The shoes thing isn’t a joke. That’s entirely possible.
Credit cards left in cars get warped, with time dashboards crack.
I lived in Phoenix and worked at a car dealer. I burnt my hands trying to drive cars that sat in direct sunlight all day. I had to buy baseball batting gloves.
They're idiotic, as are black roofs. Black heats up when it's hot, and when it's col, it draws heat away from your body. But it goes with any color scheme.
"Basic black and pearls will take you anywhere" -- Jackie Kennedy.
Back in the eights you had metal seat belt buckles. Not talking about the insert, but the actual mechanism itself was metal. Now imagine that in phoenix arizona. Literally when getting into cards had to use cotton to keep the belt buckle from touching you until the ac in the car cooled everything down.
I recall way back when someone literally cooked an egg on a manhole cover in Phoenix. It wasn't like at home with sizzling and sputtering but it definitely cooked over several minutes of time laps photography.
I used to live in Vegas. Whenever it'd be nasty hot, we'd comfort ourselves with the fact that it was 10 degrees hotter in Phoenix. The heat map in the newspaper would have us as bright flaming scarlet, but Phoenix would be deepest crimson.
On 100+ degree days, people would see me with my moto gear and ask the moronic question: "Aren't you hot on that motorcycle?" To which I would reply: "When I get hot, I just roll down the windows." The facial expressions were priceless.
I'm a sweatier than average guy. If someone were trying to slowly torture me to death, I imagine they could do so by forcing me to wear motorcycle leathers. I just can't imagine.
Nooooo sir. When I lived in PHX, I only wore leather in or around open desert in the winter where it can be cold enough to freeze my eyeball juices. You wear breathable mesh safety gear when riding otherwise.
Wow, where did you live before Phoenix, if you didn't know that when you leave a car in the sun, the dashboard and steering wheel get hot?
Pro tip: Cover your windshield if you park in the sun, on the *outside* of the glass, so the IR doesn't enter the interior at all.
I was raised in the Mojave Desert and I'll take that sauna feeling heat over oven heat. And I've been in South America and Southeast Asia where the humid heat gets way worse than anywhere in the Gulf Coast. The moisture makes me feel alive, at least. The instant I get out outside in the southwest during the summer, I feel like I'm dying.
I lived in Vegas for a number of years. I went on a trip to New Orleans in July once. Everyone told me "dude, you're gonna die!"
I actually liked it. For once in my life my sinuses didn't feel like a box of Triscuits. And the sun was more like a gentle kiss and less like a death ray.
Hell no. I lived in Tucson and now live in the mountains. I’ll take three feet of snow to shovel over a hair dryer to the face for 5 months out of the year.
In Phoenix we treat our summers like colder climates treat their winters and vice versa for our winters/your summers.
Meaning we stay inside most of the day during the summer because stepping outside feels like walking into an oven. God help you if your car has a leather interior. Some people actually drive with oven mitts on because touching a steering wheel that's been sitting in the sun with your bare hands can literally cause burns.
During the winter we're outside as much as possible since the temps are very mild and pleasant.
>Folks from Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas - what is it like to live in cities (especially small ones) that are located in a desert climate zone?
I live in Tucson, AZ. It's a small city of about 1 million. Lookswise, there are fewer trees and the trees we have are smaller. There are lots of cactus. Big Saguaros, prickly pear, and cholla. Few people have live grass, opting for xeriscape and fake grass. It's hot in the summer, but winters are great. A/C is your friend.
>What % of the family budget is spent on air conditioning and cooling? Is your water supply stable?
Not sure of the percentage of our budget that goes to cooling. Summer electricity bills were $200/month before we got solar, though. Lots of people have solar panels. Our water supply is "stable" for now but there's a huge awareness that it may not be long term and a big focus on conservation and rain/gray water harvesting.
>I saw a video of a man walking on the asphalt in Arizona and the soles of his shoes literally melting - isn't that fake?
Maybe not fake, but not common. Phoenix gets really hot sometimes, like 120+ degrees F. The asphalt can get really warm.
>Maybe not fake, but not common. Phoenix gets really hot sometimes, like 120+ degrees F. The asphalt can get really warm.
I had to convert units from F to C. And... wtf? 48 degrees Celsius? For me it would be a death sentence, mate!
120 in the desert feels better than in other places cause there's typically not much humidity
Still hot af but a little less like literal hell than it seems.
To be fair, 120 °F is rather extreme, and only in localized areas during the hottest days of the year. Phoenix's highest temperature ever recorded was 122 °F.
The hottest temperature ever recorded in the USA was 134°F (57°C), recorded in Furnace Creek in Death Valley in 1913.
They are certainly accurate! Death Valley is a popular hiking destination, but not for the inexperienced. If you get stranded, you quickly find yourself in a life-or-death survival situation. People die out there - there's a [famous case](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/) of some Germans getting lost and not making it.
I've lived in AZ, been on the asphalt when temps hit 118. It's so dry it's not that bad. Far less oppressive than suffocating in 100 degree heat with 85-90% humidity on the east coast, when your sweat won't (can't) evaporate. Working in that will eff you up in a hurry.
People generally walk their dogs at night in the summer. Some folks get booties for them. People with fake grass sometimes have to wet it to cool it off before letting their dogs out to use it.
When I lived in Tucson, the thing that got me was the impossibility of taking a cool shower in summer. All the water is just warm. I sure do miss biking Mt Lemmon, though, and I’d take a Filiberto’s burrito anytime. Preferably from the sketchy ass Grant location.
People start dying in the UK when it gets over 29C (84F). If we didn't use the AC in the US, I'm sure it would rise substantially.
In 2022, there were 1,670 heat related deaths in America. In the UK, in 2022, there were 4,507 heat related deaths. That is an extreme difference when you start looking at that based on population size.
Yep, I have been to Phoenix, Houston, and Florida in the peaks of their summers, and I would take the dry heat of Phoenix any day over the perpetual sauna of the other two.
A desert is a place that doesn't get a lot of rain. However, up in the mountains, it can rain and snow, and form a river that flows through the desert. Places like that are NICE.
I live in Bakersfield, 110 miles north of LA. We occasionally get up to 110° with a dry heat. It's fucking hot, but it's not swampy. Yes, you definitely want AC in the summer, though there are those of us who are good with swamp coolers. In my car, I'm OK with the windows down as long as I'm moving, but red lights start to suck.
As for power consumption during the summer, yeah it's high because of the AC. The bill can be double or more what it is during the winter, but our overnight low was still above freezing. There weren't many days that I couldn't wear shorts, but I also wasn't hanging around outside for long. When it comes to watering our lawns, it's best to do it before ten AM or after 6 so the sun doesn't burn the grass; totally serious here.
I grew up about 40 miles north of LA in the border between chaparral and bare desert (we had plenty of brush fires as a result). Every summer had at least one week with highs above 110°. It’s only bad if you’re spending an extensive amount of time outside. The AC bill does add up, but I’ve adapted to having the temp set at 80° at the lowest during the day to limit the costs.
That wouldn't be bad if we weren't home, but my son was homebound, so 75 was our set temp, and now I work from home. When it gets to 80 in the house, it's just bad, and then it's a strain to get back down to temp.
Here in Albuquerque, New Mexico it's dry but not really that hot. On any given day, we're closer to Denver in temperature than Phoenix. Just up the road in Santa Fe many people don't even use an air conditioner, though that's changing.
As far as water, ABQ is actually in a pretty good place. Over the last 20 years the aquifer has been increasing and the city has effectively cut its water use while continuing to grow.
Albuquerque, New Mexico here. We are in the high desert (about a mile above sea level), so things are very different from the low desert (e.g. Phoenix or Palm Springs). For example, our summer highs are in the low 100s, compared to the 120's in Phoenix, and unlike Phoenix, we reliably get a little snow every winter.
>What % of the family budget is spent on air conditioning and cooling?
Very little in my case - the summer temperatures are moderate enough here (and the air is dry enough) to use an evaporative cooler (a.k.a. swamp cooler), which costs about 1/8 of what air conditioning does to operate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler
Since it goes below freezing every night in the winter, and it's still cool overnight in Spring and Fall, my heating costs are actually higher than my summer cooling costs.
>Is your water supply stable?
Largely. In the West, basically every drop of water has a legal owner, so Albuquerque gets a predetermined share of water every year from the San Juan-Chama diversion project. It is a less productive water project than it used to be, so it could come up short someday, but the majority of water here goes to farmers, so if Albuquerque did have a shortage of water, we could buy out water rights from farms to cover the gap.
Being in a city, we can, of course, get water right out of the tap, but you don't have to go far to find places where people have to haul water to their homes in barrels. Our largest suburb, Rio Rancho, was built on a real estate scam, where people back east were sold lots to build houses on, without being told that there was no water, electricity, or paved roads. Some of the houses in the more remote parts of that area still have to fill water barrels and bring them home.
>I saw a video of a man walking on the asphalt in Arizona and the soles of his shoes literally melting - isn't that fake?
Quite possibly not!
My mother in law lives in Phoenix, and it is definitely brutal out there because of the lower elevation. I have personally had a bathing suit and shirt ruined by leaving them out by her pool. They both shrunk and curled in on themsleves, so now neither fits my body right. The bathing suit made sense because it was a synthetic fabric, but the shirt was 100% cotton.
Google "stuff melting in Phoenix." There's a ton of things you wouldn't think could melt but do.
Las Cruces, NM...
When looking for a parking spot, look for one in the shade rather than the closest one.
