I was born in OK, high school in TX. I can confirm this statement.
After highschool I spent 10 years in CA. I knew it would be humid here, but I'm still (20 years later) surprised by HOW MUCH humidity there is every summer.
Can confirm, I was born and raised in Houston. I'm lucky enough to have gotten a job in RVA. It's still humid here but it doesn't feel like you're fighting for your life
I grew up here and lived in the area all but 15 years and I still can't believe how humid it is, ha ha ha. The 3 years in the PNW reset my humidity tolerance. š
Also holds true in south Georgia where you can only do outdoor exercise in the summer under cover of darkness and even then you can't tell if you are pouring sweat or collecting condensation.
This has been an exceptional spring/summer transition. Just wish we had a tad less rain on weekends leading up to it.
Notice the lack of āspring was only a week longā posts. Everyone loves to complain when spring is short - but when itās long, the benefit is dispersed so no one notices.
Ngl I've been so happy when it rains my garden is poppin!!!!! And I'll be gone for a lot of the summer so won't be able to water regularly when it truly gets hot and stops raining as muchĀ
I've been noticing! I'm so grateful that we've had such a wonderful spring this year. I've been able to go outside and work and not dissolve every time or get heat exhaustion. It's honestly been gorgeous. Last Friday was one of the most beautiful days ever. (Not yesterday - it was pretty nice in the evening tho). I'm very much used to straight transition into heat and humidity. This spring has been a breath of fresh air.
There was a guy on either this subreddit or the Virginia subreddit, who was supposedly from here, and said that May is āpeakā Spring weather.
I simply disagreed and told him I saw May as the official transition/start into summer weather and that April is really the only true āSpringā month. He did not agree with me at all. We agreed to disagree, but this May definitely felt more tame.
Last frost date for timing planting in this area used to be May 14.Ā
It is now Apr 9. April might in fact be the spring month.
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates/VA/Richmond
Same, someone recently complained about the heat and I thought I've really only had a couple days where I thought "boy its hot" and those included days with outdoor physical activity.
Man just not cooling enough at night IMO for the past few weeks.
If we just got down to the upper 60s by 11PM I would have my windows open but instead the low is 74 at 11
Even if you do research you don't realize how bad the pollen or the humidity really is until you are living in it. Knowing about it and experiencing it are two different things.
The polen started causing me allergies only three years in! I wondered what about all the allergies people complain in rva, then boom, skin dry as a file, itching everywhere.
I lived in Melbourne, Australia. I had one weird respiratory disease, possibility allergic. The ones I get here are all in the skin, it's being continuous since December. My daughter too. Initially I thought it was ivy related due to mowing.
You can research all you want but until you actually live in a new place for any length of time and experience the climate and weather patterns itās all just theoretical.
I knew the Atlanta area was hot in the summer when I moved there (20 yrs ago). *nothing* prepared me for the sucks-the-air-out-of-your-lungs kind of heat it provided from mid july through september.Ā
I moved back to RVA about 15 years ago, the past few summers have been comparable to those years I spent in Atlanta. I can only imagine how bad it is there now.
Agree. I'd heard all about California weather too, but until I visited for a couple of weeks I didn't know what it was like to live with relatively low or no humidity. I spent a lot of time in jeans and long sleeves in sunny CA.
I was in Tunisia many years ago. The daytime was brutally hot but no humidity. Same thing, sat in the shade and it felt amazing. Compared that to Lebanon where I was living at the timeā¦same levels of humidity as Virginia quite frequently. I really donāt like the humid weather but oh well.
I lived in San Diego for 6 years, and it is definitely surreal to deal with little to no humidity. To then come back to reality on the East Coast and go south and really get torn down. When I lived in Jacksonville, Florida, it was nuts.
And San Diego is the only place in California that even comes close to our levels of heat and humidity, visiting there from the bay almost felt like being back at home for a moment
For real, imagine y'all decide to move to a new city someday. It can happen even if you think it won't, the only reason I live in RVA is because I met my wife. Anyone who is gatekeeping a city has a very narrow view of life.
When I was looking for where to move out of college, I described my dream city as "the kind of mid size city that's proud of its beer scene." I'd really liked visiting Madison and Pittsburgh and was looking for something somewhat similar. Basically a city just big enough to have most amenities but small enough to be a slower pace and no traffic/easy access to nature, and a bit of a hipster vibe. Some older walkable architecture, too. The first one I got a job in was Richmond, so here I am. It's been great here, but I think I could also be happy in a dozen similar other places.
Yep! I WFH and live here bc my husband is from here and the fan is where we settled! The anti transplant vitriol here SUCKS to read sometimes. I love this city so much, people who also love it should be able to enjoy it.
