Five Worst Summer Cities

[stella1751]

Last fall, I couldn't have been prouder than when Casper, Wyoming, made Farmers' Almanac's top five worst winter cities in the nation. Weighing in at number 3 behind Syracuse, New York, and Duluth, Minnesota, Casper was selected because of its "181 days of sub-freezing temperatures each year." It brings a frosty tear to a Wyomingite's eyes to read such a stirring tribute.

Now it's time to look at the worst summer weather, a category in which Casper doesn't stand a snowball's chance. According to the[url=https://www.farmersalmanac.com/press-releases/2010/09/07/farmers-almanac-names-americas-ten-worst-weather-cities/]Farmers' Almanac[/url], the "Five Worst Summer Cities" follow:

When it comes to sticky, wet, oppressive summer heat, few cities in America can stand up to Miami, Florida. Though pleasant to visit during winter months, Miami’s subtropical climate becomes excessively hot and humid during the summer months. Add to that the fact that it is right in the line of fire for most tropical storm and hurricane activity, and its frequent thunderstorms, with an average of 44 inches of rainfall each summer, and becomes clear that Miami is no summertime tropical paradise.
Also listed among the Farmers’ Almanac most uncomfortable summer cities are:
2. New Orleans, Louisiana, where high humidity and frequent tropical storms often leave everything soggy;
3. Dallas, Texas, with temperatures well over 100°F and heat indices soaring as high as 117°F, coupled with a high frequency of deadly F5 tornadoes;
4. Mobile, Alabama, which sees temperatures above 90°F on two out of three days, average humidity levels between 60 to 70 percent, and more than five feet of rain each year;
5. Corpus Christi, Texas, where late afternoon temperatures peak around 94°F during summer months.

I thought those of you in Miami, New Orleans, Dallas, Mobile, and Corpus Christi might enjoy this as much as I enjoyed Casper's winter ranking

[thanrose]

The only reason Orlando didn't make it is because Miami is incrementally worse, but it's the same sort of thing. Very hot, very humid. At least coastal cities like Miami get the random breezes. Orlando is just a little south and west of a maelstrom of electrical storms known as Seminole County. I sat on my bed once for 1.25 hours with all my furry animals around me while nearby lightning strike after strike kept the thunder rolling literally nonstop. No exaggeration. I'm sure any tourists at DisneyWorld would have been terrified save for Disney's excellent attention to guest safety.

And I thought Houston was significantly worse than Dallas with a few long summer visits in each city.

Still, to my recollection, the worst, most oppressively hot, humid, and pollen laden summer I've experienced was one late spring in Washington, DC. Good thing I've also been there in cherry blossom time.

NOLA gets no argument from me. Absolutely lovely city despite Katrina, but summer there will drive you insane.

[stella1751]

My preference, seriously, is for living in a top five worst winter city. When I read the reasons those cities made the top five worst summer cities, I thanked my lucky stars I live up here

[gumbo2176]

[quote="thanrose"
NOLA gets no argument from me. Absolutely lovely city despite Katrina, but summer there will drive you insane.[/quote]


No argument from me either as I live in New Orleans and really don't need a survey telling me how miserable this place is in the summer. But, I guess it could be worse, can't it????

[thanrose]

Despite my relatively positive attitude toward living wherever I land, like Stella, I prefer bitterly cold to oppressively hot and humid. Casco Bay (Maine) or maybe Newfoundland next?

It is good to learn how to adapt to the more unpleasant climactic conditions though.

[stella1751]

When I read everyone's posts about super-sized watermelons and 120-day tomatoes, I regret living up north. When I look through the gardening catalogs, I must always seek short-season varieties. Even now, as my pepper and tomato seedlings begin emerging from the soil, I have to confess to some envy for those who are talking about June tomatoes. I probably won't eat a fresh tomato until the end of July. Last year, it was August.

However, we have some lovely summer days up here, with highs ranging from 70 to 85 degrees. It's a very pleasant climate to work outside in. Once or maybe twice a summer, we get a week-long hot spell, with temperatures hovering around or reaching (on rare occasion) 100. That was okay when I was young. I could live with it and work in it. Those days are gone. I will take the High Plains over any other locale now.

