OUTRIGHT LIE on CNN... (non-political)

[Delano]

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- "Sun City" Texas just became Sweat City U.S.A.

El Paso, Texas, with average summer temperatures above 93 degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity over 70 percent, is the sweatiest city in the United States, a study released on Tuesday found.

Research scientist Tim Long calculated heat indexes and relative humidity levels to come up with his top 100 sweatiest cities in America list.
...

"The driving force is heat, but humidity is a key factor," said Long. "It can feel like 118 in El Paso but it's only 94.

"http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/Southwest/06/17/sweaty.city.reut/index.html

I know this isn't a big issue, but it's SOOO wrong! This is my hometown, OKAY? 70% humidity? Almost NEVER happens! Typically, the humidity is under 30%. In Winter, it's 10~15% - so dry that your lips chap and your face feels all tight. It's so dry that your hair is dry 5 minutes after you get out of the shower - who needs a dryer? It's the driest part of Texas, in the high desert - Even in summer, temperatures drop from around 100 in the day to the low 70s or even 60s at night.


It's hot, but NOT oppressive, and certainly not humid. Now Dallas and Houston - that's another story!

Proof:

http://www.wunderground.com/US/TX/El_Paso.html

Note that the present relative humidity is TWELVE percent! And it's always like that.

Why would this "researcher" publish such an outright lie?

NOTE: Phoenix, AZ is generally 10 degrees hotter than El Paso, with higher humidity and more smog, cars, congestion, making it unbearable. Why the smear against El Paso?

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=phoenix%2C+AZ

[burrowowl]

1. CNN and other news media

Don't research anything or check facts.
El Paso at 70% RH, give me a break.
I was born there.

[nickinSTL]

2. Weird

I'd heard this before, and thought it was odd.

I find it hard to believe that El Paso is worse than St. Louis, much less many cities in the south/southeast. I've heard that Alabama/Mississippi/etc. are terrible, humidity-wise. Never been there, myself though.

[seabeyond]

3. my in laws are there, we visit often

have yet to feel humidity.

[Dudley_DUright]

4. I guess CNN has yet to be introduced to the state of FL

:eyes:

[rkc3]

5. They've never visited Pittsburgh in the summer.

You're allowed to kill people who point out it's the humidity in July and August.

[lovedems]

6. That sounds more like central Illinois.

It is the middle of June and we are already at 83% humidity. We have hit over 90% already.

I live in Springfield, Illinois. Pretty much the middle of the state.

[Qanisqineq]

16. not too far away from you

in Illinois. The past week the humidity has been awful.

[lovedems]

17. I dread how much worse it will get!

By July you step outside your house and are choked by the heat and humidity! Thank God for swimming pools and air conditioning!

[Qanisqineq]

18. I'll be thinking of you...

I'm moving out west at the end of this month. I've only lived in IL for 4 years and I've been told the humidity is because of all the corn, but I have to ask... what about now when the corn isn't very high? :shrug:

[lovedems]

20. I have lived here almost all my life.

I lived in San Francisco for awhile and then went to college in Vermont. I haven't ever heard the connection between humidity and corn.

I hope your move goes well! I will take "dry" heat over humidity any day!

[Bjornsdotter]

27. lol....

Hi,

Someone was pulling your leg....it's not the corn.

Cheers,
Kim

[senseandsensibility]

7. Just curious

Did you e-mail CNN? I know it sometimes seems hopeless, but we need to hold their feet to the fire. I am currently boycotting all cable news networks until they do their jobs( which means my boycott will last forever), but previously I would always e-mail them with my complaints.

[Delano]

9. I did. Doubt they'll care, though

Attention to detail iis a dying virtue...

[Wickerman]

8. Houston or even San Antonio are far more humid, IMHO

than El Paso.

[Delano]

10. Some live Texas Data...

Austin
86 °F / 30 °C
66%
30.10 in / 1019 hPa
Mostly Cloudy


Beaumont
90 °F / 32 °C
70%
30.11 in / 1020 hPa
Mostly Cloudy

Brownsville
90 °F / 32 °C
59%
30.07 in / 1018 hPa
Partly Cloudy


Corpus Christi
90 °F / 32 °C
62%
30.07 in / 1018 hPa
Mostly Cloudy


Dallas
88 °F / 31 °C
58%
30.08 in / 1018 hPa
Scattered Clouds

El Paso
90 °F / 32 °C
12%
30.12 in / 1020 hPa
Partly Cloudy


Houston
88 °F / 31 °C
66%
30.09 in / 1019 hPa
Mostly Cloudy


San Antonio
88 °F / 31 °C
62%
30.11 in / 1020 hPa
Mostly Cloudy


Which of these sounds LEAST sweaty to you?

