It was just taken for granted that you had to suffer
July 23, 2016 9:45 AM Subscribe
How NYers Endured Unbearable Summers Before A/C
While bemoaning the unbearable hotness of being a New Yorker in summer on a recent afternoon, a friend and I took a moment to ponder a critical existential question: how the hell did people in New York survive before air-conditioning? More importantly, how did they sleep at night?
While bemoaning the unbearable hotness of being a New Yorker in summer on a recent afternoon, a friend and I took a moment to ponder a critical existential question: how the hell did people in New York survive before air-conditioning? More importantly, how did they sleep at night?
It was Coney Island, they called Coney Island the playground of the world. There was no place like it, in the whole world, like Coney Island when I was a youngster. No place in the world like it, and it was so fabulous. Now it's shrunk down to almost nothing...you see. And, uh, I still remember in my mind how things used to be, and... uh, you know, I feel very bad. But people from all over the world came here... from all over the world... it was the playground they called it the playground of the world... over here. Anyways, you see, I... uh... you know... I even got, when I was very small, I even got lost at Coney Island, but they found me... on the... on the beach. And we used to sleep on the beach here, sleep overnight.. they don't do that anymore. Things changed... you see. They don't sleep anymore on the beach.posted by griphus at 9:56 AM on July 23, 2016 [12 favorites]
Also every summer, without fail, I go outside to walk the dog at night and think "it's nicer outside than it is inside, there must be something wrong with the [brick/concrete box within a larger brick/concrete box] that I live in" and then I remember the opening to Rear Window and feel dumb bc the building I live in is at least as old as any of those are supposed to be.
posted by griphus at 9:59 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by griphus at 9:59 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
everyone new to nyc: why is it so horrible inside my house in the summer
me: the building is brick
them: ok, and?
me: you know what else is made of brick
me: fucking pizza ovens
me: we're the pizzas
posted by poffin boffin at 10:07 AM on July 23, 2016 [99 favorites]
me: the building is brick
them: ok, and?
me: you know what else is made of brick
me: fucking pizza ovens
me: we're the pizzas
posted by poffin boffin at 10:07 AM on July 23, 2016 [99 favorites]
I am confused. How hot does it get in NYC in a particularly bad summer? I found a site that listed a record temperature of 102°F (38.9°C), set in 1966, but the article paints a picture that sounds much worse than that.
posted by Panthalassa at 10:16 AM on July 23, 2016
posted by Panthalassa at 10:16 AM on July 23, 2016
It gets very humid in summer too, so 95F feels more like surface of the sun hot.
posted by zippy at 10:21 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by zippy at 10:21 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
See also: lack of trees in many neighborhoods.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:23 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 10:23 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
i'm actually looking at some historical temperature data tables and as i assumed, the record highs are mostly from within the past 50 years or so. but like. if 100 degrees was the hottest i'd ever experienced then that would be A Horribly Hot Temp to deal with, right? idk. i had no a/c for a week at the beginning of the summer and that week was around 90 the entire time, so i was expecting to perish immediately, but really after one uncomfortable night my body acclimated to it very quickly. also my arthritis was wholly thwarted and it was glorious.
the main thing now about summer is that every single business is heavily airconditioned, which means the heat of that exhaust is pumped back out into the street, making the city that much hotter. plus the humidity means that your copious sweat does not evaporate but just clings repulsively to your entire body like the wettest sneeze of the gods themselves. if it manages to go anywhere it is only into your butt crack.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:24 AM on July 23, 2016 [32 favorites]
the main thing now about summer is that every single business is heavily airconditioned, which means the heat of that exhaust is pumped back out into the street, making the city that much hotter. plus the humidity means that your copious sweat does not evaporate but just clings repulsively to your entire body like the wettest sneeze of the gods themselves. if it manages to go anywhere it is only into your butt crack.
posted by poffin boffin at 10:24 AM on July 23, 2016 [32 favorites]
Living in an apartment, like a lot of NYCers do, the lack of good air circulation indoors makes a BIG difference.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:24 AM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 10:24 AM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
NYC, like other large metropoli, is an Urban Heat Island (UHI). The structure of cities, lack of vegetation, and materials used in construction can make the actual heat feel much worse than the recorded outdoor temperature.
posted by xyzzy at 10:24 AM on July 23, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by xyzzy at 10:24 AM on July 23, 2016 [12 favorites]
>How hot does it get in NYC in a particularly bad summer?
It regularly gets into the mid-90s and as zippy said the humidity makes the whole city feel like a soupy 105F degree mess. The air just sits like a wet fart over everything, trapping all the rising heat off the asphalt/brick/concrete and circulating it around and around until you're standing underground waiting for a subway train convinced that you've died and been sentenced to an eternity of hard labor on Satan's taint.
Summer in New York is ... difficult.
posted by none of these will bring disaster at 10:26 AM on July 23, 2016 [24 favorites]
It regularly gets into the mid-90s and as zippy said the humidity makes the whole city feel like a soupy 105F degree mess. The air just sits like a wet fart over everything, trapping all the rising heat off the asphalt/brick/concrete and circulating it around and around until you're standing underground waiting for a subway train convinced that you've died and been sentenced to an eternity of hard labor on Satan's taint.
Summer in New York is ... difficult.
posted by none of these will bring disaster at 10:26 AM on July 23, 2016 [24 favorites]
Yeah no I just remembered that 38.9 deg C is actually pretty fucking awful after all and that I just don't have any sense of proportion. Australia!
posted by Panthalassa at 10:33 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Panthalassa at 10:33 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
Summers were difficult pre-AC period - in the suburbs, people had sleeping porches and beds outside on screen porches. With no circulation and a lot of people in a small space, plus heat left over from the day on roofs, it was ferocious in the city. I live in a row house in a big city now, and we struggle with heat, especially on the top floor, even though we have excellent central air.
posted by Peach at 10:35 AM on July 23, 2016
posted by Peach at 10:35 AM on July 23, 2016
Here is chicago people use to sleep by the lake.
I see some people sleep with their front doors open, usually a metal gate locks the entrance.
The kids and some adults seek refuge in the open fire hydrants.
posted by AlexiaSky at 10:38 AM on July 23, 2016
I see some people sleep with their front doors open, usually a metal gate locks the entrance.
The kids and some adults seek refuge in the open fire hydrants.
posted by AlexiaSky at 10:38 AM on July 23, 2016
Pleased to see the Rear Window image in the article. The intimacy of that set in Hitchcock's films, all the neighbors, strangers, all living on top of each other. So human, and yet also so alien to me in my modern isolated world.
posted by Nelson at 10:43 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 10:43 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
It gets very humid in summer too, so 95F feels more like surface of the sun hot.
Sounds like every Indiana summer I ever lived through. Like, today, for instance. It's like a hot, soupy bath out there today.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:43 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Sounds like every Indiana summer I ever lived through. Like, today, for instance. It's like a hot, soupy bath out there today.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:43 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Also, the fairly common tradition of people leaving the city for two weeks or more during the height of the summer heat for cooler upstate/far island climates if they had the means too.
Why we wouldn't have "The Seven Year switch" without it!
posted by The Whelk at 10:44 AM on July 23, 2016 [7 favorites]
Why we wouldn't have "The Seven Year switch" without it!
posted by The Whelk at 10:44 AM on July 23, 2016 [7 favorites]
> See also: lack of trees in many neighborhoods.
A few years ago my wife and I went to Paris in July, and while we had a lovely time we also learned firsthand why everyone who lives in Paris leaves for the summer if they can. If NYC is anything like Paris, the shortage of trees and green space turn the city into a giant pizza stone, as my wife put it.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:44 AM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
A few years ago my wife and I went to Paris in July, and while we had a lovely time we also learned firsthand why everyone who lives in Paris leaves for the summer if they can. If NYC is anything like Paris, the shortage of trees and green space turn the city into a giant pizza stone, as my wife put it.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:44 AM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Mrs. Krazor and I were just talking about this the other day! The thing that I've noticed, especially in a lot of the old, candid pictures I've seen from the days before A/C, even in some posted here on the blue- is that people just kind of stripped when they got home. A lot of times the guys look like they're just wearing light shorts or boxers and a tank top, women are wearing a really light dress/slip-type thing, and kids are just mostly naked. So, I'm (without any real research) forming this picture in my head that men and women compensated for the era of suits, hats, and sweaters by having just a big pajama party whenever they were home without company.
posted by Krazor at 10:47 AM on July 23, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by Krazor at 10:47 AM on July 23, 2016 [11 favorites]
People used to live in New York?!
posted by beerperson at 10:47 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by beerperson at 10:47 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I grew up in SoCal (gym class is cancelled if it gets to 115F, but not before) but the big difference is that NYC is not a desert and does not cool off at night. If it was 90 when the sun went down, it'll stay around 90 all night. Which is miserable.
