I was slogging to my car with a basket full of groceries, having just stepped out of a well air-conditioned grocery store. Why did I park so far away? I actually didn’t, it only felt that way! The news had reported that it was 91 degrees, feels like 102! Feels like? Where do they get this “feels like”? How do they know it feels like 102? Is there a special “feels like” thermometer? I’ve never seen one. Is the “feels like” temperature taken in the sun, or the shade, at the airport, or right here in the parking lot of this grocery store, because I think it feels like 110! I should know. I grew up in Phoenix! Well, Tempe, but now you’re just splitting hairs when it comes to temperature. Suffice to say, I know hot!
Turns out there is a complicated formula for figuring out “feels like” temperature. It has something to do with the actual temperature, the humidity, the angle of the sun, the wind, and an average of what George and Charlie say it feels like to them. Any wonder I struggled through algebra? They are making this stuff up!
Bottom line, here in Florida you can almost count on the “feels like” temperature being about 10 degrees warmer than the “real” temperature. Back in Phoenix when they say it’s 110 they mean it really is 110, and it feels like 110! No George and Charlie in the Arizona sunshine comparing notes on how they feel.
I’ve come to count on that “feels like” temperature though. Mostly because I’ve been fooled by the heavy hitting Florida humidity factor before. The temperature is 75 degrees! Awesome! I throw open the doors and windows only to be blasted by the hot wet towel around the neck feeling of entering a sauna! Did anybody bother to check with George and Charlie on what it “feels like” out here?
This must be where “it’s a dry heat” comes from.
The difference between me and you…oven vs sauna. Do you ever watch those movies where the person is lost in the desert and their lips are dry and cracked? You get thirsty just watching. Then there’s the folks stumbling through the jungle where their shirts are sticking to their backs and their hair is plastered to their necks. Makes you reach for a scrunchy to put your own hair up. All hot!!!
Hope you enjoyed the read.