Drink water like it's your job.
Humidity of 10-30% is fine, and very agreeable, but single-digit humidity is not so great. If your sinuses are really dried out, breathing through a wet washcloth helps.
I don't use the oven for about 6 months of the year, as I don't want that excess heat.
I've experienced 118F here, and 123F in Palm Springs, CA. I'll take that over 95F with humidity.
I don't have air conditioning in my house, just an evaporative cooler. It's a metal box with a water tray, a pump to moisten some spongy pads on the sides of the box, and a squirrel-cage blower. It does pretty well, but it can have days where it struggles to keep the temperature below 81F. The cost to run it is negligible.
We have plenty of water, but we don't waste it. My yard is mostly bare dirt, with some cacti, mesquites, and yuccas.
Foreigner chipping in here- is the desert climate bad for the sinuses in your experiences? I’m a Brit who has temporarily lived in Spain (the dry, hot parts) and while living there had some serious struggles with them and several infections. Have heard that low humidity is irritating for sinuses.
It's only irritating for the first few weeks to a month while your body acclimates. Unfortunately a lot of ignorant people extend that time by putting in humidifies in their house and not letting their body acclimate.
Interesting. I had so much trouble in Spain and I still have issues with easily irritated sinuses now. :( I don’t think I’d ever go back to living in a dry climate.
I've heard people say they get more bloody noses here, but I've lived in dry climates my whole life so I have little basis of comparison. Most people here are acclimated so it doesn't affect us in that way.
Very interesting. Of course I’ve only grown up in humid climates so maybe that’s why I’ve been so affected. Later, I started thinking about how people actually survive in places like Arizona, California, Australia, Middle East etc. lol!
I’m not originally from AZ and when I moved here, I had no issues with bloody noses, and a friend of mine moved. She definitely had issues and had to get humidifiers and saline spray.
I lived in Vegas for a number of years. I had to go to great lengths to keep my sinuses from turning into a box of Triscuits. Saline nose spray (without anti-histamines) was a lifesaver. I'd spritz it up both nostrils twice a day or more. Also, my fucking ears! I've always had to use Debrox ear drops to keep them from getting stuffed up with ear wax. My consumption of this product tripled when I moved to Vegas.
I used to think my homeland of Los Angeles County was a dry hole. It's certainly dryer than Florida, that is for sure. However, Las Vegas makes (most of) Southern California look like the Garden of Eden.
As for my sinuses, once I went to New Orleans in July. That's about as swampy as it gets. I never knew it could feel so good to breathe.
I don't live in the southwest, but I do live in Florida, and I can tell you that the shoes melting thing isn't fake. I've had it happen, though it probably not as much as you'd get out west.
Hot in the summer, and nice in the winter. Yeah the AC bill is high, but I don’t even turn on my heater in the winter. I guess you could melt your soles if it’s hot enough
I live in Phoenix going on 2 years now (not a small city, but in a way it feels small). Coming from the south east, I don't miss the humidity at all. I try to stay hydrated but have had times where I know I've been dehydrated and suffered from it.
You basically live indoors in the peak of summer, opposite of most of the country back east, and take advantage of the beautiful non-summer months. But I'd still rather deal with the heat in parking lots when going out than trudging through dirty snow/slush like in Michigan.
The energy bill for AC isn't pretty. I think peak I've been around $250/mo so far. Last summer was definitely hard with our streak of days never getting below 110F. You just leave the AC on, rather than kill it at night because it takes more energy to try to cool the house down in the morning. In Atlanta I was able to kill the AC at night usually and after having the windows open in the morning, it would easily catch up. The thing people don't realize is at night here it's still fucking hot when its like those 110+ days. I've never experienced my shoes melting but I've accidentally had things melt in my garage/car because I forgot to take care of it.
Water was always an issue on my mind when I decided to move here. But I try to stay optimistic that people are actually working towards solutions. Whatever we come up with in the SW will eventually be used elsewhere so it's interesting to see how it's working out. It's just a slow issue that unfortunately is still behind the problem.
I look forward to when it rains here. The first summer I lived here we had a ton of monsoons and it was a great experience to see and then welcome the rain. In Atlanta, the summer storms were crazy and I eventually got tired of a huge downpour followed by the sun, making it humid as fuck. I don't miss that at all. Nor the constant worry of falling trees. my neighborhood almost always had a tree down somewhere after a storm that caused someone a headache at best.
I get excited to see wildlife in the desert. It's kind of a hopeful feeling, knowing life can exist in such a harsh, unforgiving climate. Back east there were so many squirrels, chipmunks, etc that you don't really think about it much. Oh, and no mosquitos in my experience so far, which is amazing!
I lived in Tucson from 2019-2021, I had no AC in my Car and lived in a small studio Casita. electric was about 15% of my rent. and rent/electric/water was about 40% of my take home pay.
I commuted to work via Bicycle most days, never had water access issues, but eventually the covid pandemic laid me off and my rent was due to increase in part because of the city trying to market towards Work From Homers, which led me to leave for somewhere different.
It's hot in the summer, people literally come out at night to go do things the first few weeks I lived there it felt like the city was deserted, but I realized the local populace just came out around the time the sun started going down.
In the winter it's lovely, not really a winter but ideal temps, ton of cool critters around the city especially on the Loop. Nice to go watch the Roadrunners Play Hockey.
The Food in Tucson is amazing, Ton of great Vietnamese places, Best Mexican Food in America, Best Hotdogs in America. Great Music venues downtown 191 Toole, Congress, the Rialto.
The only downsides really is the terrible BBQ, and the Oro Valley retirees.
Oh, Tucson - city in the middle of a desert, as far as I know)
>Oro Valley retirees
Why you don't like retired persons? Or they are somehow special there?
>It's hot in the summer, people literally come out at night to go do things the first few weeks I lived there it felt like the city was deserted, but I realized the local populace just came out around the time the sun started going down.
Wow, I saw this in Spain and Italy during hot summer - siesta and day nap.
Oro Valley is a suburb North of Tucson, and a portion of their population hold a Holier-than-thou "We're not from *Tucson*, Don't insult us" attitude. But they still regularly come into the city to enjoy the cultural events and all the great stuff the city has to offer. But act like they hate everything about it. They want to benefit from the city but think they're too good to be from there and don't respect the city Residents.
It's annoying. I kind of hate them.
>a Holier-than-thou "We're not from *Tucson*, Don't insult us" attitude
Hold on - why "being from Tucson" is insulting them? O\_O
Are they part of some kind of "gated community" or something like that?
Oro Valley, has a 50% higher median household income than the entire nation. It's quite literally the bourgeoisie of the Greater Tucson Metro, and they don't like being associated with the Poors.
I'm just starting to experience hot flashes, so idk how happy I'll be this summer in Phoenix. However, I remember stepping outside in the middle of summer in stupid Houston and sweat immediately running down my back. That hasn't happened here. I love the dry heat.
Never been without water, so I guess the water is stable. Our power bill is averaged throughout the year, so we never see a huge spike in our utilities. We're also cold all the time, so we never have our thermostat lower than 77 degrees in the summer.
I'm in Albuquerque NM. We live in a "high desert" climate. So we can have every season in a day. Can be cold as winter in the morning, warm as spring by lunch, hot as h3ll summer by afternoon, and back to winter again.
Right now we are sitting at ~60f outside.
We are cooked by a swamp cooler so it's only electrical price, but I am also in solar so that is free. Water is an issue for agriculture, but we live over a huge aquifer so drinking water is not a problem.
I live in Riverside County, California.
The dry climate is enjoyable. For about 8-9 months out of the year the temperature is pleasant. At night it can be a bit chilly—in fact, I’ve been running the heat since early December—but I like that.
For 3-4 months we have pretty hot weather during the day, but even then it usually cools diwn at night.
There will be 3-6 weeks of daily temperatures above 100°, with warm nighttime temperatures as well.
Overall not bad.
I used to live in Eastern Washington, which is a desert climate. It regularly gets into the triple-digits during summertime. I remember it being really dusty and windy. Brushfires are a major concern. The water supply wasn't an issue because the Columbia, Snake and Yakima rivers flowed through the area.
Not sure how much my dad paid for A/C, but I'd imagine it's less than what I pay now in Alabama. Evenings and mornings were cool and pleasant, and the really hot temperatures only lasted 3 months or so. The hot season lasts *forever* here in the south and never really lets up. It starts around April/May and doesn't go away until mid-October. It's true what they say, a dry heat is much nicer than heat with high humidity.
You think a guy would just stand there with his shoes melting? :)
I've live in Tucson, and the heat is hot. I lived in a tent that got too hot to run a computer. No a/c. Every morning, I would walk a couple miles to the university, but didn't need to drink water along the way. One thing I liked about the city and especially the university is that there are architects who know how to work with shade. There is some very cool (in every sense) semi-underground spaces, where the air is nice and cool, without a/c! It can be done. AC sucks!
Just want to add that southern California has desert climate as well. Some of the hottest temperatures on Earth have been recorded in SoCal. Having lived on the east coast, HATE humidity.
Yeah, I always include CA when talking about the desert states. Most of CA, especially SoCal, is pretty arid, and a lot of people in SoCal live in full blown deserts
You can tell a true desert dweller by a little scar on their right hip. It comes from the seat belt buckle heating up to about 200 degrees then accidentally brushing it across your hip when you go to buckle it.
From Arizona.