I actually like feeling the contrast between a/c and outside periodically, if I don't have to stand around in the outside too long. That said, I am definitely going to a museum this Sunday when it's forecast for 103F.
posted by blnkfrnk at 10:49 AM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
I actually like feeling the contrast between a/c and outside periodically, if I don't have to stand around in the outside too long. That said, I am definitely going to a museum this Sunday when it's forecast for 103F.
posted by blnkfrnk at 10:49 AM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
me: the building is brick
them: ok, and?
me: you know what else is made of brick
me: fucking pizza ovens
Living in an apartment, like a lot of NYCers do, the lack of good air circulation indoors makes a BIG difference.
Pretty much every building in Europe is made of brick. You're supposed to have windows to the street and to the shady inner courtyard so you can get a breeze at night. This is Paris (Marais), this is Madrid (Cuatro Caminos), this is Rome (Trastevere).
This is Seville. See the window shades? They block the sun and let the breeze in. That's how you live without an A/C in Seville, and let me tell you they are a bloody frying pan.
posted by sukeban at 10:49 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
them: ok, and?
me: you know what else is made of brick
me: fucking pizza ovens
Living in an apartment, like a lot of NYCers do, the lack of good air circulation indoors makes a BIG difference.
Pretty much every building in Europe is made of brick. You're supposed to have windows to the street and to the shady inner courtyard so you can get a breeze at night. This is Paris (Marais), this is Madrid (Cuatro Caminos), this is Rome (Trastevere).
This is Seville. See the window shades? They block the sun and let the breeze in. That's how you live without an A/C in Seville, and let me tell you they are a bloody frying pan.
posted by sukeban at 10:49 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
It gets very humid in summer too, so 95F feels more like surface of the sun hot.
Sounds like every Indiana summer I ever lived through.
Or Florida, which is why I left. Temps in the upper 80's or 90's, with humidity levels to match, for literally almost half the year - ugh. I can't tell you how much I loathed every second of it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:51 AM on July 23, 2016
Sounds like every Indiana summer I ever lived through.
Or Florida, which is why I left. Temps in the upper 80's or 90's, with humidity levels to match, for literally almost half the year - ugh. I can't tell you how much I loathed every second of it.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:51 AM on July 23, 2016
The fact that it also smells like hot garbage, urine and shit everywhere and the grime from the sidewalks covers your feet and lower extremities so you have to shield yourself from the horror contributes as well.
posted by stoneandstar at 10:54 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by stoneandstar at 10:54 AM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
we can't put AC in those windows - which happen to be the bedroom windows
Fun fact: if your apartment has multiple windows that open on to fire escapes, New York fire code actually allows you to put A/Cs in fire escape windows so long as the apartment has at least one window with unobstructed fire escape access and the A/C doesn't jut far enough in to the fire escape to obstruct it (there are units with very short backs that work well for this).
posted by Itaxpica at 10:55 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
Fun fact: if your apartment has multiple windows that open on to fire escapes, New York fire code actually allows you to put A/Cs in fire escape windows so long as the apartment has at least one window with unobstructed fire escape access and the A/C doesn't jut far enough in to the fire escape to obstruct it (there are units with very short backs that work well for this).
posted by Itaxpica at 10:55 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
(Though your lease may have provisions that go above and beyond that)
posted by Itaxpica at 10:57 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Itaxpica at 10:57 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Boston has similar problems in July, when the combination of head and humidity collide from seriously stifling weather. Still, out of weird pride and frugality, I long resisted getting an air-conditioner.
I lived in a triple decker for four years with a capacious porch and in the summer, I'd spend half of my time at home out there. It had space for a four person dining table and a small bench, so I could just linger through a weekend afternoon, reading, listening to music, and hearing my neighbors gossiping. We'd all come out on our porches around mid morning, coffee or tea in hand, nod and just start gabbing away. I'm not the most social person, so I'd usually stick to my book, but there was a coziness to that sort of community, created by necessity to flee our overheated apartments, and sometimes I miss it.
posted by bl1nk at 10:57 AM on July 23, 2016 [8 favorites]
I lived in a triple decker for four years with a capacious porch and in the summer, I'd spend half of my time at home out there. It had space for a four person dining table and a small bench, so I could just linger through a weekend afternoon, reading, listening to music, and hearing my neighbors gossiping. We'd all come out on our porches around mid morning, coffee or tea in hand, nod and just start gabbing away. I'm not the most social person, so I'd usually stick to my book, but there was a coziness to that sort of community, created by necessity to flee our overheated apartments, and sometimes I miss it.
posted by bl1nk at 10:57 AM on July 23, 2016 [8 favorites]
A friend (it might have actually been the excellent Twain Device) once described the kind of paired heat and humidity you get in a lot of places in the South (and also NYC) in the summer as, "It's like walking into a mouth."
I like to deploy that phrase in AZ and watch people cringe.
posted by WidgetAlley at 10:57 AM on July 23, 2016 [14 favorites]
I like to deploy that phrase in AZ and watch people cringe.
posted by WidgetAlley at 10:57 AM on July 23, 2016 [14 favorites]
IT'S LIKE BEING TRAPPED IN A MOIST ORIFICE
posted by poffin boffin at 10:59 AM on July 23, 2016 [14 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 10:59 AM on July 23, 2016 [14 favorites]
Fun fact: if your apartment has multiple windows that open on to fire escapes, New York fire code actually allows you to put A/Cs in fire escape windows so long as the apartment has at least one window with unobstructed fire escape access
Is that accurate? I believe there have to be two modes of egress available per bedroom, not per apartment. That's why it's effectively illegal to have a bedroom without a window.
posted by praemunire at 11:02 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Is that accurate? I believe there have to be two modes of egress available per bedroom, not per apartment. That's why it's effectively illegal to have a bedroom without a window.
posted by praemunire at 11:02 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
And don't forget the delightful "urban moisture"--the random drips of fluid on you from above that you hope to God are just from an A/C but disgusting even if they are.
posted by praemunire at 11:02 AM on July 23, 2016 [19 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 11:02 AM on July 23, 2016 [19 favorites]
Another big difference is the amount of time you have to spend outside in NYC. I grew up in Texas, and it was easy to avoid the heat by going from air conditioned building to air conditioned car to air conditioned building. In NYC, you have to walk to the subway, wait on the hot platform, get off, walk some more. And the whole time you might smell the smells of hot garbage and urine.
posted by Mavri at 11:11 AM on July 23, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by Mavri at 11:11 AM on July 23, 2016 [11 favorites]
You're supposed to have windows to the street and to the shady inner courtyard so you can get a breeze at night.
i have a huge shady tree-filled backyard, the length of which is greater than the length of my entire house. there is no breeze at night. at no point does having fully open windows in the front and back of the apartment cause this mythical breeze to cool the inside. i honestly truly believed that this was a thing that existed, that this would happen; i was so excited to not need a/c in the summertime, and it was all a ridiculous fable. idk if i've ever been so disappointed in my adult life.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:12 AM on July 23, 2016 [12 favorites]
i have a huge shady tree-filled backyard, the length of which is greater than the length of my entire house. there is no breeze at night. at no point does having fully open windows in the front and back of the apartment cause this mythical breeze to cool the inside. i honestly truly believed that this was a thing that existed, that this would happen; i was so excited to not need a/c in the summertime, and it was all a ridiculous fable. idk if i've ever been so disappointed in my adult life.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:12 AM on July 23, 2016 [12 favorites]
How hot does it get in NYC in a particularly bad summer? I found a site that listed a record temperature of 102°F (38.9°C), set in 1966, but the article paints a picture that sounds much worse than that.
Today it is 95 degrees, 29% humidity. Tomorrow it is due to be 94. Nighttime lows are predicted to be 75 degrees, with 47% and 62% humidity. Monday it is due to be 97 degrees, and thunderstorms developing at night.
I went out to pick up my CSA share at about 8:45 this morning and within five minutes had rivulets of sweat running down my back.
IT'S LIKE BEING TRAPPED IN A MOIST ORIFICE
In Carrie Fisher's first book, which I read during one of my first summers living here, the main character's friend goes to New York for work. They have a phone call to catch up, and the main character asks what it's like. Her friend responds: "New York in the summer is like a cough. It's like the whole country came here and coughed."
I have not read Postcards from the Edge in about twenty-two years now, and yet I think of that quote every summer.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:15 AM on July 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
Today it is 95 degrees, 29% humidity. Tomorrow it is due to be 94. Nighttime lows are predicted to be 75 degrees, with 47% and 62% humidity. Monday it is due to be 97 degrees, and thunderstorms developing at night.
I went out to pick up my CSA share at about 8:45 this morning and within five minutes had rivulets of sweat running down my back.
IT'S LIKE BEING TRAPPED IN A MOIST ORIFICE
In Carrie Fisher's first book, which I read during one of my first summers living here, the main character's friend goes to New York for work. They have a phone call to catch up, and the main character asks what it's like. Her friend responds: "New York in the summer is like a cough. It's like the whole country came here and coughed."
