoints than the temperatures.
I still prefer living here, but I don’t sugarcoat the reality of a long, oppressive FL summer.
I know perfectly what you're talking about--75-80 degrees at sunrise, with dew points so high the outside of the windows are always covered in condensation, and your glasses fog up when you walk out the door! (This was everyday during the summer in coastal Louisiana). Anyhow, I still found that to be a great cool-off from the daytime temps. And I'm a native Southern Californian! So you not being able to take the humidity...are you from an even drier place than Greater Los Angeles?
Yes, you've got the "annual mean dew point map" showing Florida as the most humid state, BUT this is because only Florida is humid everywhere you go, and (Southern) Florida has the longest summers, because it is the most southerly part of the lower 48 state. So it's humid for a longer duration of time.
However, places like Houston and New Orleans have summers that are at least as humid as Orlando, Miami, etc. Only difference is, Texas and even Louisiana have large chunks of their land that are far from the Gulf and therefore wouldn't be as humid as Houston or New Orleans. Furthermore, Houston and New Orleans get colder than Central-South Florida during the winter, and colder temps mean lower dew points. But really, the same could be said about Jacksonville and the Panhandle. If you look at the dew point map you sent me, notice how Northern Florida and the Panhandle are colored in the same shade of orange as New Orleans and Houston, indicating similar annual mean dew points.
I hardly even notice a 74 degree dewpoint. I have in incredibly high tolerance for humidity and anything below a 75 degree dewpoint doesn't even register as humidity for me. If the dew point is not above 80, and your glasses don't fog up when you step outside the door, then it's not humid, as far as I'm concerned.
Then buy my house on the gulf and enjoy a reverse west windflow bro. Most of my lows are 76f + all summer. Once in a while we have a southeast flow when the dew points are lower and lows around 74f. If we had strong T- storms the nite before then even 71 or 72f can be a low.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MrJester
I hardly even notice a 74 degree dewpoint. I have in incredibly high tolerance for humidity and anything below a 75 degree dewpoint doesn't even register as humidity for me. If the dew point is not above 80, and your glasses don't fog up when you step outside the door, then it's not humid, as far as I'm concerned.
General dewpoint comfort levels that can be expected during the summer months:
less than or equal to 55: dry and comfortable
between 55 and 65: becoming "sticky" with muggy evenings
greater than or equal to 65: lots of moisture in the air, becoming oppressive
I know perfectly what you're talking about--75-80 degrees at sunrise, with dew points so high the outside of the windows are always covered in condensation, and your glasses fog up when you walk out the door! (This was everyday during the summer in coastal Louisiana). Anyhow, I still found that to be a great cool-off from the daytime temps. And I'm a native Southern Californian! So you not being able to take the humidity...are you from an even drier place than Greater Los Angeles?
Yes, you've got the "annual mean dew point map" showing Florida as the most humid state, BUT this is because only Florida is humid everywhere you go, and (Southern) Florida has the longest summers, because it is the most southerly part of the lower 48 state. So it's humid for a longer duration of time.
However, places like Houston and New Orleans have summers that are at least as humid as Orlando, Miami, etc. Only difference is, Texas and even Louisiana have large chunks of their land that are far from the Gulf and therefore wouldn't be as humid as Houston or New Orleans. Furthermore, Houston and New Orleans get colder than Central-South Florida during the winter, and colder temps mean lower dew points. But really, the same could be said about Jacksonville and the Panhandle. If you look at the dew point map you sent me, notice how Northern Florida and the Panhandle are colored in the same shade of orange as New Orleans and Houston, indicating similar annual mean dew points.
I tolerate high humidity, but I wasn’t used to being in it continuously from May to October. I lived in northern IN and lower NY, both humid in the summer, but that humidity lasted for a few months and was usually only uncomfortable during heat waves. The mean dewpoint in both those areas is 35.1-40. My area in FL on the map, the dark rust, has a mean dewpoint of >60.
Your 10 week stint in Louisiana was 2.5 months, not the 5 months we have here. That’s where most people go wrong, thinking the humidity here isn’t different from where they live. They form their opinion on their limited experience with humidity lasting a shorter time.
The OP asked why don’t you like the FL/Gulf coast summers and the majority answered humidity. I would prefer less humidity too, but would miss the almost daily thunderstorms and amazing cloud formations here in the summer that can’t happen without the humidity and high temperatures.
I thought if you're a woman, then you get to wear knee length skirts, sandals, and a short sleeved blouse to the office, making it plenty breezy.
Now if you're a guy you're not so lucky.