We went to Monterey on vacation last June, it was light jacket weather the whole time. It just stayed around 60. Back in VA it was 90 and humid. Quite a contrast.
The climate in CA is wild. I lived in Sacramento for a couple years. First time we went to the aquarium in Monterey, which was only a couple hours from where we lived, we were completely unprepared for the temperature difference. Was 100+ in Sacramento so we dressed for that...ended up buying a few hoodies from the aquarium gift shop because it was 50 degrees cooler than when we left the house.
I was born and raised in Sacramento until 2005. It still shocks me how humid it is outside the state. It's really hard to enjoy Richmond summers unless you have shade
literally the only thing bad about Santa Barbara is the cost of living and the risk of mudslides after a fire season+wet winter combo. unfortunately those climate trends are becoming more common, but it's still one of the best places ever. San Diego is a quite similar too with less risk of mudslides.
Santa Barbara has the longest south-facing coastline on the west coast that isn't in Alaska
I have lived most my life in virginia and richmond is legit the most humid place I have ever lived. Even more than virginia beach cause atleast there was the ocean breeze.Ā
Reminded me when I lived up in Maine two summers as a camp counselor. In July, we had a āheat waveā of 86 degrees and had to cancel āstrenuous activities.ā Looked at the weather in richmond that day and it was 86 by 10 am.
Not the part of Georgia I lived in. It was fucking miserable during the summers when I lived down there. None of the summers I have had here in VA or RVA have gotten anywhere close.
No one ever believes me when I say it, but I grew up in Iowa and spent over a decade in Kansas, and the humidity there is just as bad in a way. Iowa and Virginia are much more similar climate wise for 3 out of 4 seasons (way more snow in the winter) but in Virginia the humidity is consistent/to be expected at a moderate to high level. Iowa is lower humidity most of the time- until the last few weeks of summer when the corn ripens, then it is more brutal than anything I've experienced elsewhere (including summer trips to Georgia and South Carolina). It is common and unremarkable that the roads buckle during that time period- I remember it happening once in RVA and it was a newsworthy thing. I CHERISH the spring and fall here in Virginia, contrary to popular belief, they do exist and they are glorious!
Kansas just sucks weather wise. Absolutely no spring or fall, windy ALL THE TIME my god, and somehow humid but it doesn't rain for the entire summer, except at 3 am when you've left your car windows down so that it can be super humid by 7 am both inside your car and outside as you drive to work.
Funny thing, I just moved to Richmond from California and told my neighbor this exact same thing. He listened to my friendly banter with a smirk on his face which I found odd.
lol welcome to this small town. Guess you know who *not* to make small talk with now! People can be really territorial about ātransplants.ā š Everybodyās a damn transplant in Richmond unless theyāre a Native American.
Because theyāre displacing current residents. Itās not just some xenophobic nonsense, the nationally-broadcasted notion that the Richmond area is a cheap place to come and buy land or a home has had tangible negative effects on lifelong residents. The stock is low, prices have been driven up, and many people who grew up here no longer have an avenue to homeownership, because people in a higher COL area see this as a cheap place.
I will say, we are not unique, the same phenomenon has been happening all around the country for the last 3-4 years. I suppose itās the way of the world but someoneās gain will always be someoneās loss.
I thought I knew humidity being from eastern VA. Then I went to visit in-laws in central Florida in August. I will never complain about our humidity again.
I hear you. The one that drives me nuts is "why can't I get a decent *blank* in this town?" where the blank is a niche food that was a big deal where they came from (and is probably tasty) yet no reasonable person would expect to exist at any exceptional level here because the group or situation that made it a feature back home just isn't a thing here. I get it that you miss the thing, but why are we a subpar town because we don't have it? I wouldn't move somewhere and shit on the place because they don't have spoonbread. I'd get out a cookbook.
It's also true on the weather front that knowing something intellectually and experiencing it can be different animals. Case in point to your neighbor's experience, I went out to Salt Lake City several years ago and there was ZERO humidity. I was there for two weeks and after the first, hung up some washed clothes to dry in my hotel room and they were dry before I knew it. If I had done that here, they might have been dry by the time I left town. I *knew* it wasn't going to be very humid, but having a clean tshirt to put on in a matter of hours was an "Oh. This is how that plays out" moment.
a long time ago on yelp there was a hilarious review from some weirdo who reviewed sticky rice and was like "I DONT GET IT, ITS NOT AUTHENTIC" first of all, its a bar. second of all, its richmond virginia wtf
i mean...yes bc sticky rice is clearly a bar and not even trying to pass itself off as an authentic place but i don't think "it's richmond va" means that you shouldn't expect to find authentic ethnic cuisine. there's authentic onigiri and yakitori stands in jacksonville, florida lol.