I have not read Postcards from the Edge in about twenty-two years now, and yet I think of that quote every summer.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:15 AM on July 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
How hot does it get in NYC in a particularly bad summer?
As others have noted it's less how hot the high temperature in mid-late afternoon is and more that it just doesn't cool off enough at night. The forecast low for tonight is 77F and temperatures when people are trying to go to sleep at 10 or so are forecast to be 86F.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:29 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
As others have noted it's less how hot the high temperature in mid-late afternoon is and more that it just doesn't cool off enough at night. The forecast low for tonight is 77F and temperatures when people are trying to go to sleep at 10 or so are forecast to be 86F.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:29 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
IT'S LIKE BEING TRAPPED IN A MOIST ORIFICE
This actually helps explain why NYC attracts the people that it does
posted by clockzero at 11:33 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
This actually helps explain why NYC attracts the people that it does
posted by clockzero at 11:33 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
You would not enjoy Atlanta right now. Mid 90's every day, but 29% humidity would have us saying "it's so nice today!" The weatherman actually talked the other day about how nice and dry it was when it was around that. It's mid 70's at night, but humidity has been in the 80's and 90's some nights. Good times.
The city heat build up is certainly a thing, but I feel like here the jungle like abundance of plant life makes the actual humidity most places even more than the official reading. There aren't that many trees at the airport.
I'm so much happier with 100+ and dry out West.
posted by bongo_x at 11:34 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
The city heat build up is certainly a thing, but I feel like here the jungle like abundance of plant life makes the actual humidity most places even more than the official reading. There aren't that many trees at the airport.
I'm so much happier with 100+ and dry out West.
posted by bongo_x at 11:34 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
Pretty much every building in Europe is made of brick
Uh no. Big, big difference. Most buildings in France are made of stone or concrete. Single homes are occasionally made of brick, but people find out pretty quickly why it's a bad idea.
Brick is thin-walled with pockets of air. Stone and concrete are solid. It takes very little time to heat up brick, and once it's hot, it radiates. Stone and concrete, on the other hand, behave a bit like heat sinks. They soak it up and redistribute it.
It gets above 40C/105F in summer in Nice, and humidity is 80-95%. However I've never needed air conditioning. My place is made of metre-thick stone: the southern façade soaks up heat, but if I keep my southern windows' shutters closed during the day, very little of it gets in. Meanwhile the northern side stays a balmy 10 degrees cooler than whatever the current temperature is. And in winter. Winter is when the other wonder of stone comes in. Since stone doesn't radiate heat within itself, but keeps it where it is, so to speak, my place stays toasty with minimal energy.
Nice is extremely built up, very few trees and the ones we do have are palms, which are kind of pointless really. They're pretty, but you don't stand under a palm tree for shade.
In Paris pretty much everything is stone or concrete. My rental here is concrete, and also stays a lovely 10 degrees cooler than outside.
But also, shutters. Shutters make SUCH a huge difference. Close 'em up as soon as the heat starts, and if you're not living in a brick oven, you'll be good.
posted by fraula at 11:39 AM on July 23, 2016 [25 favorites]
Uh no. Big, big difference. Most buildings in France are made of stone or concrete. Single homes are occasionally made of brick, but people find out pretty quickly why it's a bad idea.
Brick is thin-walled with pockets of air. Stone and concrete are solid. It takes very little time to heat up brick, and once it's hot, it radiates. Stone and concrete, on the other hand, behave a bit like heat sinks. They soak it up and redistribute it.
It gets above 40C/105F in summer in Nice, and humidity is 80-95%. However I've never needed air conditioning. My place is made of metre-thick stone: the southern façade soaks up heat, but if I keep my southern windows' shutters closed during the day, very little of it gets in. Meanwhile the northern side stays a balmy 10 degrees cooler than whatever the current temperature is. And in winter. Winter is when the other wonder of stone comes in. Since stone doesn't radiate heat within itself, but keeps it where it is, so to speak, my place stays toasty with minimal energy.
Nice is extremely built up, very few trees and the ones we do have are palms, which are kind of pointless really. They're pretty, but you don't stand under a palm tree for shade.
In Paris pretty much everything is stone or concrete. My rental here is concrete, and also stays a lovely 10 degrees cooler than outside.
But also, shutters. Shutters make SUCH a huge difference. Close 'em up as soon as the heat starts, and if you're not living in a brick oven, you'll be good.
posted by fraula at 11:39 AM on July 23, 2016 [25 favorites]
Also people in e.g. the arid West live in newer houses with real AC. I'm from a place that regularly tops 100 but I agree that summer in NYC is pretty unpleasant, especially if you're up a few stories.
posted by atoxyl at 11:40 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by atoxyl at 11:40 AM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
i would sell the souls of everyone in this thread right to satan right now for some nice heavy wooden window shutters, oh my god
i miss my 300 year old drafty stone farmhouse in spain
posted by poffin boffin at 11:42 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
i miss my 300 year old drafty stone farmhouse in spain
posted by poffin boffin at 11:42 AM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yes, Atlanta is having a hotter than normal summer.
Technically, pretty much everyone is having a "hotter than normal" summer, but also there's no such thing as normal anymore. This is not the worst summer in the 5 years I've lived in Atlanta. We've had very few days greater than 100.
In our neighborhood, built in the 1920s-1940s, pretty much every house was built with a sleeping porch. One of the many sad things about gentrification is watching people glass in sleeping porches and intentionally turn them into "sunrooms".
posted by hydropsyche at 11:47 AM on July 23, 2016 [13 favorites]
Technically, pretty much everyone is having a "hotter than normal" summer, but also there's no such thing as normal anymore. This is not the worst summer in the 5 years I've lived in Atlanta. We've had very few days greater than 100.
In our neighborhood, built in the 1920s-1940s, pretty much every house was built with a sleeping porch. One of the many sad things about gentrification is watching people glass in sleeping porches and intentionally turn them into "sunrooms".
posted by hydropsyche at 11:47 AM on July 23, 2016 [13 favorites]
Or try New Orleans. Mean daily max/min for July: 91F/74F. Humid as fuck. Lots of people still don't have AC, because lots of people are too poor to afford even window units. Shit grinds to a halt in the summer in much the same way that it does in the winter in places that have real winters. It's just too damn hot to get any work done. All there is to do is lay naked on your bed under a fan, your sweat seeping into the matteess like it's some giant sponge. By mid-July, it stops cooling off noticeably even at night, and it stays like that until October.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:48 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:48 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
And New Orleans is older than New York, for that matter. Most of the housing stock was built dirt cheap, often hundreds of years ago, and has never been upgraded because the same families are still living there and they're as poor now as they were back then.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:50 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:50 AM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
a pre-bedtime shower with Dr. Bronners' peppermint liquid soap; it's got so much menthol in it that it chills you.
It's also thoughtful to leave a fresh, minty corpse, if you die in the night
posted by thelonius at 11:59 AM on July 23, 2016 [21 favorites]
It's also thoughtful to leave a fresh, minty corpse, if you die in the night
posted by thelonius at 11:59 AM on July 23, 2016 [21 favorites]
I miss NYC weather. It's 97 degrees with a dewpoint of 70 here in DC. The official weather station at the airport is not representative, as it's away from the worst of the urban heat island and also on the river.
posted by exogenous at 12:03 PM on July 23, 2016
posted by exogenous at 12:03 PM on July 23, 2016
did someone say dr bronner's peppermint soap
posted by poffin boffin at 12:03 PM on July 23, 2016 [24 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 12:03 PM on July 23, 2016 [24 favorites]
Exhaust fans people. At least two with one acting as an intake fan. Worked for us in the forties.
posted by notreally at 12:05 PM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by notreally at 12:05 PM on July 23, 2016 [6 favorites]
I find the heat here to be just fine. Whenever we get a heat wave it rarely lasts more than a week. Sure it's humid but so is most of the south. We just had the hottest month in history in June but here it was quite temperate.
But when you multiply the temperature times the number of New Yorkers that like to complain about the heat, you get DISASTER.
posted by fungible at 12:17 PM on July 23, 2016 [7 favorites]
But when you multiply the temperature times the number of New Yorkers that like to complain about the heat, you get DISASTER.
posted by fungible at 12:17 PM on July 23, 2016 [7 favorites]
My personal strategy for dealing with this shiz is beer, ice cream, popsicles, iced coffee, being lazy, and complaining. It's gotten me through 3 summers without a/c (ok, 1 window unit in bedroom which dramatically helps with sleeping) so far.
posted by Fig at 12:32 PM on July 23, 2016
posted by Fig at 12:32 PM on July 23, 2016
Chicagoans can't really complain this year; it's been absolutely incredible all summer except for basically this week. And last summer it was hoodie-and-shorts weather the entire time, which was the greatest thing ever to occur.
