[pepsionice]

I lived for four years in Tucson, and you actually have to prepare yourself daily to be out in the heat...especially after mid-day.

[upbeat5]

“I lived for four years in Tucson, and you actually have to prepare yourself daily to be out in the heat...especially after mid-day.”

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25 years ago, my Dad retired to Tempe, AZ. My brother’s family and my family went out there in August 2000 when my Dad turned 90 for his birthday party. It was 115 or so that day and my brothers remark was, “Now I know how hot hell is” and we’re from the South!

Another story, we were over by the Fiesta Bowl stadium, as I remember it was over at Arizona State University. We were looking for a restaurant and had to walk down a street of brick buildings that were around 3 - 6 stories high. It was like walking into a brick oven. Between the pavement and brick on buildings it was unbearable.

[Mr. K]

I loved Tucson. I went there for an 8 week assignment once, that turned into 6 months.

I plan to move there eventually. I was outside every single day doing something. Mountain climbing, biking, swimming.

The odd thing was that I was usually the only one. I often remarked to my girlfriend that we never saw any other people outside. Not washing their car, not barbecuing, not swimming... nothing. The only time we ran into a group of people was at the top of Mt Lemon (above the snow line)

We used to go visit all the up-scale gated communities and go swimming in their pools. They were always empty.

[InABunkerUnderSF]

For the record, Tucson is usually about 4 or 5 degrees cooler than where I live. One of the benefits of living in a state with a large LDS population is that family records are on-line and easily accessible. My mom was born in Tempe and grew up there and in Yuma until she was 11 years old. In that time she lost one brother, one sister and two grand parents, from various causes, all between the months of June and September. People back East tend to die in the winter. Here it's the summer. Heat kills.

Today was supposed to be a range day but it was 77 at 6 AM with 88% humidity. By 6:30 the clouds had cleared and it was up to 82, with 80% humidity and I blew off the trip. I figure by about 10 AM, when I would probably be wrapping up it will be over 100. I just don't need to be schlepping steel targets around an outdoor range in 100 degree heat.

Keep cool. Stay hydrated.

[HotHunt]

I was raised in Arizona and have lived in both Tucson and Phoenix.

Tucson is always 10 degrees cooler than the Phoenix metro area because it is higher in elevation.

As a kid, we would play outside all day and never think anything about it. In high school, our outdoor sports practices and games were held in the evening when the sun had gone down.

In college at Arizona State University, we would lay around the pool working on our tans between 7:00 and 10:00 AM when it was not so hot and then schedule our classes in the afternoons so we could be in the air-conditioned classrooms.

We used to say that only tourists and idiots went outside in the midday sun.

I live in Florida now and I have a new understanding for what "hot" really means.

From my experience, Arizona's dry heat is tolerable to live comfortably in.

But Florida's wet and humid heat is unbearable. Not even close. Florida's summers are insufferable.

[oh8eleven]

you actually have to prepare yourself daily to be out in the heat
Besides water and a hat, how else can you prepare?
I did 13 months in 'Nam (DMZ), and temps were in the 120s for weeks on end. Just brutal.
Closest I ever came to that was at Fort Stewart, Georgia in the summer of '82 (or '83). Temps averaged 110 and humidity well over 90%.
Now, if the temp goes over 80 degrees, I'm inside with the A/C.

[Yaelle]

Yes, you are right, you need to prepare yourself. By the second day I chose not to leave the house much at all. But that first day, no one could “prepare” much because it had been in the 80s for a few weeks or even the 70s. It went up almost 30 degrees really fast. Poor lady.