[Warpy]

11. The morons obviously don't know the difference

between El Paso and Houston. I think their facts and figures were probably accurate for Houston. El Paso is high and dry, Houston is sea level and soggy.

The damned fools probably couldn't remember which city was which, and they're not alone. I live in New Mexico, and half the stuff I mail order is shipped through El Paso because fools in most parts of the US don't know NM is a STATE.

[Delano]

12. To be fair...I always thought of El Paso as the biggest city in NM.

El Paso county is the only Texas county in the mountain time zone. The closest town of any significance is Las Cruces, NM, and culturally, El Paso is much more liberal, more catholic, and less bible-thumpy than the rest of the state. We don't even have the Texas accent. I think most El Pasoans Identify morre strongly with NM, Arizona, annd California.

I really wish they would secede and Join NM (though the higher taxes would suck).

[Warpy]

13. I've noticed all those things about El Paso

and I think New Mexico would welcome you. The tax burden isn't that much higher. Some taxes will go down while others go up.

Start a petition!

[Andy_Stephenson]

28. People all the time ask me...

Where is your Texas accent...I have to tell them El Paso...is not really Texas.

But it is still a sucky place to live.

[Delano]

32. Sucky?

Boring, yes, but the people by and large are some of the friendliest in the US.

I realize you went to Coronado, a rich repug hotbed, but most people around town are pretty nice.

The mexican food is top-notch.

I used to love the sopaipillas at Leo's, but thhey're out of business now. :(

[Andy_Stephenson]

33. Leo's...outta business??? WTF

Damn!

When I was in El Paso, Coronado was not repug heaven.

[Delano]

36. There's still a Mexican joint there called Avila's

No idea if it's any good.

When I went to CHS, a lot of kids were Reagan worshippers whose parents were divorced greedhead yuppies. The cool kids came to school in Porsches , Audis and VW Cabriolets their parrents gave them. A lot of them got drunk and used cocaine during lunch. I never quite fit in with that crowd. A few of the cool kids were nice, but overall, the atmosphere was kind of a mix of "Heathers" and "Less Than Zero".

They've since built a new High School on the northwest side, and CHS is not quite as elite as it was back in my day.

If you were class of 1980, they probably still had the STUDENT's smoking area back then! My how things have changed!

[Cheswick2.0]

14. Miami Florida... over 90 for 9 months of the year and 90 percent

humidty. I rest my case.

[Delano]

23. I lived there for three years...

...and the heat's pretty bad, but it's better than the west coast of Florida. At least there is a faint ocean breeze. Ft. Myers is hell on earth.

[SoCalDem]

15. Try Kansas in July... Humidity can equal the temp....

The air is so "thick" you could cut it with a knife, and sometimes we would almost wish for a tornado ....to get some air movement (well..not really. but....):)

Chanute  82 °F / 28 °C  66% 
Coffeyville  77 °F / 25 °C  82% 
Colby  57 °F / 14 °C  94% 
Concordia  73 °F / 23 °C  61% 
Dodge City  64 °F / 18 °C  88% 
Elkhart  78 °F / 26 °C  54% 
Emporia   75 °F / 24 °C  78% 
Garden City  66 °F / 19 °C  78% 
Goodland  57 °F / 14 °C  94% 
Hays  64 °F / 18 °C  73%   
Hill City  63 °F / 17 °C  84% 
Hutchinson   70 °F / 21 °C  76% 
Col Jabara   75 °F / 24 °C  78%    
Lawrence  71 °F / 22 °C  78% 

[tom_paine]

19. I noticed that RH issue when I saw this story yesterday

CNN has become such a pathetic Pravda Factory, it is unsurprising that it's Soviet Lies and shoddy, nonexistant fact-checking, might migrate into other, non-political news division.

The Free American Press is dying.
Some might say it's already dead.