We live in a building that is a combination pizza oven/solarium--brick with a southern-facing bump-out that is all window. The only way to really keep it cool is to get way ahead of the day's heat, and blast our two little window units (one in front, one in back) basically 24/7. Ordinarily I find this morally/financially repugnant, and we make do with just a quick blast after dark for sleeping's sake.
But today it is 90 degrees with 67% humidity, and wind speeds at a stifling 3 mph. And those little a/c fuckers are roaring, and it is DELICIOUS.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:34 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
We live in a building that is a combination pizza oven/solarium--brick with a southern-facing bump-out that is all window. The only way to really keep it cool is to get way ahead of the day's heat, and blast our two little window units (one in front, one in back) basically 24/7. Ordinarily I find this morally/financially repugnant, and we make do with just a quick blast after dark for sleeping's sake.
But today it is 90 degrees with 67% humidity, and wind speeds at a stifling 3 mph. And those little a/c fuckers are roaring, and it is DELICIOUS.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 12:34 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Yeah, comparisons with the South miss three important factors: we live in an urban heat island, we have few shade trees, and we don't have cars. I'm from NC, I know NC summers, and NYC is totally worse. In NC you don't need to be outside for longer than it takes to walk across a parking lot. Here I'm either outside or in an oven-like tunnel for minimum 20 minutes every morning and evening.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:34 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:34 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
sleeping under a wet top sheet
Did anyone else audibly shriek when they read this?
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 1:44 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Did anyone else audibly shriek when they read this?
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 1:44 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I swear, 85% of why I left DC was the unbearable summers. Like being in a mouth - of someone who is currently eating soup.
As a point of contrast, people here in Seattle say it's hot when it's 75 F with 50% humidity and a light breeze.
posted by lunasol at 1:56 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
As a point of contrast, people here in Seattle say it's hot when it's 75 F with 50% humidity and a light breeze.
posted by lunasol at 1:56 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
US Southeastern cities also experience the urban heat island effect (as do cities everywhere). Atlanta also has a subway and people who rely on transit. In the morning in the summer, our underground stations are still in the nineties and won't really cool off until October. Not everybody in the southeast lives in the suburbs and drives an air conditioned car everywhere. Indeed, as Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The notes, not everybody in the southeast has AC at home.
Excuse me, I'm off to take the air conditioned bus, which is considerably nicer than waiting for MARTA underground.
posted by hydropsyche at 1:57 PM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
Excuse me, I'm off to take the air conditioned bus, which is considerably nicer than waiting for MARTA underground.
posted by hydropsyche at 1:57 PM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
This is our second day of the summer at 100-plus temps with -- 32 percent humidity? Wow, we are having a cool time in Oklahoma.
But we have trees. And houses with AC. And air-conditioned businesses, malls, restaurants, libraries. And cars with AC. And local drives to give fans to low-income families.
Worst summer for my family? Remodeling our daughter's house in a record-breaking 63 days of 100-plus summer heat, with no electricity and no water. Best idea? Taking naps directly on the thick concrete of the new, north-facing porch. The neighborhood cats and dogs were joining in, if they could. It was like an ice slab.
At our old house, we run the air conditioning, keep the shades closed, and the bedrooms and the living room have ceiling fans. Window fans just don't cut it.
posted by TrishaU at 2:18 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
But we have trees. And houses with AC. And air-conditioned businesses, malls, restaurants, libraries. And cars with AC. And local drives to give fans to low-income families.
Worst summer for my family? Remodeling our daughter's house in a record-breaking 63 days of 100-plus summer heat, with no electricity and no water. Best idea? Taking naps directly on the thick concrete of the new, north-facing porch. The neighborhood cats and dogs were joining in, if they could. It was like an ice slab.
At our old house, we run the air conditioning, keep the shades closed, and the bedrooms and the living room have ceiling fans. Window fans just don't cut it.
posted by TrishaU at 2:18 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Here to report that Montreal has the same problem. Poor air circulation, brick buildings, very humid weather, etc. In particular I think one of the issues is that apartments here have often been divided or had their original configurations otherwise redistributed in the recent past.
posted by constantinescharity at 2:40 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by constantinescharity at 2:40 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
Did anyone else audibly shriek when they read this?
Dude, it's not like it's drenched, it's just damp. And don't knock it till you try it. (Better it be wet from water than from sweat, eh?)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:41 PM on July 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
Dude, it's not like it's drenched, it's just damp. And don't knock it till you try it. (Better it be wet from water than from sweat, eh?)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:41 PM on July 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
The real unsung horror is the chambers street 2/3 platform at 6PM. All day those trains dump their AC exhaust heat into the tunnels and they are insulated *so well*. Even when it's 80 degrees out it is uncomfortably warm and muggy down there. When it's 95+ and humid its just absolutely hellish.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 2:41 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 2:41 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I am SO going to link to this thread the next time an urban planning fpp comes up, and people start ranting about how suburbs are just the worst thing, and everyone should live in cities.
posted by happyroach at 3:29 PM on July 23, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by happyroach at 3:29 PM on July 23, 2016 [10 favorites]
The cities may still use less energy to keep people alive. And they'd be great sites for neighborhood ground-loop heating and cooling, if only we installed that before building the cities.
posted by clew at 3:42 PM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by clew at 3:42 PM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
I live in rural Georgia and have no air conditioning. The way I deal with it is this:
- We have an attic fan, which sucks cool air into the house, but it only works if the air outside is cooler than the air inside. As soon as the temp outside is one degree cooler than the air inside, I throw open the windows and turn that sucker on.
- During the day, I keep the windows shut and covered with curtains, and all the lights off.
- In the summer, I almost never, ever cook inside, not even to boil an egg. I have a grill outside in the shade, away from the house, and I do most of my summer cooking there, or we eat things that don't require cooking.
- We have a screened-in back porch and we often will sleep on it on summer nights.
- The south side of the house has big trees planted next to it, which shade it from the sun. During the day in the house, I spend most of my time in one room that has a northern exposure. It's a good 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.
- I try to avoid air conditioned environments because they make it seem much hotter when I'm not in them.
- We have ceiling fans in every room and their spinning creates the illusion of moving air (which could even be mistaken for a breeze), so it seems cooler.
- Likewise, I listen to a lot of Miles Davis in the summer. It fools me into thinking things are (Birth of the) Cool.
- In the heat of the day, around 5:00, I go sit in the shoals and just stay there until my core body temp is lowered enough to last me until bedtime.
- If things are really unbearable, I put a wet t-shirt in the freezer and then put it on until it thaws out and warms up. And finally,
- Pray for the afternoon thunderstorm. A real life-saver, that one is.
posted by staggering termagant at 3:58 PM on July 23, 2016 [26 favorites]
- We have an attic fan, which sucks cool air into the house, but it only works if the air outside is cooler than the air inside. As soon as the temp outside is one degree cooler than the air inside, I throw open the windows and turn that sucker on.
- During the day, I keep the windows shut and covered with curtains, and all the lights off.
- In the summer, I almost never, ever cook inside, not even to boil an egg. I have a grill outside in the shade, away from the house, and I do most of my summer cooking there, or we eat things that don't require cooking.
- We have a screened-in back porch and we often will sleep on it on summer nights.
- The south side of the house has big trees planted next to it, which shade it from the sun. During the day in the house, I spend most of my time in one room that has a northern exposure. It's a good 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.
- I try to avoid air conditioned environments because they make it seem much hotter when I'm not in them.
- We have ceiling fans in every room and their spinning creates the illusion of moving air (which could even be mistaken for a breeze), so it seems cooler.
- Likewise, I listen to a lot of Miles Davis in the summer. It fools me into thinking things are (Birth of the) Cool.
- In the heat of the day, around 5:00, I go sit in the shoals and just stay there until my core body temp is lowered enough to last me until bedtime.
- If things are really unbearable, I put a wet t-shirt in the freezer and then put it on until it thaws out and warms up. And finally,
- Pray for the afternoon thunderstorm. A real life-saver, that one is.
posted by staggering termagant at 3:58 PM on July 23, 2016 [26 favorites]
The weather was at least half the reason we fled Texas, and we still start getting really anxious and fretful about summer by the end of February, though SoCal summer is later and more variable and weird (today it is both 100 degrees *and* sunset started at 10am because of the huge fire in Santa Clarita and nobody can go outside even if they wanted to), but at least it almost always cools off at night. With sufficient fans, by bedtime you can be drawing in 65-degree air as you exhaust the 90-degree air from the late afternoon.
There is nothing like the despair of going outside at 11pm and it's still in the mid-80s and utterly breezeless and slightly damp and everything smells faintly of asphalt because the roads got soft during the day.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:30 PM on July 23, 2016
There is nothing like the despair of going outside at 11pm and it's still in the mid-80s and utterly breezeless and slightly damp and everything smells faintly of asphalt because the roads got soft during the day.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:30 PM on July 23, 2016
I endured 20 summers in Manhattan without AC. Heat waves are beautiful. They poeticize the environment. They transform the sights, light, and scents of the everyday world. You cross the street and sink into the pavement. The people in the other crosswalk are all crinkly. The parks turn into paintings by Fragonard. Life is slow, magical. The subways are extreme -- and people will travel around the world to experience the extreme. What's wrong with that?
posted by Modest House at 5:04 PM on July 23, 2016 [13 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 5:04 PM on July 23, 2016 [13 favorites]
The subways are extreme -- and people will travel around the world to experience the extreme. What's wrong with that?
