What is it like to live in the AZ heat? True story.

[distantearlywarning]

46. My hometown is Flagstaff, AZ

Grew up there in the 80s. It was always ridiculously hot. I can remember one summer trip to Phoenix in the late 80s driving past a highway temperature sign at around 2 in the morning and it was still 95F. I spent quite a few summer weeks there in the early 90s as well, and it was regularly above 110F in June and July.

Now I live in Pennsylvania, and I have to say that even though the high temps here are much, much lower (a really hot day here is 95F), the higher humidity in this area is its own kind of misery. Sometimes (e.g., around August every year) I start thinking that maybe the desert heat is preferable. Even though being in a Phoenix summer is like living inside an oven, at least you can use water to cool down, and your own sweat cools you off. A 95/95 day here in PA is like being slowly smothered with a hot, wet, wool winter coat you can't take off. It's disgusting and horribly uncomfortable. There's no way to escape from it if you have to be outdoors. Coming from the west, it took me years to acclimate to the high summer humidity out here. The first summer was brutal.

Higher humidity also makes winters seem harder and colder - the wet cold just penetrates.