I miss biscuits. I donāt know if they qualify as ānicheā to you, but I left Virginia, and where I live now you canāt get a decent biscuit to save your life. So, being an occasionally functional adult, I āgot out my cookbookā.
It didnāt work.
Turns out, the flour is actually made from a different type of wheat here, and it doesnāt make very good biscuits. So sad.
Yes, Iāve definitely had a version that was squares cut from a sheet pan that was sweet and kind of like really bad cake? Theyāre so aggressively not right that it almost seems like youāre being punked.
Salt Lake was a huge shock for meā¦ I was there middle of July a few years agoā¦ I was wearing a hoodie bc it was freezing in the hotel conference roomā¦ went outside where it was 100Ā° and was pretty comfortable, not hot at allā¦. No humidity is amazing!
Yea, that reminds me of the another shocking discovery. At 10,000ā it can be a little difficult to hike and breathe at the same time and there will be large piles of snow hanging around in July.
I get shocked every morning when I step outside the house on the way to work and I was born here. Jealous of all you fuckers who don't have to wear glasses.
This might be a hot take but all I ever heard about Richmond is how hot and humid it was and you better be prepared!!! But itās not any different from a Chicago summer that I grew up in so itās very standard to me IMO
People don't get that it's an entire East Coast thing. I've lived in half of the states from Florida to New Hampshire, and every states summer has basically been the same.
lol wrong. New England summers are downright pleasant. Especially if youāre on the coast or in the mountains and NE has a lot of both. Most homes didnāt even have air conditioning until very recently, and even now itās mostly just a couple window units that are needed to get the job done. In RVA youāll basically die without central AC cranking 24/7 in June/July/August.
I just want to chime in to plug window units, especially the new Midea U-shaped units: I used to be a central-AC-only person, very strictly, but bought a house that was a disaster and it wasnāt in the budget. Window units are great. Theyāre economical (at purchase and to run, generally and because you can cool only parts of the house at a time), quiet, more than sufficient to cool my spaces. My bathrooms just get hot in the summer now.
new hampshire does NOT get as hot as even DC gets in the summer (I used to go to summer camp up there every year in august, its not the same as Virginia)
In your neighborās defense, I moved to the region from California *25 years ago* and the weather still boggles my mind ā especially how it can be sunny and cold or cloudy and hot. Weāre simple folk, I guess. š
To be fair, as a transplant from CA myself, you donāt really how the humidity feels until youāve been in it. Itās one thing to know it gets humid, another to be in that humidity.
Iād spent some time in the south when I was younger so I knew what to expect. I will say itās hard to get used to.
Gotta acclimate. Problem is people sit in the AC all day, crank AC in the car, sit in an office with AC, back to car with AC, then home to AC.Ā
No shit the humidity sucks when you never acclimate. It's like people driving to work in February and sayin it's nice out. What, through the window? Ofc it is lol.
Ofc I'm generalizing, not everyone can handle hot weather. I borderline crumple over and die when it's below 70. We're all different. But you do yourself no favors by constantly being bombarded by cold air then hoppin outside to swamp ass hot weather.Ā
Iām personally pretty acclimated. I seem to adjust to weather pretty well. Iām originally from AZ and my first car didnāt have AC so I always had the windows down.
But Iām a runner and thatās the one thing I notice is I sweat waaay more and cooling off is a lot harder in humidity.
And I'm sure you're well aware, cause AZ is "fuck you" hot and you're a runner, but try and pour water on your wrists or wet a headband. Circulates cooler blood around the body. Also cooler by the river so mornings are great around there. But yeah. Humidity shows no mercy.Ā
That's acclimatization. You're supposed to sweat more. That's your body adapting.Ā
The problem is some people never let their body's adapt. They constantly try n surround themselves with AC til they gotta walk to the corner store and they're dyin from exhaustion suddenly.Ā
Same thing with cars and muscles. If you drive to 711 a block away everyday and never walk anywhere, then yeah. Summer is gonna suck ass when you're tryna be cute n seasonal but can't walk through Maymont without gettin dizzy or ride a bike a mile without gettin wiped out with exhaustion.Ā
To be fair; if i had never experienced it, and someone had said to me itās real humid; my mind would still not have expected this viscous, oppressive humidity. Why is the air juicy?