[BiggJawn]

21. I was in El Paso in June once.

Visiting my relations. Daytimne temps were 114, 110, up around there. RH was typically THREE percent. One day it got to 10% RH and felt positively muggy.

You'd climb out of the pool and evaporative cooling was so fast you'd get a chill and not need a towel to dry off.

Why do swamp coolers work so well there if the "average" RH is 70% ?That's what we get here in northern Indiana... right now it's 84, heat index is 92, and the RH is 74% and it feels absolutely STICKY outside. Combine that with the fact that we have had so much rain this week that everything is starting to smell like mildew....

[doni_georgia]

22. Hell CNN is in Atlanta and it's way more humid here than in El Paso

We hover around 70% humidity all summer. My vote for sweatiest city, though would have to be New Orleans, DC's no picnic in the summer either.

[Ivory_Tower]

24. "Why would this 'researcher' publish such an outright lie?"

I was wondering why someone would do this research, and why CNN simply referred to him as a "research scientist", with no affiliation.

Thank goodness for Google. I searched on "Tim Long" + "sweat" and found a couple of interesting articles from last year. For instance, in 2003, he declared Phoenix as the sweatiest city in the country:

http://www.ncbuy.com/news/2003-06-18/1007104.html

But notice that the article refers to him as "a P&G researcher who works on Old Spice antiperspirants".

Yup, this is just an Old Spice PR campaign. I don't think facts matter for them, and CNN just plays along.

Here's a follow-up article/commentary from Chicago:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/features/curmudgeon/061803_en_curmudgeon.html

Note this paragraph:

"Anyway, PR firms send TV newsrooms these faxes and e-mails all the time. They know that we have hours and hours of news to fill on a daily basis. So what better way to sell their product than to disguise the pitch as a ready-made news feature?"

And my friends wonder why I'm cynical about the news...

[Delano]

25. It was 55 F when I woke up this morning here in SF.

It's around 64 now. When I ride my bike over the Golden Gate Bridge, I seriously get chills from the cold ocean wind.

I can't believe this is June...

[Athletic Grrl]

30. Ain't it wonderful...

Outdoor exercise in the summer? B-)

[Andy_Stephenson]

26. Your from El Paso?

So am I...went to Coronado High School.

[Delano]

31. OMG - CHS Class of '87 here.

That's just scary! My rounger brother was class of '90.

My dad still lives on the weest side - repug mom lives atop one of those mountains over by crazy cat mountain.

My brother was always the one who wanted to get the hell out of EL Paso, not me, but I haven't lived there since age 19, and he's still there.

I wish I could go for a burger at Charcoaler, or ribs at the State Line...AND THEIR BREAD! MMMMM!

[Andy_Stephenson]

34. Class of 1980

went to School with Lee and Tina Chagra, Eddie Azar...

[Delano]

37. I haven't kept in touch wih many people, but the BMOC's were

Jeff Spier (good tennis player), Jeff Capen (spoiled dentist's kid,

Susan Summerford... I can hardly even think of any names...

[tabasco]

29. I saw that "report" too and knew it was erroneous.

I lived 75 miles north of El Paso for five years. A very pleasant climate. IIRC, relative humidity in the 30's most of the time or lower. With such low humidity, you don't sweat as much because the evaporation / cooling is faster & more effective.
For me, the Gulf South is much more oppressive heat wise. In Lower Louisiana you feel like you're underwater.

[leftofthedial]

35. c'mon. you don't really expect them to GO to El Paso do you?

Or check out any of 50 websites that give the facts acurately?

what do you think this is, journalism?

[TheCentepedeShoes]

38. We have one of those

"Weather Station" thingies that my brother-in-law gave us on his visit here from Florida last summer. (BTW, he's a big BFEE fan) It only registers down to 20% humidity so we have to check the local weather to get it right. A couple of days ago we were at temp 101 with 9%. We used to live in The Land of Jeb, too, and despite the pothandle being a Re:puke: haven, for the climate I LOVE IT!!

[The Animator]

39. I'm from Tampa, FL

Live in Orlando now.

Tampa reaches 100% humidity every afternoon at exactly 3:00 pm

Orlando get's it about 2 hours later.

If it gets above 175% we'll call it rain, anything less is just a sprinkle.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

40. Former

Temple Terracite, myself:hi: