8 ms·

Still boggles my mind the amount of people that decided to move to Arizona without considering what it is like to live in Arizona. People that are not used to h

Still boggles my mind the amount of people that decided to move to Arizona without considering what it is like to live in Arizona. People that are not used to heat should think multiple times and try to live for a summer at a hot place before ever deciding to move there, as someone born and raised in the tropics, and that lived in the most arid places in South America, it's not for everyone.

toomuchtodo 2y ago
Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the US. Going to be a heck of a natural experiment as it only keeps getting hotter, and how long it takes for the climate migrations to occur.
- mlinhares 2y ago
  Might be sooner than expected, once home prices stagnate or start to fall because no one wants to move there anymore, it will be a race to the bottom.
  - toomuchtodo 2y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag14Ao_xO4c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag14Ao_xO4c
    - mlinhares 2y ago
      Reminds me of all the people that decided to move to Florida and got a home close to the beach/water and are now mad about the cost of insurance.
  - mandevil 2y ago
    Eh, as long as California has things that destroy their homeowners like Prop 13 and Prop 103 people are going to be moving to Arizona from California. The key to enjoying Phoenix is understanding that from October to May or so, it's basically San Diego. That's when you do all your outside stuff, you walk places, you have a great time. Then from May to October it's the surface of the sun.
- wenc 2y ago
  It's a surprising factoid that Phoenix the city is the 5th larges tin the US. But if we take metro areas (MSA) -- which is somewhat more representative of size -- it falls off to 10th place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area#Rankings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area#... It's still quite high. I'm surprised so many people like to live in hot places. I'm told it's a "dry heat" though, so it's not as bad. You can use swamp coolers to cool down. Hot and humid places are more uncomfortable. Houston in August is 110 F with 80+ % humidity. It's oppressively hot.
  - sparker72678 2y ago
    Swamp coolers are not effective during at least July-September, when the dewpoint regularly rises to 65°F+ for weeks at a time. Drier than the south still isn't dry enough when it's 117°F with a dewpoint of 65°F. You'll end up with output temps in the high 80s (or higher), and the output air will be extremely wet.
    - snovv_crash 2y ago
      Can't you use heat exchangers to stack the effect of swamp coolers, so each level gets another 30° colder until it's comfortable?
      - pkulak 2y ago
        Once you saturate the air, it’s all done.
        thelastparadise 2y ago
        Is H2O bad to put in the air just like CO2?
        Filligree 2y ago
        No, but if the air is saturated with H2O then sweating doesn't work. Swamp coolers are useful up to a point; ideally they bring down the temperature until you don't sweat. If they can't, and saturate the air instead, then they're worse than nothing.
rufus_foreman 2y ago
>> People that are not used to heat should think multiple times and try to live for a summer at a hot place before ever deciding to move there Many of the people moving to Arizona come from the midwest where they know all about living for a summer at a hot place. Highest dew point ever recorded in the US comes from Minnesota in the summer. The people moving from the midwest to Arizona are choosing somewhere more arid. What they are giving up is shoveling snow, which is a heart attack waiting to happen for anyone over 50.
- mlinhares 2y ago
  100 days of over 100F heat is going to kill you much sooner than shoveling snow, that you could be paying someone else in a machine to do for you.
  - BenjiWiebe 2y ago
    If the 100F heat comes with very low humidity (which is what I'd expect in AZ), it'd feel nicer than the weather we get in Kansas (except maybe for this year; this year was cooler).
    - AlotOfReading 2y ago
      It does not. 40C / 104F temperatures do not feel comfortable no matter what the relative humidity is. Those are the low summer temperatures in the desert lowlands. The fact that the heat doesn't go away even at night is another issue. If the power ever fails for vulnerable populations, they're immediately in danger. There's no reprieve of night or insulation you can use to fully mitigate those conditions.
      - abfan1127 2y ago
        104? that's a cool day here in Phoenix. I have no problem with the heat until it hits 118-120. Then its bad. We recreate outside all summer too.
voisin 2y ago
I like to think of these people as early adopters. Most of the world will be like Phoenix soon enough!
JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> People that are not used to heat should think multiple times and try to live for a summer at a hot place before ever deciding to move there Is there evidence of migration from Phoenix by people who moved there on account of the heat? Like the Gulf, most of Phoenix—certainly the neighbourhoods someone out of state would be moving to—is air conditioned to a fault. Solar power is plentiful and cheap. Hell, there are tanning salons everywhere because people avoid the sun in the summer.
sirspacey 2y ago
I moved to AZ. I spent my first month here on a visit in July, when I could feel the heat from the asphalt through my shoes to the point is was painful after just a few minutes. I figured if I could handle it then, the rest of the year would be great. It is, it’s basically vacation weather 7 months out of the year with multiple biomes within a 2 hour driving radius. You can literally drive an hour into a snow fall in the winter. I grew up in humidity & constant allergies. AZ is heaven by comparison. The dry heat really is amazing for health and sinuses.
jkmcf 2y ago
I’m guessing they live indoors and only go outside long enough to reach the next AC enclosure, like they do during Florida summers (aside from beachgoers).
- Log_out_ 2y ago
  acstrollnauts
- pkulak 2y ago
  I grew up in Phoenix. Your house is AC, and your car is in a conditioned garage. You get out of the car and feel heat for as long as it takes to walk to the grocery store or the office. Maybe a few minutes a day, total. Adults at least. Somehow my friends and I played basketball all day. Youth is something else.
  - lm28469 2y ago
    > Your house is AC, and your car is in a conditioned garage. You get out of the car and feel heat for as long as it takes to walk to the grocery store or the office. Maybe a few minutes a day, total. A whole new level of alienation from nature... I'd go insane in a month
caymanjim 2y ago
Arizona is hot, no doubt about it, but the cliches about dry heat are true. I lived in Tempe for about five years. 100-110F there is pretty comfortable, so long as you can get some shade. Even 115F in the shade isn't completely overwhelming. I also lived in the Cayman Islands for three years. 88F 88% humidity is far more uncomfortable than 110F 15% in Arizona. The most uncomfortable places I've been are Southeast Asia and India. 95F 90% and I could barely breathe and came close to heat stroke a number of times. Arizona summers are more tolerable to me than the tropics or the Gulf coast state summers.
- leereeves 2y ago
  > 100-110F there is pretty comfortable, so long as you can get some shade. I agree with you there, but I'd also mention that in Phoenix, it's not the heat that will kill you, it's the sun. The deserts in Arizona and eastern California have the most intense sun in the US. If you can't find shade, for example while hiking in the desert, the climate in Phoenix is brutal. It's also very easy to get dehydration and low blood sodium, because sweat evaporates so fast you don't even realize you're sweating. This all makes the climate very dangerous - it's not as uncomfortable as heat with high humidity, but it will sneak up and kill you. One third of all heat related deaths in the US happen in Arizona.[1] 1: https://apnews.com/article/record-heat-deadly-climate-change-humidity-south-11de21a526e1cbe7e306c47c2f12438d https://apnews.com/article/record-heat-deadly-climate-change...
m463 2y ago
A friend lived there. He worked during the day, and said coming home and sitting around his pool in the evening was wonderful. don't know if that's true with this heat wave?
HDThoreaun 2y ago
Phoenix is beautiful 7 months a year. Better weather than the vast majority of the country, probably only the west coast beats it consistently.

toomuchtodo 2y ago

Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the US. Going to be a heck of a natural experiment as it only keeps getting hotter, and how long it takes for the climate migrations to occur.

mlinhares 2y ago
Might be sooner than expected, once home prices stagnate or start to fall because no one wants to move there anymore, it will be a race to the bottom.
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag14Ao_xO4c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag14Ao_xO4c
  - mlinhares 2y ago
    Reminds me of all the people that decided to move to Florida and got a home close to the beach/water and are now mad about the cost of insurance.
- mandevil 2y ago
  Eh, as long as California has things that destroy their homeowners like Prop 13 and Prop 103 people are going to be moving to Arizona from California. The key to enjoying Phoenix is understanding that from October to May or so, it's basically San Diego. That's when you do all your outside stuff, you walk places, you have a great time. Then from May to October it's the surface of the sun.
wenc 2y ago
It's a surprising factoid that Phoenix the city is the 5th larges tin the US. But if we take metro areas (MSA) -- which is somewhat more representative of size -- it falls off to 10th place. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area#Rankings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_statistical_area#... It's still quite high. I'm surprised so many people like to live in hot places. I'm told it's a "dry heat" though, so it's not as bad. You can use swamp coolers to cool down. Hot and humid places are more uncomfortable. Houston in August is 110 F with 80+ % humidity. It's oppressively hot.
- sparker72678 2y ago
  Swamp coolers are not effective during at least July-September, when the dewpoint regularly rises to 65°F+ for weeks at a time. Drier than the south still isn't dry enough when it's 117°F with a dewpoint of 65°F. You'll end up with output temps in the high 80s (or higher), and the output air will be extremely wet.
  - snovv_crash 2y ago
    Can't you use heat exchangers to stack the effect of swamp coolers, so each level gets another 30° colder until it's comfortable?
    - pkulak 2y ago
      Once you saturate the air, it’s all done.
      - thelastparadise 2y ago
        Is H2O bad to put in the air just like CO2?
        Filligree 2y ago
        No, but if the air is saturated with H2O then sweating doesn't work. Swamp coolers are useful up to a point; ideally they bring down the temperature until you don't sweat. If they can't, and saturate the air instead, then they're worse than nothing.