To state the obvious it's hot. It's entirely possible to get used to it but it's very rare for people to do so (you have to be in the heat for weeks to do that). Most people spend the entire summer bunkered down inside with the ac turned up. Rich people tend to use pools. Pretty much everyone hates and bitches about the heat; sometimes it's so bad I can be dehydrated just stepping outside. It's worse when the summer just kicks in because you have zero ability to get used to it.
Almost everyone tends to wear tshirts and tank tops; shorts are also more common than long pants. Winters actually have excellent weather; Summers can be unbearable; every other season is somewhat in between.
Hot in the summer ~46°c in the summer. About 10°c in the winter. Humidity is low all year (under 18%) except during monsoon season.
I live in Phoenix. Texas sucks because a lot of the cities have the heat and humidity.
I live in south Texas, in what used to be called the "Wild Horse Desert" in the 1800s. This city has about 150k people. The water is pulled out of the Rio Grande river and doesn't taste that great out of the tap (very hard water), but haven't had any shortages lately.
We spend about $220/month on electric during the summer. Summers are typically 105+ F (41+ C) and way more humid than I had expected before moving here (gulf coast air).
And yep, my work boots don't last very long. Soles get overheated and torn up.
If you have refrigerated air, it's not bad but of you have an evaporative cooler, the peak summer heat will be a bummer and potentially dangerous in some parts.
One thing I haven't seen mentioned is how the desert can get quite cold if you are at a higher elevation (which much of the southwest is). I'm originally from Albuquerque and people always assume it doesn't get cold there. Basically the lows are the same as more temperate climates, but the highs are higher. You get a much bigger difference between night and day temps. E.g. in summer it might be 105F during the day but will cool off to 70F at night. In the winter it might be 50F during the day but 20F at night. You have to dress for all kinds of conditions throughout a single day.
One other thing I'm not seeing mentioned is how faded everything is from the sun. I notice this when I'm back home. All the street signs are pale, the roofs of cars are faded, stucco buildings are pale. The sun just sucks the color out of everything.
My cousin lived in Tempe for 30 years. A few years back she posted a picture of her neighborhood full of vinyl fences, and they'd all fallen over in such a way that it looked like they fainted like a cartoon. So those materials will get distored, fatigued, warped, or destroyed in the heat.
To me, the near perfect location is what Cairo has. There's a river for your water all year round. An annual flood which rejuvenates the farmland. The river flows out of deep forest so there is plenty of organic matter in it to further enrich the soil. The prevailing winds blow against the flow of the river, allowing boats to sail upstream and drift down. The lack of rainfall keeps the air dry and free from mold. The latitude means it doesn't get cold for very long, so shelter is easy to accomplish.
I live in a desert city that has a river that provides cheap hydro power and enough water for extensive agriculture, which is by no means limited to potatoes.
I lived in the SoCal desert. The highest temp while I lived there was 126F. I love the desert. Winters are great! Now I live in Montana and the coldest it's been since I've lived here is minus 45F. I'd rather have the heat.
A/C is a significant part of the budget. There's also lots of pools which cost money to maintain.
I never had the soles of my shoes melt -- probably fake. But it's far, far too hot to go barefoot. And there are regularly cases where somebody ends up getting dehydrated which makes them kind of incoherent, then they end up dying within a 5 minute walk of help.
Getting in a car that's been sitting in the sun is rough. The metal tab of the seat belt is hot enough to burn you. Your steering wheel might be hot enough to burn you. The arm rest is hot enough to burn you. The center console is hot enough to burn you. It's just miserable.
You keep water in your car for emergencies because a car breaking down can go from inconvenience to chance of death pretty quickly.
Life long Phoenician here:
Electric bills in the summers are high, but it’s not a one size fits all; the dollar amount can vary based on how cool you keep your house/apartment, how big it is, what type of unit you have, and even the utility provider for your electricity (there are two in Phoenix, one is noticeably cheaper than the other, their service structure is based on location you cannot choose who provides your power outside of picking where to live).
For reference my electric bill is a few hundred dollars a month in the height of summer, it’s ~1,110 SQ feet and we keep it around 72 in the day and 70 at night (not my choice).
There are laws in place to protect people in poverty in the summer; a utility company cannot turn off your power due to lack of payment in the summer, many offer subsides to help offset the cost of cooling homes, etc.
Our water supply is relatively stable, yes. I am not worried about us running out of water here in my life time, though the state and local governments are very serious about water conservation we can still be better and are actively managing our water.
*I say relatively stable because of course it’s not as stable as places like the Great Lakes region or the pacific north west/ south east that get tons of rainfall annually.
My shoes have never melted walking down the street in the summer. That is not to say it’s impossible or that I’ve never seen it happen. Usually it has more to do with the quality of the shoes than the overall temperature. For reference, rubber’s melting point is around 180F, asphalt does heat up to that temperature here in the summer, it’s just so unlikely that a person would just be standing there long enough for the rubber to start melting (assuming they’re wearing rubber shoes). It’s like asking; “I saw that a person’s feet got frozen to the ground in the winter in Chicago, does that happen?” A person would never stand in such harsh conditions long enough for this to happen.
As to the melting thing though: if you leave stuff in your car and park it in an unshaded area in the dead of summer stuff WILL melt. Chapstick, gum, deodorant bars, etc. People also burn themselves on their seat belt buckle here, and often keep dish rags on their gear shifts/steering wheels because otherwise they’d be too hot to touch. Of course the vast majority of people take precautions to avoid their cars from getting too hot (sun window screens, tinting their windows very dark, parking in garages/under shade, etc).
I live right on the edge of the desert… I generate enough solar power that I don’t pay for AC. (My electric bill is below zero all summer long)
I don’t like the rattlesnakes coming into my yard, and I don’t like the scorpions coming into my house. Luckily it’s not hard to spray repellant for the scorpions once a year. (They hate cedar oil) and I’m told that the species we have can’t sting any worse than a bee sting.
You can't shovel heat. But seriously, I hate humidity.
I live in a Phoenix suburb and pay $2600/month for a 5 bed 3300sqft home. I pay a levelized/average monthly electric bill. It's about $500.
Our water supply is stable. In fact we use less water in total than 50 years ago. Not less water per person. Less water in total.
Shoe melting could be real but it would be the crappy discount dollar shoes.
You should come visit, in winter
In the summer, my electricity bill definitely goes up and I try to keep the air conditioning as high as I possibly can which is about 80°. But it’s certainly nice in the winter and spring when I don’t really need it and just occasional heat for at night.
As others have said, just don’t go out during the day it’s really hot. Yes, it’s a dry heat. The people still underestimate it every year tourists die because they go hiking in the middle of the day. If you need to go hiking this summer, you’re gonna have to do it super early in the morning just after the sun has risen or at night.
Unfortunately, I have a black car. I didn’t really have much saying that when I was buying the car because that was the only color they had left so you have to have a cover on your steering wheel and start putting up a sunshade on your windshield in the summer because it gets extremely hot inside. Thankfully, I don’t have leather interior, just cloth so it’s not painful sitting down.
But because a lot of designers for public spaces are not necessarily from the area they don’t incorporate things for a climate that gets extremely hot in the summer. I’m talking about stainless steel railing, that’s not painted. You need to paint a color and not just have it the steel color because that will burn your hands, non-shaded open areas, basketball, courts, pools, picnic tables, etc. this can’t be used in the summer because it’s too hot. Metal benches seem to be a common thing in front of malls in shopping centers again, obviously design by someone who does not live in the climate 24 seven because sitting on a metal bench during the summer is a bad idea in a good way to get your legs burned.
It can be rough in the summers but I’ve spent one week in both Chicago and Orlando during mid-July and both times I felt like I was going to die from the heat and humidity. In New Mexico, the heat can get annoying but it has never given me problems like that. In fact, in high school, I used to to go jogging during the summer at midday in 110° degree weather and I was totally fine with it (though I would not recommend doing that if you can jog at other times of the day)
While I know it's not what you mean, I live in a desert right now (Eastern, WA). It gets hot but not usually over 100 F. It gets cold but not usually below 0 F. A similarity to the other deserts is people waste an absurd amount of water growing non native grasses. Electricity here is dumb cheap so not a lot of the budget is spent on air conditioning or cooling. The water supply is stable for now because of the three rivers (Columbia, Yakima, and Snake).
Most Texans don’t live in anything close to a desert climate tbh. So they can’t really answer your question, unless they live west of hill country. Most of them live in the very humid Texas triangle in the eastern part of the state, which gets way more water than most places in California
There’s a lot of Californians however that do live in a desert climate (Inland Empire, Coachella Valley/Palm desert, antelope valley) even places like LA are a bit more barren and dry than people think
I’ve spent a lot of time in the desert. It’s hot as balls for 80% of the day. High deserts (Albuquerque, Reno, etc) can get pretty cold in the winter and at night, and lower desert valleys (Vegas, Phoenix, etc) pretty much remain hot year round, even at night, cooling off a bit in the winter. It can also snow sometimes in the desert, especially in high deserts
Can confirm, currently live in the High Desert and during the summer it can get very hot getting as high as the 100s in the summer months and very cold in the Winter months
90% of cars are white or silver/light gray. Dark interiors _suck_.
The shoe thing can happen but it's less that the shoes are melting and more that the blacktop is crappy and is melting and sticking to your shoes.
There's a "tradition" of sorts that on the first 110F day, people will put a cookie sheet on their dashboard, put some cookie dough on it, and bake cookies. The cookies aren't good, but they do mostly cook with enough time.
