Yesterday I was out and about in the middle of the day and snapped a picture of the temperature that my car thermostat registered: 119 degrees F. I was not outside for very long, but once I got back home I was wiped out. There is something about that heat and the sun that saps your energy.

This year Phoenix broke its record for most days with a high temperature of 110 degrees+ F with 34. 

I traveled to Phoenix, AZ in the summer of 1999 by way of Houston, Texas. Houston in the summer is absolutely miserable because not only do you get temperatures in the high 90’s or even cracking 100 but also high humidity. I believe I was told that Houston is the most air-conditioned city in the world. As soon as you walk outside from the A/C, you feel immediately drenched. 

The Houston climate contrasts greatly with Phoenix because it is extremely dry in Arizona, so we are known for saying “it’s a dry heat.” Imagine when your oven is preheated and you open the oven door and feel that blast of hot air. That’s what Arizona feels like in the summer.

I take dry heat over humid heat anytime, but I’ll take both over the bone-cold winters of the midwest where I grew up. When the wind chill is below zero, it can take you an hour to warm up once you are inside. But with the heat, humid or dry, you return to the A/C and in five minutes you’re back to normal.