rufus_foreman 2y ago

>> People that are not used to heat should think multiple times and try to live for a summer at a hot place before ever deciding to move there Many of the people moving to Arizona come from the midwest where they know all about living for a summer at a hot place. Highest dew point ever recorded in the US comes from Minnesota in the summer. The people moving from the midwest to Arizona are choosing somewhere more arid. What they are giving up is shoveling snow, which is a heart attack waiting to happen for anyone over 50.

mlinhares 2y ago
100 days of over 100F heat is going to kill you much sooner than shoveling snow, that you could be paying someone else in a machine to do for you.
- BenjiWiebe 2y ago
  If the 100F heat comes with very low humidity (which is what I'd expect in AZ), it'd feel nicer than the weather we get in Kansas (except maybe for this year; this year was cooler).
  - AlotOfReading 2y ago
    It does not. 40C / 104F temperatures do not feel comfortable no matter what the relative humidity is. Those are the low summer temperatures in the desert lowlands. The fact that the heat doesn't go away even at night is another issue. If the power ever fails for vulnerable populations, they're immediately in danger. There's no reprieve of night or insulation you can use to fully mitigate those conditions.
    - abfan1127 2y ago
      104? that's a cool day here in Phoenix. I have no problem with the heat until it hits 118-120. Then its bad. We recreate outside all summer too.

voisin 2y ago

I like to think of these people as early adopters. Most of the world will be like Phoenix soon enough!

JumpCrisscross 2y ago

> People that are not used to heat should think multiple times and try to live for a summer at a hot place before ever deciding to move there Is there evidence of migration from Phoenix by people who moved there on account of the heat? Like the Gulf, most of Phoenix—certainly the neighbourhoods someone out of state would be moving to—is air conditioned to a fault. Solar power is plentiful and cheap. Hell, there are tanning salons everywhere because people avoid the sun in the summer.

sirspacey 2y ago

I moved to AZ. I spent my first month here on a visit in July, when I could feel the heat from the asphalt through my shoes to the point is was painful after just a few minutes. I figured if I could handle it then, the rest of the year would be great. It is, it’s basically vacation weather 7 months out of the year with multiple biomes within a 2 hour driving radius. You can literally drive an hour into a snow fall in the winter. I grew up in humidity & constant allergies. AZ is heaven by comparison. The dry heat really is amazing for health and sinuses.

jkmcf 2y ago

I’m guessing they live indoors and only go outside long enough to reach the next AC enclosure, like they do during Florida summers (aside from beachgoers).

Log_out_ 2y ago
acstrollnauts
pkulak 2y ago
I grew up in Phoenix. Your house is AC, and your car is in a conditioned garage. You get out of the car and feel heat for as long as it takes to walk to the grocery store or the office. Maybe a few minutes a day, total. Adults at least. Somehow my friends and I played basketball all day. Youth is something else.
- lm28469 2y ago
  > Your house is AC, and your car is in a conditioned garage. You get out of the car and feel heat for as long as it takes to walk to the grocery store or the office. Maybe a few minutes a day, total. A whole new level of alienation from nature... I'd go insane in a month

caymanjim 2y ago

Arizona is hot, no doubt about it, but the cliches about dry heat are true. I lived in Tempe for about five years. 100-110F there is pretty comfortable, so long as you can get some shade. Even 115F in the shade isn't completely overwhelming. I also lived in the Cayman Islands for three years. 88F 88% humidity is far more uncomfortable than 110F 15% in Arizona. The most uncomfortable places I've been are Southeast Asia and India. 95F 90% and I could barely breathe and came close to heat stroke a number of times. Arizona summers are more tolerable to me than the tropics or the Gulf coast state summers.

leereeves 2y ago
> 100-110F there is pretty comfortable, so long as you can get some shade. I agree with you there, but I'd also mention that in Phoenix, it's not the heat that will kill you, it's the sun. The deserts in Arizona and eastern California have the most intense sun in the US. If you can't find shade, for example while hiking in the desert, the climate in Phoenix is brutal. It's also very easy to get dehydration and low blood sodium, because sweat evaporates so fast you don't even realize you're sweating. This all makes the climate very dangerous - it's not as uncomfortable as heat with high humidity, but it will sneak up and kill you. One third of all heat related deaths in the US happen in Arizona.[1] 1: https://apnews.com/article/record-heat-deadly-climate-change-humidity-south-11de21a526e1cbe7e306c47c2f12438d https://apnews.com/article/record-heat-deadly-climate-change...

m463 2y ago

A friend lived there. He worked during the day, and said coming home and sitting around his pool in the evening was wonderful. don't know if that's true with this heat wave?

HDThoreaun 2y ago

Phoenix is beautiful 7 months a year. Better weather than the vast majority of the country, probably only the west coast beats it consistently.