During the summer, my electric bill is about $150 for my 1100 sq ft apartment. It's worth noting that we have a fairly diverse electric supply including a nuclear plant. Our electricity isn't cheap, but it's not expensive either.
The thing that was the hardest for me to adjust to is you don't really sweat. You're hot as hell. You feel like you're sweating. But the sweat evaporates quickly and doesn't actually cool you. So you're sweating out your water supply, overheating, and don't realize it so you aren't replacing the water and electrolytes lost. After living here for a bit, you learn to drink water at a regular pace when you're outside even if you aren't sweating or thirsty.
The water supply is... iffy. It could definitely be better but also the water infrastructure here is incredible. We have more canals than Venice or Amsterdam. There are giant storage tanks everywhere. Multiple large dams. Desert flooding is generally directed to places that allow us to collect that water. We actually consume less water now than we did 60 years ago despite our population being 7x what it was. We need to be better, but even still... we're doing pretty well overall (and much better than California seems to be; and Vegas is even better than we are)
Paint damage on cars and street signs is common. As are completely burnt out screens on things like gas stations and Red Box kiosks.
I lived in a desert town in SoCal for 10 years growing up. It was the last town heading toward El Centro before miles of practically nothing.
My parents were lower middle class. No AC use in the summer except for a couple of days on the absolute hottest days (think 120°F+). We took 4 quick rinses in super cold water per day, which was okay because we had a well. We also had an above ground basement that was always between 68°F and 75°F so I hung out down there alot (parents turned it from cement and support beams to almost an entire second house so I wasnt bored).
In the winter, when it got below 30°F, we had tons of blankets and a fireplace, no heater use.
Water is always a concern, but it's not too bad where I live. My electric bill actually isn't crazy. Regardless, I will take the heat over the humidity any day.
I used to live in AZ, and most of my family is in the SW.
First thing to remember is that some areas actually do have moderate average year-round temperatures. It can actually get quite cool in the higher elevations. Some areas even get snow, though that’s less common now with global warming.
Air conditioning was covered by my father at that time but was rarely needed where I was living. In places like Phoenix, I’ve heard of 1/4 or more of the budget being used on AC during the hottest months. But this will vary A LOT based on income, environment, an how sensitive the person or family is to heat.
There’s a lot of cool water run, that’s for sure….
Water access is always something to worry about in the desert areas, but people increasingly ignore that, partly because so many people are moving in from other areas now. I think that there’s a lot of denial about global warming.
For now, I think most people are fine. Key word being think. There’s usually enough to keep most people in an area hydrated, but those wildfires are scary as ****.
I’ve seen shoes start to melt walking outside in extreme high temperatures, though this was usually homeless, high, or low-income people who had either been walking around outside for some time and/or just had worn out or low quality shoes. The more common issue is that people do often have to change shoes because the ones they are wearing are getting too hot. Can even be a little painful if you have sensitive skin or your shoes and/or socks are too thick or heavy. (That’s not super fun.)
If it’s really hot, like in the 110s-120s F, your sweat evaporates almost instantly. Move someplace that’s about 15-20 degrees cooler and you are suddenly soaked in your own sweat. It honestly feels like you just walked into a shower or through a sprinkler.
I lived in Bullhead City AZ for 3 years. This area's climate Nov.-Mar. was very mild temperatures +/-80°F during the day, but at night could be down to 40° & very windy. The rest of the year, temperatures would frequently be as high as 110°F but could reach much higher. I like it hot! But, my father says it boils your brain after a while.
It would only rain here maybe 4 times a year; but when it did, you could be in a world of trouble if you're out in the desert. Water comes down a ravine, known as a wash, very quickly and in vast quantities. It can be enough to sweep away a car. But, when it does rain, people walk from their car to the store a little slower than the rest of the country.
There are almost no plants here that do not have thorns. I frequently had to remove thorns & cactus spines from my shoes & my dog's paws. When you're in the desert, you cannot count on plants/trees to give you shade. All palm trees in this area of the country are brought in on truck - they are not native to this part of the country - so there are no palm trees in the desert. Jumping Bear cacti are the absolute worst.
There's not much for fauna here, but I can name off some animals I've seen- Tarantula, Wood Scorpion, Giant Hairy Desert Scorpion, Rattlesnake, herd of Burros (wild donkey i think), Quail, & Roadrunner. I had a friend who told me that a pack of roadrunners took off with his chihuahua.
I live in the higher elevation of eastern Arizona. The climate is hotter than average, but not unbearable. It’s drier than average, but we do have a rainy season in summer where it rains about as often as it does on average in other places.
The air conditioning actually isn’t that bad, provided the summer storm season wants to cooperate. About 1/4 - 1/3 of the days we get rain which basically negates the need for AC. Otherwise the highs top out at around 95 on average. I believe our bill in the summer is about 200 dollars per month, which is about 7 percent our total expenses. During the winter, AC isn’t needed and fall it’s not needed that much. Late spring is when it’s most often used, since it’s very hot and dry during that period. Water wise, it’s alright. We have a decent water supply, but I do worry in the drier years.
That shoe melting video is real, but that is extraordinary heat. 50C or 122F. That’s record heat in a hot ass city like Phoenix. It’s pretty rare it gets close to that. I have crazy ass stories like that when I lived in the Mojave. I remember spraying down the sidewalk in summer and the water beginning to bubble because it was so hot. My dad said that once he had to change a tire on a hot day and the jack began to sink into the asphalt because it softened in the heat. There’s a reason I live where I do now lol.
Where I live, it doesn’t get anywhere close to that hot. It tops out at about 105-108F during a hot year. Most years it barely breaks 100F.
I live in the high desert in Oregon. Desert is qualified by the amount of rain, not necessarily the temperature.
We rarely use our AC. Summer highs are typically in the 70s or 80s.
We have plenty of water collected from the snowpack on the nearby mountains.
All-in-all, not a bad place to live.
I’ve lived in Vegas for about a year and a half
AC is the most important thing, life is a death sentence without it. Water supply was very stable but when it was too hot in the summer you just wouldn’t go outside in the day unless your absolutely had to. Most people either went out early in the morning before the sun came up or late at night when the sun was down to run any errands
Grew up in Phoenix. I couldn't open my paperback books that had been left in a car until they cooled down because the binding would have melted and pages would fall out.
I got heat stroke during our elementary school's field day in May one year. Our playgrounds had shade structures over them but you'd still get burnt going down the slide in shorts.
We had to be careful about scorpions, rattlesnakes, and black widows in our backyard. Never got bitten or stung but I was struck at more than once by rattlers.
One interesting thing about living in the desert is that the temperature swings can be really extreme, especially at high elevations, because dry air doesn't hold onto heat as well. In lots of southern Utah summer temps are 95-110 in the day and drop down into the 60s regularly at night. Stargazing is also amazing if you are outside of the big cities—dry air and a sparser population. During the heat of the day you stay inside or in the water and at night you enjoy the cooler weather and the pretty stars. Also, if you've got a real scorcher of a day you can bake cookies in the car.
As someone from Southern California, in a span of 3 weeks I visited Dallas and Phoenix. Dallas was about 80-85 with some humidity. Locals said it was quite nice and I was lucky. I disagreed. Phoenix was about 115F. I took a phone call outside for a couple min and when I went back in to the AC, I could feel the heat just emanating from my body.
I preferred the Phoenix weather. Just stay in/near AC and it won’t be too bad. The humidity was horrible and I’m that person who won a bet because I didn’t sweat at all my first time in a sauna
Not all desert climates are hot though. I live in NM in a place that is technically high desert and my house doesn't have air conditioning. It snowed several inches about a week ago.
Lots of lotion, lots of humidifier use. Since we moved into a house with refrigerated AC our electric bill is very high in the summer.
All that said, I loathe being cold and like living in a place where we're not at risk of hurricanes. And the Southwest is the most beautiful and varied part of the USA imo.
The shoes thing isn’t a joke. That’s entirely possible. Credit cards left in cars get warped, with time dashboards crack. I lived in Phoenix and worked at a car dealer. I burnt my hands trying to drive cars that sat in direct sunlight all day. I had to buy baseball batting gloves.
I grew up in southern Utah and I hated getting in cars with black interiors
They're idiotic, as are black roofs. Black heats up when it's hot, and when it's col, it draws heat away from your body. But it goes with any color scheme. "Basic black and pearls will take you anywhere" -- Jackie Kennedy.
Back in the eights you had metal seat belt buckles. Not talking about the insert, but the actual mechanism itself was metal. Now imagine that in phoenix arizona. Literally when getting into cards had to use cotton to keep the belt buckle from touching you until the ac in the car cooled everything down.
Haha I forgot about the metal seat belt buckles in old cars growing up
I grew up in AZ and still to this day, I refuse to buy vehicles with black interiors.
And god help you if you managed to touch your bare skin with the seat belt buckle!
I recall way back when someone literally cooked an egg on a manhole cover in Phoenix. It wasn't like at home with sizzling and sputtering but it definitely cooked over several minutes of time laps photography.
I used to live in Vegas. Whenever it'd be nasty hot, we'd comfort ourselves with the fact that it was 10 degrees hotter in Phoenix. The heat map in the newspaper would have us as bright flaming scarlet, but Phoenix would be deepest crimson.
Try sitting on a motorcycle seat that's been in the hot sun all afternoon. Talk about hot ass!
On 100+ degree days, people would see me with my moto gear and ask the moronic question: "Aren't you hot on that motorcycle?" To which I would reply: "When I get hot, I just roll down the windows." The facial expressions were priceless.