Not all offices allow that sort of dress, and then you freeze in the office if you do, so you have to have sweaters there. There is the one person who overdresses, and they always seem to have control of the thermostat!
And it isn't always the shortness of the skirt, blouse etc, but the fabric, the most breathable fabrics being the more casual and not very professional looking.
And don't get me started on the fact that some people just shouldn't wear knee length skirts, or skirts of any length and I'm one of them. I actually don't mind the suck the life out of you the minute you step outside humidity when I'm going for a walk or working out, but not when I have to go somewhere.
I work from home so not concerned about what I wear. The flooding is the most annoying part of living in the Gulf South. After living in Louisiana I couldn't do it anymore. Hurricanes never bothered me much except for Cat 4-5 ones but they are in general very rare.
This was a sometimes weekly occurrence in New Orleans for large parts of the year, not just summer but even in winter (there is a secondary maximum in winter in New Orleans after summer so you don't get that dry winter that Miami gets):
Notice that people park their cars on the "neutral ground" i.e. the raised medians. There was a parking garage down the street that I would park my car in and then walk home. I'd park on the 2nd or 3rd level, you don't want it on the top level because if there's hail you could get damage.
Most of the times the winter rains are like Northern California winter rains, heavy and strong, with temps in the 50's but Dec 2009 was one for the record books.
Who ever said the Inland Empire and San Joaquin Valley have perfect weather?
When people say SoCal has perfect weather, they're thinking of the weather in coastal San Diego, Newport Beach, Santa Monica, etc. Not Hemet or Fresno.
I'd still rather be in Florida in summer than those places. At least you can swim.
I was born in the Destin/Pensacola area and have lived all over the USA, and I will tell you, HANDS DOWN, this area has the most bizarre and awful weather of anywhere I have lived form California to the Atlantic, from Key West to The Great Lakes. First, the winters are usually FREEZING cold with the humidity in the 90% range most of the time, the temperatures can go down in the 20's or TEENS, and the colder it gets the harder the wind blows. It cuts through you to the bone. I had a friend from Michigan who moved here and almost froze to death with the temperature in the 30's. You feel like you are stuck in a freezer with the fan blowing all the time.
The summers are SOOOO HOT, usually in the upper 90's with never a breeze, along with the humidity which can and does go to 100%, it feels like you have fallen in a hot vat of syrup the minute you walk outside. Of course, the worst part of the winter is after Christmas and the worst part of the summer starts in July, but usually there is no Spring nor Fall temperatures. I have seen the temperature drop in the fall/winter from the 70's during the day to the 30's at night-that is right-a 40 degree drop from day to night!
But the worst part is, it is either constantly scorching in the summer, freezing in the winter and raining, raining, raining. The city in the USA with the most rainy days is not Seattle, Wa. as most think, it is actually Mobile, Al., which is about 80 miles away. That should tell you something. So, if you are a person who is indoors at least 75% of the time, you might be o.k. here, BUT if you like the outdoors, STAY AWAY! There is an old saying in this part of "Florida", if you don't like the weather here, wait 15 minutes, it will change!!! And, this doesn't even start to tell about the tornados in the spring which are rampant, or the hurricanes that have struck the panhandle-more than any other area of the USA 10 times over. OH, And the wind blows in circles, no joke, figure that one out!
And, Crestview, Fl.has the worst temps in the area and drugs, drugs, drugs, very high crime in Okaloosa and Walton counties and people in this area are RUDE! Nothing here much for entertainment, no restaurants, it stinks all the way around! I wound up back here for family sickness and am looking to leave as fast as possible!
Oh, puh-lease. Come back to me when its -15 in March like we're getting this weekend. Floridians are the biggest wusses about the cold. "30s and humid" welcome to the Midwest in November. Any questions?
I don't like high humidity in general so I guess I wouldn't be too into it. I'm more a dry-climate type of person. I can hang with hot weather, but dps above, say, 22c are a bit too much to take, so 27c dps ? I'd sleep all day.
Also, going to the beach, getting rained on and then killed by lightning on many an occasion, no thanks.
That said I'd really like to visit the American South, just maybe not in mid-summer.
Getting killed by lightning on MANY occasions? I'll have you know, I lived in Florida for 18 years and not once was I killed by lightning! My uncle Freddie, though. Poor guy had his 5th lightning death last September. Good thing he jumped on that turtle several times so he got plenty of lives left.
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and I'm one of them. I actually don't mind the suck the life out of you the minute you step outside humidity when I'm going for a walk or working out, but not when I have to go somewhere.
