Hotter than Houston out there: At 117 degrees, Phoenix makes Texas look swell
Well, I suppose it could always be worse, right?? It's not quite so easy to believe that after the heat index hit 110 yesterday here in Seabrook. If I were smart (and wealthy), I'd be vacationing somewhere in northern British Columbia right about now. But I'm neither, so here I am in Hell (or what feels like it).
When it comes to weather, Houstonians are getting steamed. First came summer's usual heat and humidity. Then in roared Hurricane Claudette. Now, capping a week of wretched weather news, comes the threat of irritating clouds of Saharan dust.
But before you send your sinuses to Arizona, you might want to consider the case of Phoenix, where folks are really getting hot under the collar.
Residents of that city are facing one of the worst heat waves on record. Tuesday night went down as the hottest recorded in the city's history. Temperatures in a city that likes to boast it sits in the "Valley of the Sun" soared to 117 degrees Wednesday.
It's so hot that rubber flip-flops adhere to the pavement. And when a woman swooned in the heat, falling face down to the pavement, she was rushed to the hospital for treatment of burns.
Houston, by comparison, recorded a balmy 84 degrees Friday afternoon -- never mind the 70 percent humidity.
I spent two weeks in Phoenix at about this time last summer, and I found that I enjoyed the heat. You learn quickly to do things like draping a towel over the steering wheel of your parked car, but the low humidity is something I found quite tolerable. It's a different story when the temperature is 95 and the humidity is pushing 60-70%. And it's still only July....