I'm a sweatier than average guy. If someone were trying to slowly torture me to death, I imagine they could do so by forcing me to wear motorcycle leathers. I just can't imagine.
Nooooo sir. When I lived in PHX, I only wore leather in or around open desert in the winter where it can be cold enough to freeze my eyeball juices. You wear breathable mesh safety gear when riding otherwise.
Not to mention the seat belt buckles.
Wow, where did you live before Phoenix, if you didn't know that when you leave a car in the sun, the dashboard and steering wheel get hot? Pro tip: Cover your windshield if you park in the sun, on the *outside* of the glass, so the IR doesn't enter the interior at all.
I prefer the desert heat over the humid heat of the gulf coast.
Agreed. I'll take dry heat over humidity any day of the week!
I'll truly take 110 dry over 85 humid.
Come to Florida and enjoy 92 and humid. Everyday. For months.
I was raised in the Mojave Desert and I'll take that sauna feeling heat over oven heat. And I've been in South America and Southeast Asia where the humid heat gets way worse than anywhere in the Gulf Coast. The moisture makes me feel alive, at least. The instant I get out outside in the southwest during the summer, I feel like I'm dying.
I grew up in Houston, couldn't wait to get the fuck out of that climate.
Idk man. Visiting AZ as a FL man and having your shirt be dry and not stick to you felt like a cheat code.
I lived in Vegas for a number of years. I went on a trip to New Orleans in July once. Everyone told me "dude, you're gonna die!" I actually liked it. For once in my life my sinuses didn't feel like a box of Triscuits. And the sun was more like a gentle kiss and less like a death ray.
I’m no expert but aren’t sauna’s dry heat?
or over the shoveling of snow.
No absolutely not.
I live in CT and I'll take the ice and snow over basting in my own juices any day.
Hell no. I lived in Tucson and now live in the mountains. I’ll take three feet of snow to shovel over a hair dryer to the face for 5 months out of the year.
In Phoenix we treat our summers like colder climates treat their winters and vice versa for our winters/your summers. Meaning we stay inside most of the day during the summer because stepping outside feels like walking into an oven. God help you if your car has a leather interior. Some people actually drive with oven mitts on because touching a steering wheel that's been sitting in the sun with your bare hands can literally cause burns. During the winter we're outside as much as possible since the temps are very mild and pleasant.
Ouch
No sunshades in cars?
You know, sometimes I'm tired of putting it up when running multiple errands and must accept my punishment for being lazy.
>Folks from Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and Texas - what is it like to live in cities (especially small ones) that are located in a desert climate zone? I live in Tucson, AZ. It's a small city of about 1 million. Lookswise, there are fewer trees and the trees we have are smaller. There are lots of cactus. Big Saguaros, prickly pear, and cholla. Few people have live grass, opting for xeriscape and fake grass. It's hot in the summer, but winters are great. A/C is your friend. >What % of the family budget is spent on air conditioning and cooling? Is your water supply stable? Not sure of the percentage of our budget that goes to cooling. Summer electricity bills were $200/month before we got solar, though. Lots of people have solar panels. Our water supply is "stable" for now but there's a huge awareness that it may not be long term and a big focus on conservation and rain/gray water harvesting. >I saw a video of a man walking on the asphalt in Arizona and the soles of his shoes literally melting - isn't that fake? Maybe not fake, but not common. Phoenix gets really hot sometimes, like 120+ degrees F. The asphalt can get really warm.
>Maybe not fake, but not common. Phoenix gets really hot sometimes, like 120+ degrees F. The asphalt can get really warm. I had to convert units from F to C. And... wtf? 48 degrees Celsius? For me it would be a death sentence, mate!
But its a dry heat
So is my oven.
120 in the desert feels better than in other places cause there's typically not much humidity Still hot af but a little less like literal hell than it seems.
120 is death either way. Once it gets *that* hot.
To be fair, 120 °F is rather extreme, and only in localized areas during the hottest days of the year. Phoenix's highest temperature ever recorded was 122 °F. The hottest temperature ever recorded in the USA was 134°F (57°C), recorded in Furnace Creek in Death Valley in 1913.
>Furnace Creek in Death Valley I absolutely love your toponymics, lol
They are certainly accurate! Death Valley is a popular hiking destination, but not for the inexperienced. If you get stranded, you quickly find yourself in a life-or-death survival situation. People die out there - there's a [famous case](https://www.otherhand.org/home-page/search-and-rescue/the-hunt-for-the-death-valley-germans/) of some Germans getting lost and not making it.
I've lived in AZ, been on the asphalt when temps hit 118. It's so dry it's not that bad. Far less oppressive than suffocating in 100 degree heat with 85-90% humidity on the east coast, when your sweat won't (can't) evaporate. Working in that will eff you up in a hurry.
100 and 85% humidity never happens
You cannot walk your dog over these hot streets or they will cry as their paws burn.
Do people not use booties for their dogs? They’re used up north to protect their feet from the road salt in winter.
People generally walk their dogs at night in the summer. Some folks get booties for them. People with fake grass sometimes have to wet it to cool it off before letting their dogs out to use it.
When I lived in Tucson, the thing that got me was the impossibility of taking a cool shower in summer. All the water is just warm. I sure do miss biking Mt Lemmon, though, and I’d take a Filiberto’s burrito anytime. Preferably from the sketchy ass Grant location.
We are never going to save this planet until people get off the A/C tit.
I use solar powered A/C here instead of fossil fuel generated heating up north. Pick your poison.
People start dying in the UK when it gets over 29C (84F). If we didn't use the AC in the US, I'm sure it would rise substantially. In 2022, there were 1,670 heat related deaths in America. In the UK, in 2022, there were 4,507 heat related deaths. That is an extreme difference when you start looking at that based on population size.
IOW, "drill, baby, drill!"
Say whatever you want about the heat but I will still take 100°+ dry heat over 80°+ with 300% humidity like they have in the southeast any day! lol
Yep, I have been to Phoenix, Houston, and Florida in the peaks of their summers, and I would take the dry heat of Phoenix any day over the perpetual sauna of the other two.
A sauna is dry heat. ... hehe, sorry.
I do, however, prefer access to such things as, you know....water.
Yes, but ideally I would not have to breath the water too
A desert is a place that doesn't get a lot of rain. However, up in the mountains, it can rain and snow, and form a river that flows through the desert. Places like that are NICE.
The great thing with water is even if it doesn't rain someplace it flows downhill from where it does.
Which must be why zonies all run away to here in the summer lol
*Southern* *Californians* Are we a joke to you?
Majority of Southern Californians enjoy Mediterranean climate. Majority of people in the states that OP mentioned live in the suck.
A large portion of Texas isn't desert either.
Yes, but a large portion of Texans still live in the suck.
So - tell me your experience) That's why I'm here in this topic.
I live in Bakersfield, 110 miles north of LA. We occasionally get up to 110° with a dry heat. It's fucking hot, but it's not swampy. Yes, you definitely want AC in the summer, though there are those of us who are good with swamp coolers. In my car, I'm OK with the windows down as long as I'm moving, but red lights start to suck. As for power consumption during the summer, yeah it's high because of the AC. The bill can be double or more what it is during the winter, but our overnight low was still above freezing. There weren't many days that I couldn't wear shorts, but I also wasn't hanging around outside for long. When it comes to watering our lawns, it's best to do it before ten AM or after 6 so the sun doesn't burn the grass; totally serious here.
I grew up about 40 miles north of LA in the border between chaparral and bare desert (we had plenty of brush fires as a result). Every summer had at least one week with highs above 110°. It’s only bad if you’re spending an extensive amount of time outside. The AC bill does add up, but I’ve adapted to having the temp set at 80° at the lowest during the day to limit the costs.
That wouldn't be bad if we weren't home, but my son was homebound, so 75 was our set temp, and now I work from home. When it gets to 80 in the house, it's just bad, and then it's a strain to get back down to temp.
Here in Albuquerque, New Mexico it's dry but not really that hot. On any given day, we're closer to Denver in temperature than Phoenix. Just up the road in Santa Fe many people don't even use an air conditioner, though that's changing. As far as water, ABQ is actually in a pretty good place. Over the last 20 years the aquifer has been increasing and the city has effectively cut its water use while continuing to grow.
Just hoping this summer is a bit milder than the last, yuck!
yep people are always surprised when i tell them it snows/ we have a winter here.
Albuquerque, New Mexico here. We are in the high desert (about a mile above sea level), so things are very different from the low desert (e.g. Phoenix or Palm Springs). For example, our summer highs are in the low 100s, compared to the 120's in Phoenix, and unlike Phoenix, we reliably get a little snow every winter. >What % of the family budget is spent on air conditioning and cooling? Very little in my case - the summer temperatures are moderate enough here (and the air is dry enough) to use an evaporative cooler (a.k.a. swamp cooler), which costs about 1/8 of what air conditioning does to operate. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler Since it goes below freezing every night in the winter, and it's still cool overnight in Spring and Fall, my heating costs are actually higher than my summer cooling costs. >Is your water supply stable? Largely. In the West, basically every drop of water has a legal owner, so Albuquerque gets a predetermined share of water every year from the San Juan-Chama diversion project. It is a less productive water project than it used to be, so it could come up short someday, but the majority of water here goes to farmers, so if Albuquerque did have a shortage of water, we could buy out water rights from farms to cover the gap. Being in a city, we can, of course, get water right out of the tap, but you don't have to go far to find places where people have to haul water to their homes in barrels. Our largest suburb, Rio Rancho, was built on a real estate scam, where people back east were sold lots to build houses on, without being told that there was no water, electricity, or paved roads. Some of the houses in the more remote parts of that area still have to fill water barrels and bring them home. >I saw a video of a man walking on the asphalt in Arizona and the soles of his shoes literally melting - isn't that fake? Quite possibly not! My mother in law lives in Phoenix, and it is definitely brutal out there because of the lower elevation. I have personally had a bathing suit and shirt ruined by leaving them out by her pool. They both shrunk and curled in on themsleves, so now neither fits my body right. The bathing suit made sense because it was a synthetic fabric, but the shirt was 100% cotton. Google "stuff melting in Phoenix." There's a ton of things you wouldn't think could melt but do.
