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You got me wondering and apparently the average max temperature in SD in August 2015 was 81. Here, it was 83 degrees at 11 last night and it's been a relativel

You got me wondering and apparently the average max temperature in SD in August 2015 was 81. Here, it was 83 degrees at 11 last night and it's been a relatively cool summer. But wait, there's nothing like a humid 98 degree day in the middle of August. SD doesn't sound too bad. The fact that human beings lived in places like Houston before the advent of air conditioner suggests that new normal will get adapted to pretty quickly. How did they do that?

ZeroGravitas 9y ago
I know someone that just moved to San Diego and apparently one of the selling points is their year round good weather. Not too hot, not too cold. I'm sure human beings can exist in warmer, or colder places, but whether they want to is another matter.
nsp 9y ago
As someone who grew up without ac in Houston, it's pretty miserable. Lots of showers + a silly number of fans helps, but not that much. If you look at the historical population of Houston, it skyrocketed starting in the 50s as central air became widespread, so to answer your question most people didn't.
- eesmith 9y ago
  As someone who grew up w/o a/c in FL, it's doable ... in a house built before the 1950s so it wasn't designed around central air. High ceilings, entire house on cinder blocks so there's a 3 foot crawlspace under the building, a large porch, roof-vents, etc. Florida cracker style. It helps that we had the option to visit the public library or movie theater for a/c on the worst days, or go to a public pool. Worst is to live in a house designed for a/c but not using it. Did that one summer, because we weren't home during the day and wanted to save money. Just left the windows open. Mold started to form, so we decided it was better to run the a/c with its built-in dehumidifier.
  - CalRobert 9y ago
    It's amazing how quickly people forget the value of a good awning, double-hung windows, and the high ceiling you mentioned. To be fair, there were days when it wasn't too hot outside but the apartment was sweltering.
    - eesmith 9y ago
      As a downside, because there was effectively no insulation, when it was 40F outside, it was also 40F inside. We pulled out the space heaters to warm up the bathroom for the couple of weeks of winter.
AndrewKemendo 9y ago
Having grown up in Houston I know that sadly, before air conditioning, a lot of people died from heat exposure. Predominantly the elderly and sick. [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-home-air-conditioning-cut-premature-deaths-on-hot-days-80-percent-since-1960/2012/12/22/5b57f3ac-4abf-11e2-b709-667035ff9029_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study...
- hyperbovine 9y ago
  Even today this happens in highly developed countries where AC is not common. A 2003 heat wave in killed 20,000 people in France, Spain and Portugal, in addition to tens of thousands more related deaths in the years that followed.
  - volkk 9y ago
    after a quick wikipedia read, it seems the number is as high as 70,000 (although this is across all of europe). insane. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave
    - Someone 9y ago
      That number looks worse than it is. Many of the deaths were elderly people who already were of poor health, and would not have lived for long if that heat wave hadn't occurred. A way to show that is true is by looking at the death rate shortly _after_ that heat wave; it is slightly lower than expected. If you want to compare this number with e.g. car accidents, it would be better to count QALY's lost (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year), rather than deaths.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

ZeroGravitas 9y ago

I know someone that just moved to San Diego and apparently one of the selling points is their year round good weather. Not too hot, not too cold. I'm sure human beings can exist in warmer, or colder places, but whether they want to is another matter.

nsp 9y ago

As someone who grew up without ac in Houston, it's pretty miserable. Lots of showers + a silly number of fans helps, but not that much. If you look at the historical population of Houston, it skyrocketed starting in the 50s as central air became widespread, so to answer your question most people didn't.

eesmith 9y ago
As someone who grew up w/o a/c in FL, it's doable ... in a house built before the 1950s so it wasn't designed around central air. High ceilings, entire house on cinder blocks so there's a 3 foot crawlspace under the building, a large porch, roof-vents, etc. Florida cracker style. It helps that we had the option to visit the public library or movie theater for a/c on the worst days, or go to a public pool. Worst is to live in a house designed for a/c but not using it. Did that one summer, because we weren't home during the day and wanted to save money. Just left the windows open. Mold started to form, so we decided it was better to run the a/c with its built-in dehumidifier.
- CalRobert 9y ago
  It's amazing how quickly people forget the value of a good awning, double-hung windows, and the high ceiling you mentioned. To be fair, there were days when it wasn't too hot outside but the apartment was sweltering.
  - eesmith 9y ago
    As a downside, because there was effectively no insulation, when it was 40F outside, it was also 40F inside. We pulled out the space heaters to warm up the bathroom for the couple of weeks of winter.

AndrewKemendo 9y ago

Having grown up in Houston I know that sadly, before air conditioning, a lot of people died from heat exposure. Predominantly the elderly and sick. [1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-home-air-conditioning-cut-premature-deaths-on-hot-days-80-percent-since-1960/2012/12/22/5b57f3ac-4abf-11e2-b709-667035ff9029_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study...

hyperbovine 9y ago
Even today this happens in highly developed countries where AC is not common. A 2003 heat wave in killed 20,000 people in France, Spain and Portugal, in addition to tens of thousands more related deaths in the years that followed.
- volkk 9y ago
  after a quick wikipedia read, it seems the number is as high as 70,000 (although this is across all of europe). insane. source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave
  - Someone 9y ago
    That number looks worse than it is. Many of the deaths were elderly people who already were of poor health, and would not have lived for long if that heat wave hadn't occurred. A way to show that is true is by looking at the death rate shortly _after_ that heat wave; it is slightly lower than expected. If you want to compare this number with e.g. car accidents, it would be better to count QALY's lost (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality-adjusted_life_year), rather than deaths.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]