It's hard to enjoy all the Fragonardiness when your face is slowly Dali-clocking off your skull
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:12 PM on July 23, 2016 [22 favorites]
It's hard to enjoy all the Fragonardiness when your face is slowly Dali-clocking off your skull
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:12 PM on July 23, 2016 [22 favorites]
You are a hard banger, Modest. I can deal with the heat in the country, surrounded by green trees and water. I'm not sure I could cope in the city. The people would get to me.
posted by staggering termagant at 5:13 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by staggering termagant at 5:13 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Modest: it is hard to appreciate the poetry of life's unique summer beauty when you have only slept four hours out of the past 48 because of the degree of your discomfort with the heat.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:25 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:25 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
Thunderstorms in NYC do NOT clear the air.
posted by brujita at 5:34 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by brujita at 5:34 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
And the weather people so lie about humidity.
Right now; 78 degrees, 82% humidity, feels like 78.
No, it does not. Not to someone from the West.
posted by bongo_x at 5:52 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Right now; 78 degrees, 82% humidity, feels like 78.
No, it does not. Not to someone from the West.
posted by bongo_x at 5:52 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
is there any reason to visit New York when i can just drive around in my un-air-conditioned car with a bucket of urine sloshing over everything instead?
posted by indubitable at 5:53 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by indubitable at 5:53 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
You don't have to drive?
posted by bongo_x at 5:54 PM on July 23, 2016 [18 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 5:54 PM on July 23, 2016 [18 favorites]
I'm finding it a little weird that the author felt the need to go to their 98-year-old grandfather for insight.
I grew up in NYC in the 1980s, and neither our apartment nor my public school had air conditioning. I'm currently sitting in an un-air-conditioned top floor apartment in Brooklyn, where I live with a partner who also grew up in NYC without air conditioning.
(We own a hand-me-down window unit, but usually only put it in for the last week of July and a few weeks of August, if at all.)
As a kid, we had oscillating desktop fans. On really hot nights, my mom would sometimes lay a sheet on the floor, since it was marginally cooler than sleeping in a bed. June classes would often be taught with the window shades partway down and the lights off. We would eat cold meals at home—sandwiches, salad, gazpacho, cucumber soup—since turning on the stove was nightmarish, and we didn't own a microwave. We would sometimes go to the grocery store and linger in the freezer aisle as a treat, and definitely made use of the sprinklers in the park.
Mostly, we took it easy. And showered a lot. And went out for lemon ice.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 6:11 PM on July 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
I grew up in NYC in the 1980s, and neither our apartment nor my public school had air conditioning. I'm currently sitting in an un-air-conditioned top floor apartment in Brooklyn, where I live with a partner who also grew up in NYC without air conditioning.
(We own a hand-me-down window unit, but usually only put it in for the last week of July and a few weeks of August, if at all.)
As a kid, we had oscillating desktop fans. On really hot nights, my mom would sometimes lay a sheet on the floor, since it was marginally cooler than sleeping in a bed. June classes would often be taught with the window shades partway down and the lights off. We would eat cold meals at home—sandwiches, salad, gazpacho, cucumber soup—since turning on the stove was nightmarish, and we didn't own a microwave. We would sometimes go to the grocery store and linger in the freezer aisle as a treat, and definitely made use of the sprinklers in the park.
Mostly, we took it easy. And showered a lot. And went out for lemon ice.
posted by evidenceofabsence at 6:11 PM on July 23, 2016 [5 favorites]
Growing up in Texas dirt poor in the 70s was super fun. No air conditioning (my parents eventually bought a window unit that they kept in the bedroom I shared with my brother but it was basically reserved for night time sleeping a handful of nights a year.
My parents cars didn't have AC either so no respite there. We'd do long drives during the summer with the windows down as a major source of entertainment and cooling.
Thank god there was a neighborhood pool nearby and there were lots of weekend trips to the mall just to walk around and cool off.
But in general you just dealt with it and since you hardly had access to air conditioning you were conditioned to being hot as fuck during the summer.
For a lot of people in Texas this is still basically how they live. Air Conditioning is a luxury many cannot afford and honestly people just suffer and some people die every year (primarily the elderly).
posted by vuron at 6:14 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
My parents cars didn't have AC either so no respite there. We'd do long drives during the summer with the windows down as a major source of entertainment and cooling.
Thank god there was a neighborhood pool nearby and there were lots of weekend trips to the mall just to walk around and cool off.
But in general you just dealt with it and since you hardly had access to air conditioning you were conditioned to being hot as fuck during the summer.
For a lot of people in Texas this is still basically how they live. Air Conditioning is a luxury many cannot afford and honestly people just suffer and some people die every year (primarily the elderly).
posted by vuron at 6:14 PM on July 23, 2016 [3 favorites]
I was in NYC in the late 1990s and although (many) subway cars had air conditioning, all of the waste heat was simply exhausted into the (apparently) non ventilated subway tunnels and platforms.
As a result, while it could be 95F and muggy outside, it would be something like 350F inside the subway platform.
Does NYC still do that?
I believe thermodynamics was a pretty well understood theory in 1890, let alone 1990.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 6:18 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
As a result, while it could be 95F and muggy outside, it would be something like 350F inside the subway platform.
Does NYC still do that?
I believe thermodynamics was a pretty well understood theory in 1890, let alone 1990.
posted by soylent00FF00 at 6:18 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
They probably figured it stays cool underground, like caves do. Then they ran AC exhausts and electric motors in that underground space. Caves don't have those.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:29 PM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Kirth Gerson at 6:29 PM on July 23, 2016 [4 favorites]
Hammocks are a great way to sleep in heat. A well aimed fan gets all of you.
posted by Mr. Yuck at 7:13 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Mr. Yuck at 7:13 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
So how does a NYC Summer compare to an East Texas Summer? In Houston, this month, the night time temperature has been 80-82 degrees.
posted by Beholder at 7:39 PM on July 23, 2016
posted by Beholder at 7:39 PM on July 23, 2016
It's 84 as we speak (~11 pm).
I seriously don't know how we got anything done in those days. My parents eventually got an A/C for their bedroom when I was eleven or twelve, and we kids used to creep in and sleep on the floor.
posted by praemunire at 7:54 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I seriously don't know how we got anything done in those days. My parents eventually got an A/C for their bedroom when I was eleven or twelve, and we kids used to creep in and sleep on the floor.
posted by praemunire at 7:54 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm finding it a little weird that the author felt the need to go to their 98-year-old grandfather for insight.
No kidding. The last summer I spent in NYC without air conditioning was 2015 (being a grad student paying rent in NYC often means being too broke for A/C). You know those frozen gel packs for icing sports injuries? I used to go to bed clutching one like a hot-water bottle. I did have a window unit during my first two summers in Brooklyn, when I was working a full-time day job, because it was the only way I could get enough sleep to function at work. For most of the last decade I've spent the summer studying or working in Istanbul, where the summer heat/humidity is similarly hideous, but at least you have the saving grace of the breeze off the Bosphorus/Marmara (pro tip: make sure you live on a hill facing the water) and the apartment buildings tend to have better ventilation, though rarely air-conditioning unless you're in a very posh area.
In conclusion, it is glorious to be back in Seattle for the summer and I should probably never leave here again.
posted by karayel at 7:59 PM on July 23, 2016
No kidding. The last summer I spent in NYC without air conditioning was 2015 (being a grad student paying rent in NYC often means being too broke for A/C). You know those frozen gel packs for icing sports injuries? I used to go to bed clutching one like a hot-water bottle. I did have a window unit during my first two summers in Brooklyn, when I was working a full-time day job, because it was the only way I could get enough sleep to function at work. For most of the last decade I've spent the summer studying or working in Istanbul, where the summer heat/humidity is similarly hideous, but at least you have the saving grace of the breeze off the Bosphorus/Marmara (pro tip: make sure you live on a hill facing the water) and the apartment buildings tend to have better ventilation, though rarely air-conditioning unless you're in a very posh area.
