Hot Times on Memory Lane
Jun. 21st, 2022 09:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerOne thing that's missing from my post earlier today about the 103° weather is moaning about how hot it is. But that's because I'm not moaning. I had it easy today with an indoors job, working from home, with good AC in my house. I left the AC running all night and through the morning, which was good because by 10am it was already in the 80s outside.
I haven't always had it easy with summertime heat, though. When I grew up in Virginia, near Washington DC, we didn't have AC. ...Well actually we physically had AC, but my parents stubbornly refused to use it in all but the worst heat.
As you can see in the chart, an air temperature of just 90° combined with 85% relative humidity (common in the area where I grew up) produces a heat effect on the body equivalent to 117° in low humidity. That's what everyone means, whether they know it or not, when they quip about Phoenix or Las Vegas, "Oh, but it's a dry heat!"
I stopped for gas around 3pm in Sacramento. I was dressed in trousers because they were appropriate for the weather where I started the day 400 miles away. It was hot out there, but not worse than what I was accustomed to as summer weather. "It feels like 90 out here," I remarked to Hawk.
Moments later we saw a thermometer sign at a bank down the street proclaiming 114°.
114°... But it's a dry heat!
Update: Keep reading in No AC on Memory Lane
I haven't always had it easy with summertime heat, though. When I grew up in Virginia, near Washington DC, we didn't have AC. ...Well actually we physically had AC, but my parents stubbornly refused to use it in all but the worst heat.
Heat + Humidity = Awful
Worst heat, BTW, wasn't 103° like we had here today. The temps there rarely broke the three digit barrier. But it felt way worse because of the humidity. There's a concept known as the heat index. This chart from the National Weather Service shows what it feels like (i.e., the effect on the human body) when high temperatures combine with high relative humidity:As you can see in the chart, an air temperature of just 90° combined with 85% relative humidity (common in the area where I grew up) produces a heat effect on the body equivalent to 117° in low humidity. That's what everyone means, whether they know it or not, when they quip about Phoenix or Las Vegas, "Oh, but it's a dry heat!"
"But it's a dry heat!"
I experienced a funny little A-B test on this when I moved out to California years ago. We were driving cross country for 8 days. On the last day we started in Elko, Nevada, in the high desert where the air was cool. In the afternoon we drove through Northern California during what we later discovered was a record setting heat wave.I stopped for gas around 3pm in Sacramento. I was dressed in trousers because they were appropriate for the weather where I started the day 400 miles away. It was hot out there, but not worse than what I was accustomed to as summer weather. "It feels like 90 out here," I remarked to Hawk.
Moments later we saw a thermometer sign at a bank down the street proclaiming 114°.
114°... But it's a dry heat!
Update: Keep reading in No AC on Memory Lane