Four of my similarly aged sisters have left the High Plains and now live in Washington state. I guess that's the place to go if you want to have your cake and eat it too!

[digitS']

Well now, if the Farmers Almanac is only looking at frigid winters and hot summers.

There are other ways to look at worse.

[url=https://theoatmeal.com/blog/seattle_weather]The 4 Seasons of Seattle Weather (cl.ick)[/url]

Steve

[KennyCouch]

I wouldn't trade anything for the heat and humidity of a Houston summer. It may be hot but it's home! The strange thing is when you start to enjoy the summer heat more than the winter cold.

[Dixana]

I get to live in the best of both worlds! Lovely icy winters with loads of snow, sub zero temps, high heat bills, and did I mention the 6 months of gray skies? Hello Prozac.
Then comes summer where 80 usually feels like 150 because it's so humid you can't breath, the mosquitoes are bigger than the wasps thanks to the marshy area we live in, and the season is so SHORT that swimming to escape the heat might give you hypothermia unless you're smart enough to find a pool or a small lake.
Yep, we love it here in WI Maybe that's why our state got the title "the drunkest state" in the US. You need the booze to be nutty enough to spend time outside 9 out of 12 months of the year. LOL.
Seriously though, it doesn't matter where you live there's something yucky about it. That's why the smart people save their pennies and become "snow birds" They live in AZ or somewhere all winter, then return to the midwest for the summer.

[gumbo2176]

I wouldn't trade anything for the heat and humidity of a Houston summer. It may be hot but it's home! The strange thing is when you start to enjoy the summer heat more than the winter cold.

See, different strokes for different folks. I am finding the heat and humidity of New Orleans to be getting more and more oppressive as the years pass. I've been here for all but 2 years of my life and it didn't bother me when I was younger, but it sure does now.

I love the cooler weather of our winters and look forward to that first "cold" spell of the year. If I live long enough, maybe I'll be like some of the seniors I know that are always feeling cold. WAIT----I"m 58 now and considered a senior. OK, maybe more senior than I am now. I have flannel and light sweaters on hand just in case.

[stella1751]

See, different strokes for different folks. I am finding the heat and humidity of New Orleans to be getting more and more oppressive as the years pass. I've been here for all but 2 years of my life and it didn't bother me when I was younger, but it sure does now.

One of my older sisters, the one who most recently fled to Washington state, lived in Denver for most of her adult life. The dry cold there finally broke her, literally. Her hands and feet would become so dry they cracked and bled. She loved Denver, but her body just got too old to bear its climate

[SuzieQ13]

Dallas summers can be pretty bad, I'm from about halfway between DFW and Waco. Summers can be murder there, I remember dreading marching band practice in August before school started. Although I must say I love Scarborough Faire out there and can't wait to be out there for a visit soon. But the storms in summer aren't that scary as long as you know what to look for.

I love the spring storms there though, and the bluebonnets! Now that I live in Virginia Beach, its a little better in the summer but I do miss the kind of heat that just feels like walking into a brick wall especially on the summer nights out here on the boardwalk that get cool enough you have to wear a light jacket. But then again I believe everywhere has good and bad points. Like living in tornado central aka Oklahoma City where most thunderstorms spawn tornadoes and the either follow I40 or I35. I had a Navy Chief that his house was destroyed twice by two separate tornadoes.

[Odd Duck]

We have to get short season tomatoes, too, but we get to grow them twice a year. It's a gamble of you get much of anything unless your timing is near perfect and you have some luck with the weather. If you don't get toms in by late March, you're probably not going to get toms before the heat stops fruit set. If you don't get your fall toms planted by mid-July, you won't have time for fruit to ripen before frost.

The hardest thing with adapting my gardening knowledge to TX (born and raised in Nebraska) was getting the timing right on what to plant when. I've found that much trickier than I'd ever dreamed. In NB, when it warmed up you planted everything and harvested when it was ready - nice and simple.