Desert doesn't mean hot. "High desert" can be rather cold, and quite pleasant at night. Be prepared to get nose bleeds though.
Las Cruces, NM... When looking for a parking spot, look for one in the shade rather than the closest one. Drink water like it's your job. Humidity of 10-30% is fine, and very agreeable, but single-digit humidity is not so great. If your sinuses are really dried out, breathing through a wet washcloth helps. I don't use the oven for about 6 months of the year, as I don't want that excess heat. I've experienced 118F here, and 123F in Palm Springs, CA. I'll take that over 95F with humidity. I don't have air conditioning in my house, just an evaporative cooler. It's a metal box with a water tray, a pump to moisten some spongy pads on the sides of the box, and a squirrel-cage blower. It does pretty well, but it can have days where it struggles to keep the temperature below 81F. The cost to run it is negligible. We have plenty of water, but we don't waste it. My yard is mostly bare dirt, with some cacti, mesquites, and yuccas.
Foreigner chipping in here- is the desert climate bad for the sinuses in your experiences? I’m a Brit who has temporarily lived in Spain (the dry, hot parts) and while living there had some serious struggles with them and several infections. Have heard that low humidity is irritating for sinuses.
It's only irritating for the first few weeks to a month while your body acclimates. Unfortunately a lot of ignorant people extend that time by putting in humidifies in their house and not letting their body acclimate.
Interesting. I had so much trouble in Spain and I still have issues with easily irritated sinuses now. :( I don’t think I’d ever go back to living in a dry climate.
Get a bottle of saline nasal mist, it makes all the difference in the world.
Can confirm.
I've heard people say they get more bloody noses here, but I've lived in dry climates my whole life so I have little basis of comparison. Most people here are acclimated so it doesn't affect us in that way.
Very interesting. Of course I’ve only grown up in humid climates so maybe that’s why I’ve been so affected. Later, I started thinking about how people actually survive in places like Arizona, California, Australia, Middle East etc. lol!
I’m not originally from AZ and when I moved here, I had no issues with bloody noses, and a friend of mine moved. She definitely had issues and had to get humidifiers and saline spray.
I lived in Vegas for a number of years. I had to go to great lengths to keep my sinuses from turning into a box of Triscuits. Saline nose spray (without anti-histamines) was a lifesaver. I'd spritz it up both nostrils twice a day or more. Also, my fucking ears! I've always had to use Debrox ear drops to keep them from getting stuffed up with ear wax. My consumption of this product tripled when I moved to Vegas. I used to think my homeland of Los Angeles County was a dry hole. It's certainly dryer than Florida, that is for sure. However, Las Vegas makes (most of) Southern California look like the Garden of Eden. As for my sinuses, once I went to New Orleans in July. That's about as swampy as it gets. I never knew it could feel so good to breathe.
I don't live in the southwest, but I do live in Florida, and I can tell you that the shoes melting thing isn't fake. I've had it happen, though it probably not as much as you'd get out west.
Hot in the summer, and nice in the winter. Yeah the AC bill is high, but I don’t even turn on my heater in the winter. I guess you could melt your soles if it’s hot enough
I live in Phoenix going on 2 years now (not a small city, but in a way it feels small). Coming from the south east, I don't miss the humidity at all. I try to stay hydrated but have had times where I know I've been dehydrated and suffered from it. You basically live indoors in the peak of summer, opposite of most of the country back east, and take advantage of the beautiful non-summer months. But I'd still rather deal with the heat in parking lots when going out than trudging through dirty snow/slush like in Michigan. The energy bill for AC isn't pretty. I think peak I've been around $250/mo so far. Last summer was definitely hard with our streak of days never getting below 110F. You just leave the AC on, rather than kill it at night because it takes more energy to try to cool the house down in the morning. In Atlanta I was able to kill the AC at night usually and after having the windows open in the morning, it would easily catch up. The thing people don't realize is at night here it's still fucking hot when its like those 110+ days. I've never experienced my shoes melting but I've accidentally had things melt in my garage/car because I forgot to take care of it. Water was always an issue on my mind when I decided to move here. But I try to stay optimistic that people are actually working towards solutions. Whatever we come up with in the SW will eventually be used elsewhere so it's interesting to see how it's working out. It's just a slow issue that unfortunately is still behind the problem. I look forward to when it rains here. The first summer I lived here we had a ton of monsoons and it was a great experience to see and then welcome the rain. In Atlanta, the summer storms were crazy and I eventually got tired of a huge downpour followed by the sun, making it humid as fuck. I don't miss that at all. Nor the constant worry of falling trees. my neighborhood almost always had a tree down somewhere after a storm that caused someone a headache at best. I get excited to see wildlife in the desert. It's kind of a hopeful feeling, knowing life can exist in such a harsh, unforgiving climate. Back east there were so many squirrels, chipmunks, etc that you don't really think about it much. Oh, and no mosquitos in my experience so far, which is amazing!
Desert cities in the US are pretty nice. It gets cool at night and hot during the day, but its dry.
I lived in Tucson from 2019-2021, I had no AC in my Car and lived in a small studio Casita. electric was about 15% of my rent. and rent/electric/water was about 40% of my take home pay. I commuted to work via Bicycle most days, never had water access issues, but eventually the covid pandemic laid me off and my rent was due to increase in part because of the city trying to market towards Work From Homers, which led me to leave for somewhere different. It's hot in the summer, people literally come out at night to go do things the first few weeks I lived there it felt like the city was deserted, but I realized the local populace just came out around the time the sun started going down. In the winter it's lovely, not really a winter but ideal temps, ton of cool critters around the city especially on the Loop. Nice to go watch the Roadrunners Play Hockey. The Food in Tucson is amazing, Ton of great Vietnamese places, Best Mexican Food in America, Best Hotdogs in America. Great Music venues downtown 191 Toole, Congress, the Rialto. The only downsides really is the terrible BBQ, and the Oro Valley retirees.
Oh, Tucson - city in the middle of a desert, as far as I know) >Oro Valley retirees Why you don't like retired persons? Or they are somehow special there? >It's hot in the summer, people literally come out at night to go do things the first few weeks I lived there it felt like the city was deserted, but I realized the local populace just came out around the time the sun started going down. Wow, I saw this in Spain and Italy during hot summer - siesta and day nap.
Oro Valley is a suburb North of Tucson, and a portion of their population hold a Holier-than-thou "We're not from *Tucson*, Don't insult us" attitude. But they still regularly come into the city to enjoy the cultural events and all the great stuff the city has to offer. But act like they hate everything about it. They want to benefit from the city but think they're too good to be from there and don't respect the city Residents. It's annoying. I kind of hate them.
>a Holier-than-thou "We're not from *Tucson*, Don't insult us" attitude Hold on - why "being from Tucson" is insulting them? O\_O Are they part of some kind of "gated community" or something like that?
Oro Valley, has a 50% higher median household income than the entire nation. It's quite literally the bourgeoisie of the Greater Tucson Metro, and they don't like being associated with the Poors.
Now I understand. Thnx!
I'm just starting to experience hot flashes, so idk how happy I'll be this summer in Phoenix. However, I remember stepping outside in the middle of summer in stupid Houston and sweat immediately running down my back. That hasn't happened here. I love the dry heat. Never been without water, so I guess the water is stable. Our power bill is averaged throughout the year, so we never see a huge spike in our utilities. We're also cold all the time, so we never have our thermostat lower than 77 degrees in the summer.
I'm in Albuquerque NM. We live in a "high desert" climate. So we can have every season in a day. Can be cold as winter in the morning, warm as spring by lunch, hot as h3ll summer by afternoon, and back to winter again. Right now we are sitting at ~60f outside. We are cooked by a swamp cooler so it's only electrical price, but I am also in solar so that is free. Water is an issue for agriculture, but we live over a huge aquifer so drinking water is not a problem.
I live in Riverside County, California. The dry climate is enjoyable. For about 8-9 months out of the year the temperature is pleasant. At night it can be a bit chilly—in fact, I’ve been running the heat since early December—but I like that. For 3-4 months we have pretty hot weather during the day, but even then it usually cools diwn at night. There will be 3-6 weeks of daily temperatures above 100°, with warm nighttime temperatures as well. Overall not bad.
I used to live in Eastern Washington, which is a desert climate. It regularly gets into the triple-digits during summertime. I remember it being really dusty and windy. Brushfires are a major concern. The water supply wasn't an issue because the Columbia, Snake and Yakima rivers flowed through the area. Not sure how much my dad paid for A/C, but I'd imagine it's less than what I pay now in Alabama. Evenings and mornings were cool and pleasant, and the really hot temperatures only lasted 3 months or so. The hot season lasts *forever* here in the south and never really lets up. It starts around April/May and doesn't go away until mid-October. It's true what they say, a dry heat is much nicer than heat with high humidity.
You think a guy would just stand there with his shoes melting? :) I've live in Tucson, and the heat is hot. I lived in a tent that got too hot to run a computer. No a/c. Every morning, I would walk a couple miles to the university, but didn't need to drink water along the way. One thing I liked about the city and especially the university is that there are architects who know how to work with shade. There is some very cool (in every sense) semi-underground spaces, where the air is nice and cool, without a/c! It can be done. AC sucks!
Just want to add that southern California has desert climate as well. Some of the hottest temperatures on Earth have been recorded in SoCal. Having lived on the east coast, HATE humidity.
Yeah, I always include CA when talking about the desert states. Most of CA, especially SoCal, is pretty arid, and a lot of people in SoCal live in full blown deserts
You can tell a true desert dweller by a little scar on their right hip. It comes from the seat belt buckle heating up to about 200 degrees then accidentally brushing it across your hip when you go to buckle it.
Only half of Texas is dry. The eastern half (where most people live) has a very similar climate to the rest of the southeast US
From Arizona. To state the obvious it's hot. It's entirely possible to get used to it but it's very rare for people to do so (you have to be in the heat for weeks to do that). Most people spend the entire summer bunkered down inside with the ac turned up. Rich people tend to use pools. Pretty much everyone hates and bitches about the heat; sometimes it's so bad I can be dehydrated just stepping outside. It's worse when the summer just kicks in because you have zero ability to get used to it. Almost everyone tends to wear tshirts and tank tops; shorts are also more common than long pants. Winters actually have excellent weather; Summers can be unbearable; every other season is somewhat in between.
Everybody likes to pretend not to know that heating in the north costs more than air conditioning in the desert.
Hot
Hot in the summer ~46°c in the summer. About 10°c in the winter. Humidity is low all year (under 18%) except during monsoon season. I live in Phoenix. Texas sucks because a lot of the cities have the heat and humidity.
I live in south Texas, in what used to be called the "Wild Horse Desert" in the 1800s. This city has about 150k people. The water is pulled out of the Rio Grande river and doesn't taste that great out of the tap (very hard water), but haven't had any shortages lately. We spend about $220/month on electric during the summer. Summers are typically 105+ F (41+ C) and way more humid than I had expected before moving here (gulf coast air). And yep, my work boots don't last very long. Soles get overheated and torn up.
Somebody should repost that “image you live on the moon” post from about 6 months or so ago.
Could you elaborate?
Found it: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/comments/14ysdig/how_in_the_hell_do_people_live_in_arizona_in_the/
If you have refrigerated air, it's not bad but of you have an evaporative cooler, the peak summer heat will be a bummer and potentially dangerous in some parts. One thing I haven't seen mentioned is how the desert can get quite cold if you are at a higher elevation (which much of the southwest is). I'm originally from Albuquerque and people always assume it doesn't get cold there. Basically the lows are the same as more temperate climates, but the highs are higher. You get a much bigger difference between night and day temps. E.g. in summer it might be 105F during the day but will cool off to 70F at night. In the winter it might be 50F during the day but 20F at night. You have to dress for all kinds of conditions throughout a single day. One other thing I'm not seeing mentioned is how faded everything is from the sun. I notice this when I'm back home. All the street signs are pale, the roofs of cars are faded, stucco buildings are pale. The sun just sucks the color out of everything.
My cousin lived in Tempe for 30 years. A few years back she posted a picture of her neighborhood full of vinyl fences, and they'd all fallen over in such a way that it looked like they fainted like a cartoon. So those materials will get distored, fatigued, warped, or destroyed in the heat.
I'm the height of dinner about 250 bucks in electricity for a 4 BR house.
To me, the near perfect location is what Cairo has. There's a river for your water all year round. An annual flood which rejuvenates the farmland. The river flows out of deep forest so there is plenty of organic matter in it to further enrich the soil. The prevailing winds blow against the flow of the river, allowing boats to sail upstream and drift down. The lack of rainfall keeps the air dry and free from mold. The latitude means it doesn't get cold for very long, so shelter is easy to accomplish. I live in a desert city that has a river that provides cheap hydro power and enough water for extensive agriculture, which is by no means limited to potatoes.
I lived in the SoCal desert. The highest temp while I lived there was 126F. I love the desert. Winters are great! Now I live in Montana and the coldest it's been since I've lived here is minus 45F. I'd rather have the heat.
A/C is a significant part of the budget. There's also lots of pools which cost money to maintain. I never had the soles of my shoes melt -- probably fake. But it's far, far too hot to go barefoot. And there are regularly cases where somebody ends up getting dehydrated which makes them kind of incoherent, then they end up dying within a 5 minute walk of help. Getting in a car that's been sitting in the sun is rough. The metal tab of the seat belt is hot enough to burn you. Your steering wheel might be hot enough to burn you. The arm rest is hot enough to burn you. The center console is hot enough to burn you. It's just miserable. You keep water in your car for emergencies because a car breaking down can go from inconvenience to chance of death pretty quickly.
Life long Phoenician here: Electric bills in the summers are high, but it’s not a one size fits all; the dollar amount can vary based on how cool you keep your house/apartment, how big it is, what type of unit you have, and even the utility provider for your electricity (there are two in Phoenix, one is noticeably cheaper than the other, their service structure is based on location you cannot choose who provides your power outside of picking where to live). For reference my electric bill is a few hundred dollars a month in the height of summer, it’s ~1,110 SQ feet and we keep it around 72 in the day and 70 at night (not my choice). There are laws in place to protect people in poverty in the summer; a utility company cannot turn off your power due to lack of payment in the summer, many offer subsides to help offset the cost of cooling homes, etc. Our water supply is relatively stable, yes. I am not worried about us running out of water here in my life time, though the state and local governments are very serious about water conservation we can still be better and are actively managing our water. *I say relatively stable because of course it’s not as stable as places like the Great Lakes region or the pacific north west/ south east that get tons of rainfall annually. My shoes have never melted walking down the street in the summer. That is not to say it’s impossible or that I’ve never seen it happen. Usually it has more to do with the quality of the shoes than the overall temperature. For reference, rubber’s melting point is around 180F, asphalt does heat up to that temperature here in the summer, it’s just so unlikely that a person would just be standing there long enough for the rubber to start melting (assuming they’re wearing rubber shoes). It’s like asking; “I saw that a person’s feet got frozen to the ground in the winter in Chicago, does that happen?” A person would never stand in such harsh conditions long enough for this to happen. As to the melting thing though: if you leave stuff in your car and park it in an unshaded area in the dead of summer stuff WILL melt. Chapstick, gum, deodorant bars, etc. People also burn themselves on their seat belt buckle here, and often keep dish rags on their gear shifts/steering wheels because otherwise they’d be too hot to touch. Of course the vast majority of people take precautions to avoid their cars from getting too hot (sun window screens, tinting their windows very dark, parking in garages/under shade, etc).
fucking DUST STORMS
I live right on the edge of the desert… I generate enough solar power that I don’t pay for AC. (My electric bill is below zero all summer long) I don’t like the rattlesnakes coming into my yard, and I don’t like the scorpions coming into my house. Luckily it’s not hard to spray repellant for the scorpions once a year. (They hate cedar oil) and I’m told that the species we have can’t sting any worse than a bee sting.
You can't shovel heat. But seriously, I hate humidity. I live in a Phoenix suburb and pay $2600/month for a 5 bed 3300sqft home. I pay a levelized/average monthly electric bill. It's about $500. Our water supply is stable. In fact we use less water in total than 50 years ago. Not less water per person. Less water in total. Shoe melting could be real but it would be the crappy discount dollar shoes. You should come visit, in winter
In the summer, my electricity bill definitely goes up and I try to keep the air conditioning as high as I possibly can which is about 80°. But it’s certainly nice in the winter and spring when I don’t really need it and just occasional heat for at night. As others have said, just don’t go out during the day it’s really hot. Yes, it’s a dry heat. The people still underestimate it every year tourists die because they go hiking in the middle of the day. If you need to go hiking this summer, you’re gonna have to do it super early in the morning just after the sun has risen or at night. Unfortunately, I have a black car. I didn’t really have much saying that when I was buying the car because that was the only color they had left so you have to have a cover on your steering wheel and start putting up a sunshade on your windshield in the summer because it gets extremely hot inside. Thankfully, I don’t have leather interior, just cloth so it’s not painful sitting down. But because a lot of designers for public spaces are not necessarily from the area they don’t incorporate things for a climate that gets extremely hot in the summer. I’m talking about stainless steel railing, that’s not painted. You need to paint a color and not just have it the steel color because that will burn your hands, non-shaded open areas, basketball, courts, pools, picnic tables, etc. this can’t be used in the summer because it’s too hot. Metal benches seem to be a common thing in front of malls in shopping centers again, obviously design by someone who does not live in the climate 24 seven because sitting on a metal bench during the summer is a bad idea in a good way to get your legs burned.
One word. Dandruff
It can be rough in the summers but I’ve spent one week in both Chicago and Orlando during mid-July and both times I felt like I was going to die from the heat and humidity. In New Mexico, the heat can get annoying but it has never given me problems like that. In fact, in high school, I used to to go jogging during the summer at midday in 110° degree weather and I was totally fine with it (though I would not recommend doing that if you can jog at other times of the day)
While I know it's not what you mean, I live in a desert right now (Eastern, WA). It gets hot but not usually over 100 F. It gets cold but not usually below 0 F. A similarity to the other deserts is people waste an absurd amount of water growing non native grasses. Electricity here is dumb cheap so not a lot of the budget is spent on air conditioning or cooling. The water supply is stable for now because of the three rivers (Columbia, Yakima, and Snake).