In conclusion, it is glorious to be back in Seattle for the summer and I should probably never leave here again.
posted by karayel at 7:59 PM on July 23, 2016
The weather was at least half the reason we fled Texas
As someone who grew up in SoCal and naturally runs hot, Houston weather totally kicked my ass and it's one reason I only lasted a year. On those rare humid LA days and nights I do miss the ice houses, though. Messed with Texas and lost. Big. (Obvs.)
posted by Room 641-A at 8:00 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
As someone who grew up in SoCal and naturally runs hot, Houston weather totally kicked my ass and it's one reason I only lasted a year. On those rare humid LA days and nights I do miss the ice houses, though. Messed with Texas and lost. Big. (Obvs.)
posted by Room 641-A at 8:00 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also yes the subway platforms are still basically the underground waste-heat-sink mouth of hell.
posted by karayel at 8:01 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by karayel at 8:01 PM on July 23, 2016 [1 favorite]
While reading Chicago newspapers from 1888 or so, I stumbled on a think piece concerning the refrigerated boxcars recently invented to move meat from Chicago slaughterhouses to New England markets. WHY CAN'T WE HAVE THOSE FOR PEOPLE! the writer wanted to know. WHY SHOULD DEAD ANIMALS HAVE ALL THE FUN. And then went on for a while about lowered crime rates, and other fantasized future marvels.
posted by feral_goldfish at 8:35 PM on July 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by feral_goldfish at 8:35 PM on July 23, 2016 [15 favorites]
MetaFilter: Where the collision of head and humidity is like being trapped in a moist orifice.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:28 PM on July 23, 2016
posted by Bella Donna at 9:28 PM on July 23, 2016
Thunderstorms in NYC do NOT clear the air.
they make it smell really nice and fresh for about 10-15 minutes though, it's great.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:33 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
they make it smell really nice and fresh for about 10-15 minutes though, it's great.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:33 PM on July 23, 2016 [2 favorites]
at no point does having fully open windows in the front and back of the apartment cause this mythical breeze to cool the inside
I grew up in the suburbs of NYC, and in summer would fling every window open on the two story house, and it didn't matter. The house wasn't hot with pent in heat, it was hot because the air outside was like a gaseous hot tub day and night.
We had two window fans and would set one on the shaded side of the house sucking hot and humid as fuck minus epsilon air in, and one on the opposite side blowing out. I spent much of my summertime as a youth sitting in the air current between these two fans in nothing but my Caldors undies.
posted by zippy at 9:52 PM on July 23, 2016
I grew up in the suburbs of NYC, and in summer would fling every window open on the two story house, and it didn't matter. The house wasn't hot with pent in heat, it was hot because the air outside was like a gaseous hot tub day and night.
We had two window fans and would set one on the shaded side of the house sucking hot and humid as fuck minus epsilon air in, and one on the opposite side blowing out. I spent much of my summertime as a youth sitting in the air current between these two fans in nothing but my Caldors undies.
posted by zippy at 9:52 PM on July 23, 2016
I coped with NYC heat by getting up as early as I could, and going to Jones Beach, as often as I could. Usually one day a weekend, sometimes two. But usually I was too exhausted for two, because I spent so much of the day walking on the beach.
posted by Goofyy at 3:48 AM on July 24, 2016
posted by Goofyy at 3:48 AM on July 24, 2016
I live in a tiny rural town in western Massachusetts, but right in the center of the ~1 square mile commercial area that is all asphalt with no trees, and in a 1900s brick building with no AC. It's like a mini NYC and it's fucking awful.
posted by apricot at 6:23 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by apricot at 6:23 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
I hate how people romanticize the heat in NYC. Like most strains of boring new York exceptionalism, it seeks to find some deeper meaning in something which is ultimately crappy and unpleasant because new york is like so profound.
I've spent time there, and I'm in Paris right now. This shit is miserable and theres nothing poetic about it.
Many buildings that were thoughtfully configured to get a cross breeze have been remodeled or otherwise modified in ways that totally fuck that up. The urban heat island is super real.
As was mentioned above, lots of people slept outside, spent lots of time in porches, or left for a while.
I'm really burned out on the narrative that people now are wusses and AC is some bourgeois stain on the world equivalent to a triple decker cheeseburger. The heat/humidity thing always comes up like "well it's not as bad as this way hotter place", but reradiated heat and the temp at say, 10pm rarely come up like they have in this thread.
I've stayed at, visited, and lived in places where it just will not cool off enough to sleep at night without AC. There's nothing you're gonna do, it's flat out not happening. It's gonna stay 90 in there with all the windows open. What this sort of narrative seems to leave out is that a lot of people just had a really miserable time, and didn't talk about it much because there was no real alternative. I spent years in a burning hot bedroom as a kid because, what are you gonna do? And honestly fuck that. There's nothing profoundly stoic or morally superior there.
posted by emptythought at 6:44 AM on July 24, 2016 [11 favorites]
I've spent time there, and I'm in Paris right now. This shit is miserable and theres nothing poetic about it.
Many buildings that were thoughtfully configured to get a cross breeze have been remodeled or otherwise modified in ways that totally fuck that up. The urban heat island is super real.
As was mentioned above, lots of people slept outside, spent lots of time in porches, or left for a while.
I'm really burned out on the narrative that people now are wusses and AC is some bourgeois stain on the world equivalent to a triple decker cheeseburger. The heat/humidity thing always comes up like "well it's not as bad as this way hotter place", but reradiated heat and the temp at say, 10pm rarely come up like they have in this thread.
I've stayed at, visited, and lived in places where it just will not cool off enough to sleep at night without AC. There's nothing you're gonna do, it's flat out not happening. It's gonna stay 90 in there with all the windows open. What this sort of narrative seems to leave out is that a lot of people just had a really miserable time, and didn't talk about it much because there was no real alternative. I spent years in a burning hot bedroom as a kid because, what are you gonna do? And honestly fuck that. There's nothing profoundly stoic or morally superior there.
posted by emptythought at 6:44 AM on July 24, 2016 [11 favorites]
I grew up in Toronto (which gets crazy hot and humid and don't even try to breathe the air if you have any kind of respiratory issue) without a/c (and with English parents who seemed to think that getting more fans was a wasteful extravagance, never mind air conditioning!) and it was pretty much like this. So hot you couldn't sleep, and there were no cool spots in the bed. Getting up to take a cool shower more than once in the night. Getting that frantic, sick, helpless feeling that you were dangerously too hot and there was no apparent way to get any cooler. Getting woken up by the dawn chorus (because of course your windows were wide open) five minutes after you'd finally got to sleep. Never eating anything cooked, just salads and sandwiches. Stepping out of the shower and wanting to turn around and step right back in. Sweating on the packed subway, and even worse, having your train stopped in a tunnel with no power and no air conditioning and no breeze. Never feeling clean because even the air downtown was dirty and greasy.
Until I was older I didn't really consider that it was supposed to be any other way. I remember the sheer luxury of having a job and my own money and being able to buy my own fan and actually get some sleep with it turned on high and blasting at my head.
We only use our a/c (and then only in two rooms) when it's really hot, but when it's really hot, you can pry my a/c from my cool, dry, comfortable hands.
posted by biscotti at 7:02 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Until I was older I didn't really consider that it was supposed to be any other way. I remember the sheer luxury of having a job and my own money and being able to buy my own fan and actually get some sleep with it turned on high and blasting at my head.
We only use our a/c (and then only in two rooms) when it's really hot, but when it's really hot, you can pry my a/c from my cool, dry, comfortable hands.
posted by biscotti at 7:02 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Kingston, Ontario checking in here. We're under heat advisory all weekend. I went running yesterday morning because I thought "oh, it's only 68F! That's not bad." I did not count on the humidity. I did my four laps but after the second one, I was like, "okay going to lie down and die now thx."
I have the air on right now, but our house is over a hundred years old so really, only two floors get cool. Our attic bedroom is a nightmare. We're sleeping in the guest room a lot this summer.
posted by Kitteh at 7:39 AM on July 24, 2016
I have the air on right now, but our house is over a hundred years old so really, only two floors get cool. Our attic bedroom is a nightmare. We're sleeping in the guest room a lot this summer.
posted by Kitteh at 7:39 AM on July 24, 2016
When one complains about the heat, who are you complaining to?
posted by Modest House at 8:33 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Modest House at 8:33 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Helios, who drives the chariot of the sun
posted by griphus at 9:01 AM on July 24, 2016 [20 favorites]
posted by griphus at 9:01 AM on July 24, 2016 [20 favorites]
no, the keeper of the accursed daystar is lucifer himself
posted by poffin boffin at 9:05 AM on July 24, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 9:05 AM on July 24, 2016 [9 favorites]
As much as I hate the heat and humidity, I'm starting to think that climates such as New York and Houstin are still preferable to the kinds of highs we're seeing in "but it's a dry heat" places like Palm Springs, CA and Phoenix, AZ.
Next week the forecast for both places have multiple days with highs of 113F-114F. These are thriving cities, not outposts in Death Valley. The last time I was in Phoenix you couldn't buy sushi to go because of the heat. As uncomfortable and potentially deadly as hot and humid weather is, I feel like Phoenix and Palm Springs are actively trying to kill us.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:07 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Next week the forecast for both places have multiple days with highs of 113F-114F. These are thriving cities, not outposts in Death Valley. The last time I was in Phoenix you couldn't buy sushi to go because of the heat. As uncomfortable and potentially deadly as hot and humid weather is, I feel like Phoenix and Palm Springs are actively trying to kill us.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:07 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
When one complains about the heat, who are you complaining to?