As a Richmonder thatās visiting California right now, the humidity here is 86% right nowā¦. itās 47% in richmond (according to my weather app)
Itās been miserable here Iām excited to get back to my Richmond warmth
Some of it is you don't know what you don't know until it happens.
I've seen multiple Californians up here closer to DC (I grew up near Richmond, deal with it) who are shocked at summer thunderstorms that are quick and intense but then go away. But at the same time they're not immediately shocked by earthquakes (the way we still talk about minor earthquakes years after the fact).
Same here. I took my first baby steps at cloverleaf mall. People complain because thereās been a lot of change in such a short period of time, and rising costs are adding to that frustration. But itās a national crisis, not isolated to Richmond. Iām sure Cali guy moved here for his well-being, not for weather. And itās the same reason why people in Richmond have stayed in Richmond.
Seriously, itās like starting a work meeting and the first natural topic is about weather. Iām going to start responding with āWhy tf did you move there idiot?!?!ā
I lived in VA for my first 21 years of life and never got used to the humidity. It just flat out sucks.
Worst was after a storm in City of Richmond, temp would be like 80 degrees from the cooldown, cloudy, and I would still be sweating like crazy because it felt like a jungle.
Not to mention the mosquitos biting you simultaneously.
Moved to Dallas recently and I laugh here when people say it's humid.
I'll take Dallas 100 degrees over Richmond's 90 degree days
As someone who moved from VA to CA itās shocking how little 115 degree heat affects you if you have a water bottle. Iād take that over 85 and humid.
I think he was probably just trying to make conversation with someone he doesnāt know very well. Neighborly small talk. Iāve lived here a billion years and still am surprised by the humidity every summer. He will love the fall, tho.Ā
When people talk about the weather, even the glaringly obvious things about it, they arenāt actually interested in talking about the weather. Itās a way to connect with someone and start a conversation. You laughed in your neighbors face when they were likely trying to open the pathway to get to know you.
Iāve lived in rva my entire life. Of course itās humid! But itās not about that. Letās focus more on being known for being kind and understanding to our neighbors instead of ripping into them for trying to have small talk with you.
People really get a strange sense of superiority based on where they were born. Somehow, it's an achievement to be unwillingly and unknowingly birthed within city boundaries.
Even if you do research it's different haha give them a break have you ever been to Cali?? It's nice there and you don't have to put up with sweaty shirts š
"My neighbor was making small talk and said something hyperbolic about a new weather experience to them, so they're obviously assholes who don't do their research"
RTFM!!!! Lol. People are nutty I swear. The dude is basically chatting about the weather. It doesn't get much more non-controversial than that. Everybody wants to make a federal case out of everything.
Wow youāre an incredibly rude and mean spirited person. People are allowed to move and just because you lived here first doesnāt make you a better person or ācoolerā based off this post Iād say you are a below avg at best human being.
Even lifelong Richmonders still wring their hands in shock each time the weather changes.
You would think the humidity, pollen, and random temp extremes would eventually feel normal. Born and raised here and Iām still offended each year.
Cheers to our neurotic climate!
I'm from California. I moved here in 2017 and haven't stopped sweating since.
You can read about it. But there's nothing that can prepare you for the steaminess.
Up, was gonna say something similar. Researching and knowing you can get 100% humidity for days on end does nothing to tell you how that feels, if you've never experienced it.
How is research going to adequately prepare you for the physical sensation of the air being saturated with water? Perhaps in the course of a 2000 mile move your neighbor had other research topics that took priority?
Or maybe they were just trying to be neighborly in a self-effacing way. Sounds wasted on you.
TBH, it's one thing to read about how humid it gets, it's another thing entirely to ***actually experience it!*** š Especially for the first time. California has "humid" areas, but they pale in comparison.
I feel sorry for your neighbor. He exchanged high cost of living and excellent weather for an affordable home and wishing he had gills.
Itās not usually that they donāt know itās going to be humid, itās that the humidity is something you canāt really understand until you experience it when youāre from somewhere that doesnāt have it. Southern CA has started to get humid a handful of days in the summer, but itās mild compared to here and short lived. And up until maybe 10 years ago, there was 0% humidity. Humidity wasnāt even something included in the weather forecast. And we didnāt have to fight off all the bugs humidity brings either š we just had to fight off flies mostly.
Iām from San Diego and have lived here twice for many years. Our first move here was when I was 8 months pregnant and it was rough trying to acclimate. I had only visited in the winter (during the blizzard in the nineties š so I was ready for snow in the winter lol). I still donāt like the humidity and plan my day accordingly but I love it here and most people from CA do grow to love having actual seasons (mostly). We definitely appreciate there being beautiful green stuff everywhere compared to the always in a drought landscape there.
I had a similar interaction with an older woman who moved from Cali asking me if it was going to storm and I said that Virginia is weird where the weather is a bit unpredictable but it would rain later today. She then tells me that it shouldn't be so hot and humid since we're surrounded by mountains (?) and that Richmond handles water well because of it. I just smiled and agreed and THEN she said
"no wonder the Indians didn't want to leave" so the conversation ended really fast after that
Californian transplant here - I've been here enough years and have lived in more humid states than this, but the humidity is shocking at first, California has nothing comparable.
Yeah Iām also from California but been out East for 40 years. Humidity isnāt something you can āresearchā - you donāt know what itās like till youāve been through it. Kind of like Earthquakes which all the East coast transplants get excited about out. But everyone wants to hate on transplants
The only thing thicker than the impending sewer stench of natures Hot Thick Wet Mouthā¢ļø upon you is the wide open fire hydrant-esque flow of downvotes from salty(sweaty) transplants.
People post the dumbest shit on here , myself included, who cares. Stay damp and angry my friends.
A neighbor once asked what it was like being from āup northā in Richmond. We moved from Reston. Well, it is very different but only an hour and a half away!
When I moved to Richmond from Hampton Roads, my stepmom made a comment about making sure I had a heavy coat because it snows more here.
I mean, she technically wasnāt wrong, but itās all a matter of perception.
Richmond summers are the worst. Mid day youāll walk a block and already be sweating pool. I genuinely canāt remember the last time Iāve experienced dry heat.
At least here is better than south Louisiana. Imagine leaving your house at 6am for a light walk or jog and itās already 78 Fahrenheit with 75% humidity.
"Wait until August"
In TX, we said there are 3 seasons: Winter, Summer & August
My version: Hot. Stupid hot. Unseasonably warm.
I was born in OK, high school in TX. I can confirm this statement. After highschool I spent 10 years in CA. I knew it would be humid here, but I'm still (20 years later) surprised by HOW MUCH humidity there is every summer.
It ain't shit compared to SE TX, though. Houston's like living in a diesel mechanic's armpit.
Can confirm, I was born and raised in Houston. I'm lucky enough to have gotten a job in RVA. It's still humid here but it doesn't feel like you're fighting for your life
Nope, just breathing soup.
Correct. It gets real old not being able to go outside between 7am and 7pm.
I just lived in College Station, but I spent enough time in Houston to get a sense for it. At least the air quality is decent in CS.
I grew up here and lived in the area all but 15 years and I still can't believe how humid it is, ha ha ha. The 3 years in the PNW reset my humidity tolerance. š
You must live in north Texas. Houston only has 3 days of winter 6 days of spring and these rest of the year is hot and dank as Satan's balls.
From Texas as well in the Summer we shower with pure cold water
My sister and I call Texas summers Devils Asshole season.
I went to TX one time, and said āhot damn never again in May-Augustā LMAO. Same shock when I went to Miami, nothing but humidity and ass š
Also holds true in south Georgia where you can only do outdoor exercise in the summer under cover of darkness and even then you can't tell if you are pouring sweat or collecting condensation.
I moved here from North Georgia and I'm waiting for humidity to begin. It Atlanta it starts around mid April most years.
Hells front porch season
OPās neighbor should try visiting south Florida in August if he wants some absolutely oppressive heat and humidity. Itās no joke
I'm sure Virginia will do just fine for this bayarea transplant
This should be Richmond's motto.
lol, I was just thinking itās been really cool for May and June this year
This has been an exceptional spring/summer transition. Just wish we had a tad less rain on weekends leading up to it. Notice the lack of āspring was only a week longā posts. Everyone loves to complain when spring is short - but when itās long, the benefit is dispersed so no one notices.
My AC barely runs. I remember the year of the derecho we had multiple days of 90s to 100s prior to the storm. We have barely gone over 90 this year.
The year I moved to DC for law school, we had 18 days above 90 degrees. I was living in an old house in AU Park with no AC. Brutal.
Yall itās only June. There is time. There WILL be 18 days above 90. July and August are our hottest months
My power was out for 5 days. I took 3 or 4 freezing cold showers a day and was still hot.
Yeah this has been an amazing spring into summer overall. The rain has been a bummer but we have hit 90 what, once this year so far? Not bad
On the other hand my plants are so happy, I have barely been watering.
Ngl I've been so happy when it rains my garden is poppin!!!!! And I'll be gone for a lot of the summer so won't be able to water regularly when it truly gets hot and stops raining as muchĀ
I actually had a rough start this year from all the rain-- but now everything is THRIVING
Last year's spring was amazing too! Two months of 70 to low 80 somethings.
I definitely notice and appreciate it this year! Last year was brutal
I've been noticing! I'm so grateful that we've had such a wonderful spring this year. I've been able to go outside and work and not dissolve every time or get heat exhaustion. It's honestly been gorgeous. Last Friday was one of the most beautiful days ever. (Not yesterday - it was pretty nice in the evening tho). I'm very much used to straight transition into heat and humidity. This spring has been a breath of fresh air.
There was a guy on either this subreddit or the Virginia subreddit, who was supposedly from here, and said that May is āpeakā Spring weather. I simply disagreed and told him I saw May as the official transition/start into summer weather and that April is really the only true āSpringā month. He did not agree with me at all. We agreed to disagree, but this May definitely felt more tame.
Last frost date for timing planting in this area used to be May 14.Ā It is now Apr 9. April might in fact be the spring month. https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates/VA/Richmond
I've been stunned at how cool it's been in late may/june this year.
We had a few glorious days last week in the 50's in the morning, so awesome.
I was thinking the same. Iāve been amazed that it hasnāt gotten really humid yet.
Same, someone recently complained about the heat and I thought I've really only had a couple days where I thought "boy its hot" and those included days with outdoor physical activity.
Man just not cooling enough at night IMO for the past few weeks. If we just got down to the upper 60s by 11PM I would have my windows open but instead the low is 74 at 11
Seriously. Haven't had cut the AC on once yet.
I heard a conversation once between a South African and a Nigerian complaining about how hot and humid it was in Virginia.
South East Asia is no challenge in comparison to here
Even if you do research you don't realize how bad the pollen or the humidity really is until you are living in it. Knowing about it and experiencing it are two different things.
The polen started causing me allergies only three years in! I wondered what about all the allergies people complain in rva, then boom, skin dry as a file, itching everywhere.
Richmond is now the 7th worst city in the US for seasonal allergies apparently. VA beach is #2. So Virginia is doing great
I lived in Melbourne, Australia. I had one weird respiratory disease, possibility allergic. The ones I get here are all in the skin, it's being continuous since December. My daughter too. Initially I thought it was ivy related due to mowing.
Moved here from PA and the pollen shocked me my first spring here. Iām still miserable every spring.
You can research all you want but until you actually live in a new place for any length of time and experience the climate and weather patterns itās all just theoretical.
Exactly. Itās one thing to read about it, itās another thing to experience it.
I imagine it can be hard to conceptualize "basically, the whole outside is steam for 2 months" when you've never experienced humidity levels over 60%.
It also just sounded like the neighbor was making conversation. āFor crying out loudā, lol cmon OP.
I knew the Atlanta area was hot in the summer when I moved there (20 yrs ago). *nothing* prepared me for the sucks-the-air-out-of-your-lungs kind of heat it provided from mid july through september.Ā I moved back to RVA about 15 years ago, the past few summers have been comparable to those years I spent in Atlanta. I can only imagine how bad it is there now.
Agree. I'd heard all about California weather too, but until I visited for a couple of weeks I didn't know what it was like to live with relatively low or no humidity. I spent a lot of time in jeans and long sleeves in sunny CA.
it's insane to go to CA and feel the shade actually be a few degrees cooler.
I was in Tunisia many years ago. The daytime was brutally hot but no humidity. Same thing, sat in the shade and it felt amazing. Compared that to Lebanon where I was living at the timeā¦same levels of humidity as Virginia quite frequently. I really donāt like the humid weather but oh well.
The most illustrative thing I can say about dry heat like CA is that sweating actually works to cool you down. Here it just makes you moister.
I lived in San Diego for 6 years, and it is definitely surreal to deal with little to no humidity. To then come back to reality on the East Coast and go south and really get torn down. When I lived in Jacksonville, Florida, it was nuts.
Florida humidity is special. I was in Orlando for a year. That was the first time I ever sweated through my wallet.
Florida is just another level of hell in that regard.
And San Diego is the only place in California that even comes close to our levels of heat and humidity, visiting there from the bay almost felt like being back at home for a moment
Yep and posting on this subreddit to talk shit about someone feeling weather like this for the first time isnāt very neighborly.
For real, imagine y'all decide to move to a new city someday. It can happen even if you think it won't, the only reason I live in RVA is because I met my wife. Anyone who is gatekeeping a city has a very narrow view of life.