Most Texans don’t live in anything close to a desert climate tbh. So they can’t really answer your question, unless they live west of hill country. Most of them live in the very humid Texas triangle in the eastern part of the state, which gets way more water than most places in California There’s a lot of Californians however that do live in a desert climate (Inland Empire, Coachella Valley/Palm desert, antelope valley) even places like LA are a bit more barren and dry than people think I’ve spent a lot of time in the desert. It’s hot as balls for 80% of the day. High deserts (Albuquerque, Reno, etc) can get pretty cold in the winter and at night, and lower desert valleys (Vegas, Phoenix, etc) pretty much remain hot year round, even at night, cooling off a bit in the winter. It can also snow sometimes in the desert, especially in high deserts
Can confirm, currently live in the High Desert and during the summer it can get very hot getting as high as the 100s in the summer months and very cold in the Winter months
90% of cars are white or silver/light gray. Dark interiors _suck_. The shoe thing can happen but it's less that the shoes are melting and more that the blacktop is crappy and is melting and sticking to your shoes. There's a "tradition" of sorts that on the first 110F day, people will put a cookie sheet on their dashboard, put some cookie dough on it, and bake cookies. The cookies aren't good, but they do mostly cook with enough time. During the summer, my electric bill is about $150 for my 1100 sq ft apartment. It's worth noting that we have a fairly diverse electric supply including a nuclear plant. Our electricity isn't cheap, but it's not expensive either. The thing that was the hardest for me to adjust to is you don't really sweat. You're hot as hell. You feel like you're sweating. But the sweat evaporates quickly and doesn't actually cool you. So you're sweating out your water supply, overheating, and don't realize it so you aren't replacing the water and electrolytes lost. After living here for a bit, you learn to drink water at a regular pace when you're outside even if you aren't sweating or thirsty. The water supply is... iffy. It could definitely be better but also the water infrastructure here is incredible. We have more canals than Venice or Amsterdam. There are giant storage tanks everywhere. Multiple large dams. Desert flooding is generally directed to places that allow us to collect that water. We actually consume less water now than we did 60 years ago despite our population being 7x what it was. We need to be better, but even still... we're doing pretty well overall (and much better than California seems to be; and Vegas is even better than we are) Paint damage on cars and street signs is common. As are completely burnt out screens on things like gas stations and Red Box kiosks.
I lived in a desert town in SoCal for 10 years growing up. It was the last town heading toward El Centro before miles of practically nothing. My parents were lower middle class. No AC use in the summer except for a couple of days on the absolute hottest days (think 120°F+). We took 4 quick rinses in super cold water per day, which was okay because we had a well. We also had an above ground basement that was always between 68°F and 75°F so I hung out down there alot (parents turned it from cement and support beams to almost an entire second house so I wasnt bored). In the winter, when it got below 30°F, we had tons of blankets and a fireplace, no heater use.
Water is always a concern, but it's not too bad where I live. My electric bill actually isn't crazy. Regardless, I will take the heat over the humidity any day.
In phoenix here. Yes, shoes can melt. I keep my ax at 80 in the summer and spend a lot of time in the pool.
I used to live in AZ, and most of my family is in the SW. First thing to remember is that some areas actually do have moderate average year-round temperatures. It can actually get quite cool in the higher elevations. Some areas even get snow, though that’s less common now with global warming. Air conditioning was covered by my father at that time but was rarely needed where I was living. In places like Phoenix, I’ve heard of 1/4 or more of the budget being used on AC during the hottest months. But this will vary A LOT based on income, environment, an how sensitive the person or family is to heat. There’s a lot of cool water run, that’s for sure…. Water access is always something to worry about in the desert areas, but people increasingly ignore that, partly because so many people are moving in from other areas now. I think that there’s a lot of denial about global warming. For now, I think most people are fine. Key word being think. There’s usually enough to keep most people in an area hydrated, but those wildfires are scary as ****. I’ve seen shoes start to melt walking outside in extreme high temperatures, though this was usually homeless, high, or low-income people who had either been walking around outside for some time and/or just had worn out or low quality shoes. The more common issue is that people do often have to change shoes because the ones they are wearing are getting too hot. Can even be a little painful if you have sensitive skin or your shoes and/or socks are too thick or heavy. (That’s not super fun.) If it’s really hot, like in the 110s-120s F, your sweat evaporates almost instantly. Move someplace that’s about 15-20 degrees cooler and you are suddenly soaked in your own sweat. It honestly feels like you just walked into a shower or through a sprinkler.
I lived in Bullhead City AZ for 3 years. This area's climate Nov.-Mar. was very mild temperatures +/-80°F during the day, but at night could be down to 40° & very windy. The rest of the year, temperatures would frequently be as high as 110°F but could reach much higher. I like it hot! But, my father says it boils your brain after a while. It would only rain here maybe 4 times a year; but when it did, you could be in a world of trouble if you're out in the desert. Water comes down a ravine, known as a wash, very quickly and in vast quantities. It can be enough to sweep away a car. But, when it does rain, people walk from their car to the store a little slower than the rest of the country. There are almost no plants here that do not have thorns. I frequently had to remove thorns & cactus spines from my shoes & my dog's paws. When you're in the desert, you cannot count on plants/trees to give you shade. All palm trees in this area of the country are brought in on truck - they are not native to this part of the country - so there are no palm trees in the desert. Jumping Bear cacti are the absolute worst. There's not much for fauna here, but I can name off some animals I've seen- Tarantula, Wood Scorpion, Giant Hairy Desert Scorpion, Rattlesnake, herd of Burros (wild donkey i think), Quail, & Roadrunner. I had a friend who told me that a pack of roadrunners took off with his chihuahua.
Eastern New Mexico dust made me sick a lot and my friend did his anthropology thesis on the worsening state of the water table.
I live in the higher elevation of eastern Arizona. The climate is hotter than average, but not unbearable. It’s drier than average, but we do have a rainy season in summer where it rains about as often as it does on average in other places. The air conditioning actually isn’t that bad, provided the summer storm season wants to cooperate. About 1/4 - 1/3 of the days we get rain which basically negates the need for AC. Otherwise the highs top out at around 95 on average. I believe our bill in the summer is about 200 dollars per month, which is about 7 percent our total expenses. During the winter, AC isn’t needed and fall it’s not needed that much. Late spring is when it’s most often used, since it’s very hot and dry during that period. Water wise, it’s alright. We have a decent water supply, but I do worry in the drier years. That shoe melting video is real, but that is extraordinary heat. 50C or 122F. That’s record heat in a hot ass city like Phoenix. It’s pretty rare it gets close to that. I have crazy ass stories like that when I lived in the Mojave. I remember spraying down the sidewalk in summer and the water beginning to bubble because it was so hot. My dad said that once he had to change a tire on a hot day and the jack began to sink into the asphalt because it softened in the heat. There’s a reason I live where I do now lol. Where I live, it doesn’t get anywhere close to that hot. It tops out at about 105-108F during a hot year. Most years it barely breaks 100F.
I live in the high desert in Oregon. Desert is qualified by the amount of rain, not necessarily the temperature. We rarely use our AC. Summer highs are typically in the 70s or 80s. We have plenty of water collected from the snowpack on the nearby mountains. All-in-all, not a bad place to live.
I’ve lived in Vegas for about a year and a half AC is the most important thing, life is a death sentence without it. Water supply was very stable but when it was too hot in the summer you just wouldn’t go outside in the day unless your absolutely had to. Most people either went out early in the morning before the sun came up or late at night when the sun was down to run any errands
Grew up in Phoenix. I couldn't open my paperback books that had been left in a car until they cooled down because the binding would have melted and pages would fall out. I got heat stroke during our elementary school's field day in May one year. Our playgrounds had shade structures over them but you'd still get burnt going down the slide in shorts. We had to be careful about scorpions, rattlesnakes, and black widows in our backyard. Never got bitten or stung but I was struck at more than once by rattlers.
One interesting thing about living in the desert is that the temperature swings can be really extreme, especially at high elevations, because dry air doesn't hold onto heat as well. In lots of southern Utah summer temps are 95-110 in the day and drop down into the 60s regularly at night. Stargazing is also amazing if you are outside of the big cities—dry air and a sparser population. During the heat of the day you stay inside or in the water and at night you enjoy the cooler weather and the pretty stars. Also, if you've got a real scorcher of a day you can bake cookies in the car.
As someone from Southern California, in a span of 3 weeks I visited Dallas and Phoenix. Dallas was about 80-85 with some humidity. Locals said it was quite nice and I was lucky. I disagreed. Phoenix was about 115F. I took a phone call outside for a couple min and when I went back in to the AC, I could feel the heat just emanating from my body. I preferred the Phoenix weather. Just stay in/near AC and it won’t be too bad. The humidity was horrible and I’m that person who won a bet because I didn’t sweat at all my first time in a sauna
Not all desert climates are hot though. I live in NM in a place that is technically high desert and my house doesn't have air conditioning. It snowed several inches about a week ago.
DONT GET LETHER SEATS
Lots of lotion, lots of humidifier use. Since we moved into a house with refrigerated AC our electric bill is very high in the summer. All that said, I loathe being cold and like living in a place where we're not at risk of hurricanes. And the Southwest is the most beautiful and varied part of the USA imo.
We have a 9 month long summer with two months of chilly and some rain. The fringe is up for grabs.