But, I do get to grow something nearly year round. That's usually worth all those days of crazy summer heat - 100 days over 100 degrees, really? For crying out loud!

[bwhite829]

pensacola didn't get it because either they don't want fl to have 2 cities in that, or because its the same as NO and mobile. we are about 40-50 mi east of mobile as the crow flies, and it is over 100 1 out of 3 days, and over 90 the other 2 here....its awful...

[lorax]

Look, at least you don't have Ecuador's top 4 worst dry-season cities to contend with.

Guayaquil - a great place to live, if living in a partially-drained swampy river delta at 100% humidity and 110 F with the great possibility of daily flooding, is what floats your boat. Oh, did I mention the mosquitoes? There are plenty of those, and they might give you malaria or dengue fever. Iguanas might also drop out of the sky on you.

El Coca - nestled at the junction of two major Amazon tributaries, it's so hot here that even blinking will make you sweat. But don't think that you can just jump in the river to cool off - it's more than a mile wide here and the giant catfish and electric eels will get you if the current doesn't. Monkeys will try their very darndest to steal anything even remotely shiny, which may include your nose. Did I mention that it's so far from civilization that you're looking at a 4-hour canoe ride to the next gas station?

Zaruma - a dusty border crossing in the northern tip of the Atacama desert, where, if you're lucky, they'll have warm, questionable water for you. In the peak of the dry season, temperatures may rise above 120 in the sun, and an unceasing wind may drive you bonkers (it does make the citizens a bit loopy.) Did I mention that to get to Peru and the ice machine, you have to either wade across a river with all of your stuff or try to convince a half-mad ferryman to take you?

Tulcan - the diametric opposite of Zaruma. Even in the "dry" season it doesn't stop raining here - which means that outside of the high mountain passes, it's one of the most bitterly cold places in the country. It's so wet in Tulcan, in fact, that in the cemetary all of the dead are buried above ground. Did I mention that you can go moldy in 24 hours here? The only place I've been that's wetter is Ipiales, on the Colombian side of the border, and that's debatable.

[stella1751]

pensacola didn't get it because either they don't want fl to have 2 cities in that, or because its the same as NO and mobile. we are about 40-50 mi east of mobile as the crow flies, and it is over 100 1 out of 3 days, and over 90 the other 2 here....its awful...

I laughed when I read this, bwhite829. Seriously. I don't subscribe to this periodical, so I don't know what forces were involved in the selection of a top five for either season. The only reason I researched it was that I heard on the news Casper had made the top five, which I thought was odd. I'd much rather live in Casper, Wyoming, than International Falls, Minnesota. In fact, you couldn't pay me enough money to live in International Falls during the winter.

Truth be told, before this, I didn't think Casper was a city. We probably barely top the requisite 50,000 residents.

That's why I laughed when I read your posting. A dubious distinction like this has to cost in terms of luring tourists and businesses to a community. I was living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, when that city won Money magazine's top cities to live in, or some such thing. Within ten years of winning that award, the population had increased by, like, 30 or 40 percent.

The winners of this contest are actually losers, I guess. I would imagine Chambers of Commerce across the nation would pay good money to avoid inclusion.

[Dixana]

Wow Lorax, way to put things in perspective! We have crappy weather but we also have full civilization.
Though I have to say....giant catfish? How giant are we talking? Anyone up for a fishing expedition?

[SuzieQ13]

Wow Lorax, it sounds interesting down there. Sounds like it can be dangerous and amazing at the same time. I'm always interested to learn about new places, especially places where I'll probably never be able to go.

[lorax]

Wow Lorax, way to put things in perspective! We have crappy weather but we also have full civilization.
Though I have to say....giant catfish? How giant are we talking? Anyone up for a fishing expedition?

I'm talking use crappy yellow rope the thickness of your pinky finger, bait a shark hook with a small chicken, and row like mad for shore where you've got a team to help you land the catfish. The largest one I've ever been in on was about 250 lbs. It takes a team of about 10 strong people to land them. Yum yum gumbo!