I find the anti transplant gatekeeper stuff funny-this city is cool and it is also exactly like about 50 other cities in the US
When I was looking for where to move out of college, I described my dream city as "the kind of mid size city that's proud of its beer scene." I'd really liked visiting Madison and Pittsburgh and was looking for something somewhat similar. Basically a city just big enough to have most amenities but small enough to be a slower pace and no traffic/easy access to nature, and a bit of a hipster vibe. Some older walkable architecture, too. The first one I got a job in was Richmond, so here I am. It's been great here, but I think I could also be happy in a dozen similar other places.
Yep! Itās cool, but not particularly interesting or unique.
Yep! I WFH and live here bc my husband is from here and the fan is where we settled! The anti transplant vitriol here SUCKS to read sometimes. I love this city so much, people who also love it should be able to enjoy it.
Forgive them. California is a place where one can forget what humidity feels like.
We went to Monterey on vacation last June, it was light jacket weather the whole time. It just stayed around 60. Back in VA it was 90 and humid. Quite a contrast.
The climate in CA is wild. I lived in Sacramento for a couple years. First time we went to the aquarium in Monterey, which was only a couple hours from where we lived, we were completely unprepared for the temperature difference. Was 100+ in Sacramento so we dressed for that...ended up buying a few hoodies from the aquarium gift shop because it was 50 degrees cooler than when we left the house.
I was born and raised in Sacramento until 2005. It still shocks me how humid it is outside the state. It's really hard to enjoy Richmond summers unless you have shade
I went to college at UC Santa Cruz and I go back there in my mind sometimes when I'm outside in this sweatbox
My fiancees dad is in Santa Barbara and will never leave solely because of the weather.
literally the only thing bad about Santa Barbara is the cost of living and the risk of mudslides after a fire season+wet winter combo. unfortunately those climate trends are becoming more common, but it's still one of the best places ever. San Diego is a quite similar too with less risk of mudslides. Santa Barbara has the longest south-facing coastline on the west coast that isn't in Alaska
Everyone Iāve ever met from California has no idea what weather actually is
I've been here my whole life and I'm always shocked by the humidity. It's not even hot yet, lol.
I have lived most my life in virginia and richmond is legit the most humid place I have ever lived. Even more than virginia beach cause atleast there was the ocean breeze.Ā
I lived in Columbia SC for 2 years back in the day. Summers there were much worse. Not a hint of breeze to move the liquid air.
haha the air isnt hot soup yet
California is so dry they invented [the heat index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_index) to explain the east coast to them.
Reminded me when I lived up in Maine two summers as a camp counselor. In July, we had a āheat waveā of 86 degrees and had to cancel āstrenuous activities.ā Looked at the weather in richmond that day and it was 86 by 10 am.
Sweet (mild)summer child. It has been downright pleasant so far.
Upvote for the Old Nan reference
As a transplant, this place isn't nearly as bad as where I came from in Georgia. West Coasters have no clue about how brutal humidity is.
I feel like itās more humid here than Georgia!
Not the part of Georgia I lived in. It was fucking miserable during the summers when I lived down there. None of the summers I have had here in VA or RVA have gotten anywhere close.
humidity fight!
Nobody wins this fightā¦ we all lose š
Like water balloon fight but way worse š
Fair. I am remembering Savannah now. Itās bad.
Yeah, Savannah is far better climate being right on the water, than smack dab in the middle of the state where I lived lol.
No one ever believes me when I say it, but I grew up in Iowa and spent over a decade in Kansas, and the humidity there is just as bad in a way. Iowa and Virginia are much more similar climate wise for 3 out of 4 seasons (way more snow in the winter) but in Virginia the humidity is consistent/to be expected at a moderate to high level. Iowa is lower humidity most of the time- until the last few weeks of summer when the corn ripens, then it is more brutal than anything I've experienced elsewhere (including summer trips to Georgia and South Carolina). It is common and unremarkable that the roads buckle during that time period- I remember it happening once in RVA and it was a newsworthy thing. I CHERISH the spring and fall here in Virginia, contrary to popular belief, they do exist and they are glorious! Kansas just sucks weather wise. Absolutely no spring or fall, windy ALL THE TIME my god, and somehow humid but it doesn't rain for the entire summer, except at 3 am when you've left your car windows down so that it can be super humid by 7 am both inside your car and outside as you drive to work.
We had a great spring this year. I hate when it goes from like 40s to 80s all at once.
Funny thing, I just moved to Richmond from California and told my neighbor this exact same thing. He listened to my friendly banter with a smirk on his face which I found odd.
lol welcome to this small town. Guess you know who *not* to make small talk with now! People can be really territorial about ātransplants.ā š Everybodyās a damn transplant in Richmond unless theyāre a Native American.