My Facebook friends list.
I live in Toronto in a brick house built in 1912. I can't afford central air or even a window unit. I do have fans, and I spend a lot of my summer lying on my bed in a stupor with the fan blowing over me, wishing for death. I also have the library to retreat to if I really can't take it, but it is four blocks away.
posted by orange swan at 9:31 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
My Facebook friends list.
I live in Toronto in a brick house built in 1912. I can't afford central air or even a window unit. I do have fans, and I spend a lot of my summer lying on my bed in a stupor with the fan blowing over me, wishing for death. I also have the library to retreat to if I really can't take it, but it is four blocks away.
posted by orange swan at 9:31 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
a monument to man's arrogance
I forgot about that one! I love these, too:
If it gets one degree hotter I'm gonna kick your ass.
We'll grow oranges in Alaska!
posted by Room 641-A at 9:33 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
I forgot about that one! I love these, too:
If it gets one degree hotter I'm gonna kick your ass.
We'll grow oranges in Alaska!
posted by Room 641-A at 9:33 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
We live in the burbs in a house without central air or even a central heating system (it has a woodstove and then electric heaters as back-up). It was clearly designed with air circulation in mind. The best feature is the whole house fan--you turn it on once it gets dark and cool outside, stand next to an open window, and you just feel an enormous whoosh of cool air beside it. But modern cheapie building stuff is made to minimize heat loss and thus sucks for air circulation. Before they put the house on the market, the old owner's kids replaced the window in the living room with a low end picture window, which means we can't open it and get no air circulation in our living room. Can't fit a window unit in, either. It regularly gets up into the high 80s inside our living room during the day, the kind of heat that just saps you and makes you feel tired and inexplicably sluggish. I cope by leaving the house as much as possible. It's been a summer of movie matinees.
The best part of this house is the finished basement, which is always 10 degrees cooler than upstairs, so long as we remember to shut the windows. The room is dim and strange and looks like a log cabin, but it's always, always comfortable.
New Yorkers, come hang out in my basement. Start a new summertime upstate tradition!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:36 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
The best part of this house is the finished basement, which is always 10 degrees cooler than upstairs, so long as we remember to shut the windows. The room is dim and strange and looks like a log cabin, but it's always, always comfortable.
New Yorkers, come hang out in my basement. Start a new summertime upstate tradition!
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:36 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
When I worked at the punk shop, the wiring was only rated for consumer-grade AC which did nothing to cut the heat, so it was regularly 100F inside when it was, ahem, only 95F outside.
The funniest part were the rumors of a "sweatshop" in the basement of the store. There was clothing manufacturing down there (the store owner also had a fashion line) but everyone down there was paid better than the store clerks and while the store temperature was always at the mercy of the elements, it was consistently a cool 80 degrees downstairs.
posted by griphus at 10:05 AM on July 24, 2016
The funniest part were the rumors of a "sweatshop" in the basement of the store. There was clothing manufacturing down there (the store owner also had a fashion line) but everyone down there was paid better than the store clerks and while the store temperature was always at the mercy of the elements, it was consistently a cool 80 degrees downstairs.
posted by griphus at 10:05 AM on July 24, 2016
When I was in high school in Florida, our school building did not have AC. I had PE at 1, and then French after that, and the French classroom was south-facing, on the 3rd floor, with one wall being a huge row of windows that let in all the sun directly on our backs. I'd come to French after being made to run laps at PE (in August, in Florida) and sit there in the sun and think, "Merde! Ferme la bouche, sun, quelle fromage!" (I very nearly did not graduate because I almost failed French.)
My senior year in high school, we finally got AC! There was much rejoicing. Sadly, one week after they installed the air conditioning, a wire in the newly installed units shorted out and burned most of the building down.
I was comforted by the fact that the fire started in my physics classroom, though, which meant that, surely, the teacher's grade book had to have been incinerated (a relief because I was also failing physics). Unfortunately, though, when the fire started the big, metal AC unit fell from the ceiling and landed right smack on the teacher's desk. About the only thing that survived on the entire 3rd floor was coach West's gradebook, because it was on his desk, protected by the big metal box.
We had two weeks off of school and then went back to the burned out building for the rest of the year. We studied on the first floor and on half of the second floor. There was no electricity, and water would drip from the ceilings onto us all day long, which was a relief, because there was still no AC. They took us up in shifts to the 3rd floor to get our books out of our lockers. They were soaked by the firehoses, swelled up to 3 times their original size, and the pages were all stuck together and moldy. It was awesome.
This was 1986, in America. I still can't believe they let us come back and finish the year there. Also, the basketball coach at my high school was a fellow named Leonard Skinner. Yep, that's the one. Oh Robert E. Lee High. I don't miss you one bit.
posted by staggering termagant at 10:06 AM on July 24, 2016 [12 favorites]
My senior year in high school, we finally got AC! There was much rejoicing. Sadly, one week after they installed the air conditioning, a wire in the newly installed units shorted out and burned most of the building down.
I was comforted by the fact that the fire started in my physics classroom, though, which meant that, surely, the teacher's grade book had to have been incinerated (a relief because I was also failing physics). Unfortunately, though, when the fire started the big, metal AC unit fell from the ceiling and landed right smack on the teacher's desk. About the only thing that survived on the entire 3rd floor was coach West's gradebook, because it was on his desk, protected by the big metal box.
We had two weeks off of school and then went back to the burned out building for the rest of the year. We studied on the first floor and on half of the second floor. There was no electricity, and water would drip from the ceilings onto us all day long, which was a relief, because there was still no AC. They took us up in shifts to the 3rd floor to get our books out of our lockers. They were soaked by the firehoses, swelled up to 3 times their original size, and the pages were all stuck together and moldy. It was awesome.
This was 1986, in America. I still can't believe they let us come back and finish the year there. Also, the basketball coach at my high school was a fellow named Leonard Skinner. Yep, that's the one. Oh Robert E. Lee High. I don't miss you one bit.
posted by staggering termagant at 10:06 AM on July 24, 2016 [12 favorites]
I just remembered my coworker and I sitting outside the store smoking cigarettes blasting Billy Idol's "Hot in the City" into the street and telling people who walked in to not steal anything and to get one of us from outside if they wanted to buy anything.
posted by griphus at 10:06 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by griphus at 10:06 AM on July 24, 2016 [1 favorite]
The best part of this house is the finished basement, which is always 10 degrees cooler than upstairs, so long as we remember to shut the windows. The room is dim and strange and looks like a log cabin, but it's always, always comfortable.
...come hang out in my basement. Start a new summertime upstate tradition!
Pretty sure this is dialogue from a horror novel. That I'm writing. Starting today.
posted by bongo_x at 10:09 AM on July 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
...come hang out in my basement. Start a new summertime upstate tradition!
Pretty sure this is dialogue from a horror novel. That I'm writing. Starting today.
posted by bongo_x at 10:09 AM on July 24, 2016 [4 favorites]
We didn't live in the city, but I used to love living in tents in the backyard during the summer when we lived in the hills on the family compound. If you didn't mind the nocturnal animals and crazy musket-enthusiast neighbors it was pretty damn comfortable. Waking up to polyphonic birdsong every morning was as good as coffee.
And those weekends at Grandma's Cottage on the lake when the whole extended family would turn up and there weren't enough beds for everybody, my sister and I I would sleep on the beach with our favorite aunr. That's the saddest part of all, when I wake up from dreaming about it and realize the cottage is gone and my aunt has passed on.
When I get my affairs in order and get a house of my own, I want to add on a sleeping porch like an old fashioned Southern home. 3 walls of screen with blinds to roll up or down depending on the sunshine, and a big bed curtained with mosquito netting for anything that gets through the screens. Now that's sleeping, and no nasal irritation from the AC.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:24 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
And those weekends at Grandma's Cottage on the lake when the whole extended family would turn up and there weren't enough beds for everybody, my sister and I I would sleep on the beach with our favorite aunr. That's the saddest part of all, when I wake up from dreaming about it and realize the cottage is gone and my aunt has passed on.