Also in those rivers are Arrowana, Carachama, and a number of other fun things to eat. Tributaries have red and black Piranha, which are the tastiest freshwater fish I've ever eaten, hands down.


Ah, and perhaps I should have mentioned - Guayaquil, the number one worst city in the dry season, is also the country's largest. Close to 3 million people live there (for reasons that I can't immediately fathom.)

[Dixana]

Everyone I have ever known who's tried pirahna has said it's excellent.....but I can't get past the teeth... My high schoool ag instructor had one mounted on his desk and there is no way in heck I'd wanna be anywhere near water with those things in it. :shudder: The northern we have up here freak me out with their long prehistoric looking bodies and wicked pointy teeth. I avoid fishing with a steel leader so I don't catch them I annoys the hubby to no end because I've lost a lot of hooks over the years heh.

[lorax]

I love fishing Piranha, actually. Even with steel leaders it's a challenge (they can bite through the finer grades), and they're consummate nibblers. You use red meat as bait, the bloodier the better.

When I was a Zone 2'er, I used to love fishing for Northern Pikes (I assume we're talking about the same fish - we used to call them Lake Sharks when I was a kid), Muskie, and other toothy and aggressive lake dwellers, so I guess Piranha is just my way of adapting to the tropics.

[Jeremiah 295]

I used to live in the subtropics, about 14 years ago. I hated it. The heat is way too much for me. We lived on the east coast of FL in a town called Sebastian. It's actually considered a small city. When I was 13, we moved to Western NY. Yeah, we have crazy winters some years (for instance, this year) but, I will take it any day over the 90* heat and humidity. I'm so warm bodied that when the weather changes and it's about 50* and a little chilly, I will go to the grocery store in a short sleeve shirt. When I'm going in the store or coming out, I get the weirdest looks and people ask me "aren't you the least bit cold?" I'd so rather be a little chilly than too warm. I hated living in FL, where you take showers because you sweat from doing nothing, only to get out and the second you're dried off, you sweat again!

[bwhite829]

got off work today and my thermometer said 92 degrees....I thought of this thread and chuckled....


as far as lorax's comment: I have never heard of a south american giant catfish. I think it is overshadowed by the [url=https://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=wels+catfish&cp=6&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=907]Wels catfish[/url] and [url=https://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&pq=giant+asian+catfish&xhr=t&q=mekong+catfish&cp=9&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=907]Mekong catfish[/url]

the huge freshwater ray is also something I'd love to go for. in fact....I wish animal planet would just fire jeremy wade and give me his job.....

[Handsomeryan]

How did DC not make this list?

Hot, humid, expensive, congested, and all summer the plague of tourists who don't know where they are going and don't understand you stand on the right side of the escalators and allow people who want to walk up/down on the left.

[trinoc]

^^^I'm typically one of those pesky, lost tourists who get caught in the Roundabout trying to get to Arlington. However, I can navigate an escalator properly.

Stella - I've been to Sioux Falls. I was a teenager on a mission trip and the only thing I remember is frogs. Thousands and thousands of frogs.

Mmmmmmm, Northern Pike!

[stella1751]

^^^I'm typically one of those pesky, lost tourists who get caught in the Roundabout trying to get to Arlington. However, I can navigate an escalator properly.

Stella - I've been to Sioux Falls. I was a teenager on a mission trip and the only thing I remember is frogs. Thousands and thousands of frogs.

Mmmmmmm, Northern Pike!

How funny you would mention the frogs! I've never seen them in the Sioux Falls area, but I can still remember when I moved from Denver to South Dakota. I drove up, hitting the Pine Ridge Reservation (I think it was Pine Ridge) area during the night. When the road started to shimmer and move, I at first thought it was hallucinations from being tired. After a while, it hit me that I was driving on a frog-covered road.

I couldn't decide whether to stop or go on. I hated the thought of killing all those frogs, but I kept telling myself that eventually the road would clear.

I told people about it, and they thought I was exaggerating, which I have been known to do on occasion. You're the first person who's ever mentioned a frog sighting, too. Hah! I was not imagining things