Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire But it's a dry heat...

At a meeting in Phoenix several years ago with a team from my office. We stepped outside at 5pm to board a bus to an off site facility for a meal and stepped directly into the afternoon sun. One of the team, a little black lady out of the lab, stopped as if smacked with a 2X4. After standing there stunned by the wall of heat for a second, she said, "I don't care what they say about dry heat, the sun is just closer to the earth out here than it is in Alabama!".

With a dry heat, you can feel fine and really not that hot until you are suddenly in trouble because you dehydrated. When it is humid, you can get in situations where no matter how much you sweat, you body’s cooling mechanism is ineffective because your sweat won’t evaporate.

I’ve experienced both types, dry heat all the way up to temps in the 115 range is more comfortable to me than 90 and very humid. But it is more dangerous because if you don’t constantly hydrate, you’ll get in trouble before you know it.

With high humidity, I actually think those days when it isn’t that hot, maybe in the low 80s are the most dangerous. That is the closest I ever came to heat exhaustion. It wasn’t hot, but I didn’t realize that my body’s cooling system wasn’t working and I redlined in a hurry.

Some of you wouldn't last a week in the Southeast.

Your heads would pop like a litter of kittens in a decompression chamber.

Probably catch a beat-down on Day-2 for braggin about sippin a mantini.

yesterday afternoon, dogs were ansy, so we sat in the back yard for a while under the shading influence of a tree we planted in the yard.
four dogs, two pigmy goats, wife and myself sharing the shade. The dogs went back in the house as fast as they could.
i can remember being in the desert one day at over 120 degrees.
With zero humidity i can handle it, but it is true you can get into trouble quick. It's said if you are not drinking enough water to pee regularly, you are in trouble.
few years ago i rode my gold wing from prescott south to phoenix in july. by the edge of phoenix i was getting dizzy and heat exhaustion. Had to stop and drink couple bottles of water and pour some over my head.
I got to when i was making that trip i would use a garden hose to soak myself, by the time i got to phoenix, perfectly dry.
I told my wife yesterday i am an old man now and i don't have to put up with that heat. inside under the ac until the weather breaks. The monsoons are close tho, lots of heavy clouds over northwest phx, and humidity is up. I can't stand humidity, dry heat is easier to deal with for me.
relative is relocating to florida in a month or two. We were talking about it yesterday. The bugs, humidity, hurricanes are going to be an eye opener for a kid raised in phoenix.

Sometime last week we hit 109 here in Tucson setting a new record high for that date. I could look it up but I'm too lazy. All time record for Tucson is 117 which was set sometime in June quite a few years back now. You bet hydration is important out here. I usually do a lot of my reload workups at the range this time of year, some sessions lasting from 7A when the range opens tp 5 PM when they close. They've changed the rules so now it closes at 2 PM. What a bunch of puzzies. On the days I go, I take two one gallon jugs that were half filled and placed in the freezer. I fill them all the way when I leave for the range. By noon or a little later the ice has completely melted and by the time I usually quit shooting the water is quite warm. During the winter a two minute wait between shots is workable but this time of year on some days ten to fifteen minutes between shots to keep the barrel reasonably cool. Deer hunting in the southern part of the state can have temps as highs in the upper 80's. I've hunted the Kaibab in Northern Arizona where mid 70'd to lower 80's made hunting difficult. Deer were out early in the AM and bedded down earlier than normal. Most didn't come out until it was almost too dark to hunt.
After all, "It's a dry heat."
Paul B.

-54* in a Fairbanks wnter is a dry cold.

Its been in the upper 80s/low 90s round here the past few days, humidity in then high 50's makes it rough.

I spent yesterday on my tractor working the loader moving dirt and mowing my fields. No hat. My head and face are paying for it today!!

At our arctic oilfield site we get a lot of Texans from corporate throughout the year. Every time one of them complains about the severe cold in the winter I always say, "yeah. but it's a dry cold."

I got very sick of hearing, "but it's a dry heat", when I was going through basic in El Paso. In the summer.

for whatever reason it was 109 at Safford on the same day. I thought Safford would have been cooler

Ron

I think you are right about age making it harder to heat regulate. Straight water can get you in trouble too, if you lose too much sodium. those old carpenters used to drink plenty of water, but take salt tablets too.

Not sure how happy the heart docs would be about that now days.

I used to like the swamp cooler, kept the house cool, and raised the humidity.

No good after monsoons start, just won't cool when the outside humidity goes up.

Currently....

94 F
Feels like 106°



She's a little sticky for northeast MT.



Outside all day(until now) and drank a chit load of water. Maybe 2 piss breaks....

Home A/C has been running non stop for the last 1/2 hour. It's running way more than it does when we get that 105-110F dry heat stuff.

Big T/storm just went over.......temp dropped 14*

Air coming down the canyon from the 11K' ridge with snow drifts still

We've got a band of storms coming and it's 30 degrees cooler behind 'em. Of course the storms are a couple hours out so the poor A/C unit is gonna have to keep working.

58°F here.

GFY^^^

Down to 89 here right now, topped out at 93.
Wife and I shot p-dogs this morning quit at 1:00
Their talking about thunder storms during the night.
How is the hay up there Sam? It's high and green here. Brother in law has a good crop coming, below me in the river bottom. The flood this spring didn't hurt a thing.

Brad, good to hear from you.


Hay is great but we haven't cut any yet!


Been way too many storms lately.


Crazy weather.

Temperature is relative depending on where you've lived over the years.

This was taken sometime in 2005 or so at a facility I lived/worked at. Not even the hottest day we saw while there for five years. Ranger station down the road had an official reporting station, one day the ranger told me it was hovering between 126-128F. An "average" July day there according to official records is 108F. Just an average day. Came out of the house one morning, 2 or 3 AM, still 113F. I knew we were in for a bad one that day. Someone mentioned tools left in the sun. Don't do it there. Gloves are the uniform of the day when around metal. Hot pavement? Dude from a NV agency took the pavement temp with a laser thermometer at his facility near Lake Mead. 170F+.



It got so hot there the heat from the black dock bumper on an old truck we used to have distorted the taillight lenses.

We've lived with cold too, -11F at 7k' in AZ, a winter in Juneau (the warm part of AK), and here where we retired. First winter we moved in, outside temp on the bottom:



Now that I'm "old" I'd prefer not seeing either of those temps again, but I'll likely see the colder one a few more times unless my wife hits the Power Ball and we relocate to Hawai'i!

90F+/- here today, 185 now up from 13% humidity at 2 pm, 28 MPH gusts from the West = Fire Weather here. It's not "that" hot for me yet, but my wife who grew up on the coast isn't fond of these temps even. I put the window A/C in the master bdrm today, for her so she can sleep better. Me, I'd just use a fan.

I will admit, the few times I've lived back east I hated the humidity in the summer, until we had an afternoon shower that would break the heat. For a few hours at least. At least here I can wet a bandana and cool the blood vessels in my neck. Not gonna happen when the humidity is too high.

Y'all enjoy your weather while you're around to enjoy anything. It's all relative anyway.

Geno

Jeez Sam,

even here they've got the first one baled and stacked out of the fields mostly. Some of the alfalfa is up to a foot tall for the second cut already. Hope you get a break in the weather and can get some stuff cut soon.

Geno

It ain't the humidity, but the dew point that bothers me. Dew points below 60 generally feel pretty good. 60-70 it starts to feel a bit humid. 70+ and it's downright tropical. My Viking blood can't handle the warmer temps much anymore. 90* temps with dew points north of 65 and I'm inside. A/C is a life saver.