When I get my affairs in order and get a house of my own, I want to add on a sleeping porch like an old fashioned Southern home. 3 walls of screen with blinds to roll up or down depending on the sunshine, and a big bed curtained with mosquito netting for anything that gets through the screens. Now that's sleeping, and no nasal irritation from the AC.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:24 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
yeah but then the birds start screaming WOW HOLY SHIT IM A FUCKING BIRD HEY EVERYONE CHECK ME OUT at 4:55am and your only recourse is to crave the sweet embrace of death
posted by poffin boffin at 11:06 AM on July 24, 2016 [17 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 11:06 AM on July 24, 2016 [17 favorites]
Thank you, I didn't want to be the only one that thinks "I wish those fucking birds would shut up". Well, actually kind yells it in a slurred voice.
posted by bongo_x at 11:32 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 11:32 AM on July 24, 2016 [2 favorites]
Emptythought - I just got back from a trip to Paris 4 days ago. My initial forecasts predicted it'd be cooler than New York, but Noooooooo. And even worse, AC is not as such a thing in Paris, at least not in the Airbnb I was in. I slept with the bedroom window wide open and there were a couple nights I lay awake praying for a breeze. I miss Paris, but I am very happy to be back in air conditioning (I spent this entire weekend 20 feet from my window unit - ahhhhh).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:15 PM on July 24, 2016
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:15 PM on July 24, 2016
I lived one summer south of NO in a house without AC - I was working construction. Water and fresh fruit, a lowfat diet, lager beer and most importantly - an air bed.
posted by vapidave at 6:57 PM on July 24, 2016
posted by vapidave at 6:57 PM on July 24, 2016
Right now, in Houston, at 3:36am, it is 82° and 80% humidity. At 7:00am, the temp is predicted to drop to its lowest point, 80°, but our humidity will be up around 100%.
My family is from Brooklyn and I spent many miserable summers there as a kid, unable to sleep because it was so hot. I was an Air Force brat and a Navy wife, and thus I have lived in Boston, both southern and northern New Mexico; Biloxi, Mississippi, and Memphis, and have spent one July in Paris, spent time in both Miami and the gulf coast of southern Florida; spent time in New Orleans, been in Palm Springs in the hottest part of summer; and the summer I was so very, very pregnant, I lived in Dallas the year we hit 116° every day for about two weeks, and the AC in the apartment was broken the whole time.
None of those were as miserable as summer in Houston. None. I have been miserable to the point of nearly crying now for every one of the 25 summers I've lived here. I'm finally escaping in a few weeks, back to the glorious dry heat of New Mexico, and I can't wait. I am damn near ecstatic. I will take 106° of dry heat over 98° and 90% humidity any day. I am so very, very tired of mold, too.
I am Jewish. We are a desert people. We don't do humidity well.
posted by MexicanYenta at 1:39 AM on July 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
My family is from Brooklyn and I spent many miserable summers there as a kid, unable to sleep because it was so hot. I was an Air Force brat and a Navy wife, and thus I have lived in Boston, both southern and northern New Mexico; Biloxi, Mississippi, and Memphis, and have spent one July in Paris, spent time in both Miami and the gulf coast of southern Florida; spent time in New Orleans, been in Palm Springs in the hottest part of summer; and the summer I was so very, very pregnant, I lived in Dallas the year we hit 116° every day for about two weeks, and the AC in the apartment was broken the whole time.
None of those were as miserable as summer in Houston. None. I have been miserable to the point of nearly crying now for every one of the 25 summers I've lived here. I'm finally escaping in a few weeks, back to the glorious dry heat of New Mexico, and I can't wait. I am damn near ecstatic. I will take 106° of dry heat over 98° and 90% humidity any day. I am so very, very tired of mold, too.
I am Jewish. We are a desert people. We don't do humidity well.
posted by MexicanYenta at 1:39 AM on July 25, 2016 [9 favorites]
Does NYC still do that?
I believe thermodynamics was a pretty well understood theory in 1890, let alone 1990.
I think for one, AC was not a technology that existed in the 1890s, so there was no need to build for it. The London Underground has the same issue where trains on the deep level Tubes are hard to impossible to AC because there's nowhere for the air to go either.
(Certainly now cities in tropical or semitropical climates that have built metro systems in the last several decades, such as Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok or Singapore, all have aggressively chilled underground subway stations.)
But I think the rationale is that while AC'ing the trains definitely makes the station hotter, on average most people spend longer on trains than in stations, unless of course you're experiencing one of the infinite varieties of service problems. It's a bit of a devil's bargain, but as someone who hates summer here, I am 100% willing to pay the price of 10 minutes waiting on a sweltering platform in exchange for a 30 minute gloriously chilled ride.
posted by andrewesque at 11:53 AM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I believe thermodynamics was a pretty well understood theory in 1890, let alone 1990.
I think for one, AC was not a technology that existed in the 1890s, so there was no need to build for it. The London Underground has the same issue where trains on the deep level Tubes are hard to impossible to AC because there's nowhere for the air to go either.
(Certainly now cities in tropical or semitropical climates that have built metro systems in the last several decades, such as Hong Kong, Taipei, Bangkok or Singapore, all have aggressively chilled underground subway stations.)
But I think the rationale is that while AC'ing the trains definitely makes the station hotter, on average most people spend longer on trains than in stations, unless of course you're experiencing one of the infinite varieties of service problems. It's a bit of a devil's bargain, but as someone who hates summer here, I am 100% willing to pay the price of 10 minutes waiting on a sweltering platform in exchange for a 30 minute gloriously chilled ride.
posted by andrewesque at 11:53 AM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
The evocative phrase my friend Taylor once used to describe summer in DC was "it's like walking around in someone else's sweat". That is a phrase that consistently horrifies my friends in the Bay Area.
posted by hanov3r at 12:18 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by hanov3r at 12:18 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm in Toronto and our A/C kicked the bucket 2 years ago. Last summer we were like "the house is going to be torn down anyway so we'll just bear with it for one summer". We're still here and the A/C is still dead. My wife was not happy with me last week because she was at home with the kids while I was at work in an air conditioned office. But this will be the last summer without A/C. It better be.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:26 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:26 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
"I live in rural Georgia and have no air conditioning. "
Good lord, why?
posted by uberchet at 1:41 PM on July 25, 2016
Good lord, why?
posted by uberchet at 1:41 PM on July 25, 2016
Air mattresses are the best for wicking away body heat! It was the only way I could sleep after the hurricane came and the power was out for a week. Get you an air mattress.
posted by domo at 2:32 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by domo at 2:32 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
You guys were not kidding about D.C. For some reason it comes up when I go to weather.com and it's even hotter and more humid right now than it is here in ATL, and it's pretty swampy here.
posted by bongo_x at 6:30 PM on July 25, 2016
posted by bongo_x at 6:30 PM on July 25, 2016
If anyone is still reading this thread, waterbeds are pretty good at keeping you cool.
posted by Beholder at 8:57 PM on July 25, 2016
posted by Beholder at 8:57 PM on July 25, 2016
None of those were as miserable as summer in Houston.
Because Houston has the pollution coming from the ship channel along with the exhaust from our car dependent city, so it's a nasty combo of heat, humidity, and smog all creating an "under the dome" urban nightmare.
posted by Beholder at 9:00 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
Because Houston has the pollution coming from the ship channel along with the exhaust from our car dependent city, so it's a nasty combo of heat, humidity, and smog all creating an "under the dome" urban nightmare.
posted by Beholder at 9:00 PM on July 25, 2016 [1 favorite]
"nasty combo of heat, humidity, and smog all creating an "under the dome" urban nightmare."
Houston's hot, sure, but air quality here has improved dramatically in the last 10 years. I'm a lifelong allergic person, and have zero issues with my 100-mile-a-week biking habit in the urban core, even.
posted by uberchet at 7:21 AM on July 26, 2016
Houston's hot, sure, but air quality here has improved dramatically in the last 10 years. I'm a lifelong allergic person, and have zero issues with my 100-mile-a-week biking habit in the urban core, even.
posted by uberchet at 7:21 AM on July 26, 2016
That is a phrase that consistently horrifies my friends in the Bay Area.
People here in the Bay Area treat our own euphemistically mild summers with equanimity, but after 10 summers in DC I'm convinced that the heat there would specifically target the weak among us, intent on driving us out.
How else was I so often the only person sweating my shirt off on the Metro after a mere 10-minute walk from my apartment?
posted by psoas at 3:26 PM on July 26, 2016
People here in the Bay Area treat our own euphemistically mild summers with equanimity, but after 10 summers in DC I'm convinced that the heat there would specifically target the weak among us, intent on driving us out.
How else was I so often the only person sweating my shirt off on the Metro after a mere 10-minute walk from my apartment?
posted by psoas at 3:26 PM on July 26, 2016
Nelson: "Pleased to see the Rear Window image in the article. The intimacy of that set in Hitchcock's films, all the neighbors, strangers, all living on top of each other. So human, and yet also so alien to me in my modern isolated world."
Watching that for the first time, I spent most of it just horrified at all of these people all up in your business all the time. That plus no A/C - total nightmare.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:16 AM on July 27, 2016
Watching that for the first time, I spent most of it just horrified at all of these people all up in your business all the time. That plus no A/C - total nightmare.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:16 AM on July 27, 2016
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I have perfected a lot of solutions involving fans and sleeping under a wet top sheet, but the silver bullet I found is a pre-bedtime shower with Dr. Bronners' peppermint liquid soap; it's got so much menthol in it that it chills you.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:53 AM on July 23, 2016 [17 favorites]