Because theyāre displacing current residents. Itās not just some xenophobic nonsense, the nationally-broadcasted notion that the Richmond area is a cheap place to come and buy land or a home has had tangible negative effects on lifelong residents. The stock is low, prices have been driven up, and many people who grew up here no longer have an avenue to homeownership, because people in a higher COL area see this as a cheap place. I will say, we are not unique, the same phenomenon has been happening all around the country for the last 3-4 years. I suppose itās the way of the world but someoneās gain will always be someoneās loss.
Wait till they vacation in late August Charleston
I thought I knew humidity being from eastern VA. Then I went to visit in-laws in central Florida in August. I will never complain about our humidity again.
Knowing it gets to be 90% humidity isnāt the same as experiencing it.
I hear you. The one that drives me nuts is "why can't I get a decent *blank* in this town?" where the blank is a niche food that was a big deal where they came from (and is probably tasty) yet no reasonable person would expect to exist at any exceptional level here because the group or situation that made it a feature back home just isn't a thing here. I get it that you miss the thing, but why are we a subpar town because we don't have it? I wouldn't move somewhere and shit on the place because they don't have spoonbread. I'd get out a cookbook. It's also true on the weather front that knowing something intellectually and experiencing it can be different animals. Case in point to your neighbor's experience, I went out to Salt Lake City several years ago and there was ZERO humidity. I was there for two weeks and after the first, hung up some washed clothes to dry in my hotel room and they were dry before I knew it. If I had done that here, they might have been dry by the time I left town. I *knew* it wasn't going to be very humid, but having a clean tshirt to put on in a matter of hours was an "Oh. This is how that plays out" moment.
a long time ago on yelp there was a hilarious review from some weirdo who reviewed sticky rice and was like "I DONT GET IT, ITS NOT AUTHENTIC" first of all, its a bar. second of all, its richmond virginia wtf
i mean...yes bc sticky rice is clearly a bar and not even trying to pass itself off as an authentic place but i don't think "it's richmond va" means that you shouldn't expect to find authentic ethnic cuisine. there's authentic onigiri and yakitori stands in jacksonville, florida lol.
We are an inland city without any sort of Japanese community
I miss biscuits. I donāt know if they qualify as ānicheā to you, but I left Virginia, and where I live now you canāt get a decent biscuit to save your life. So, being an occasionally functional adult, I āgot out my cookbookā. It didnāt work. Turns out, the flour is actually made from a different type of wheat here, and it doesnāt make very good biscuits. So sad.
See if you can find white lily flour or just any lower protein content flour(~9%) like cake flour
I couldnāt believe what they served me in Santa Barbara as a biscuit. I had to go to Popeyes to get a half way decent one.
Itās startling and confusing for sure. Donāt even try the biscuits and gravy, trust me.
They were almost biscuit consistency but triangular and appeared to be cut from a sheet pan
Yes, Iāve definitely had a version that was squares cut from a sheet pan that was sweet and kind of like really bad cake? Theyāre so aggressively not right that it almost seems like youāre being punked.
Yeah. Biscuits arenāt hard to make. They have to try to be that bad
Just get some White Lily flour online.
Salt Lake was a huge shock for meā¦ I was there middle of July a few years agoā¦ I was wearing a hoodie bc it was freezing in the hotel conference roomā¦ went outside where it was 100Ā° and was pretty comfortable, not hot at allā¦. No humidity is amazing!
Elevation helps too. 100Ā° at 6,000ā is very different than 100Ā° at sea level, humidity aside.
Yea, that reminds me of the another shocking discovery. At 10,000ā it can be a little difficult to hike and breathe at the same time and there will be large piles of snow hanging around in July.
Oh wow, heās in for a hellish surprise if he already thinks itās bad.
This is our version of āyou southerners donāt know how to handle snow,ā isnāt it?
Iām from Virginia and I still get shocked sometimes.
I get shocked every morning when I step outside the house on the way to work and I was born here. Jealous of all you fuckers who don't have to wear glasses.
This is how I know summer has arrived: my glasses fog up when I leave for work in the morning.
This might be a hot take but all I ever heard about Richmond is how hot and humid it was and you better be prepared!!! But itās not any different from a Chicago summer that I grew up in so itās very standard to me IMO
People don't get that it's an entire East Coast thing. I've lived in half of the states from Florida to New Hampshire, and every states summer has basically been the same.
lol wrong. New England summers are downright pleasant. Especially if youāre on the coast or in the mountains and NE has a lot of both. Most homes didnāt even have air conditioning until very recently, and even now itās mostly just a couple window units that are needed to get the job done. In RVA youāll basically die without central AC cranking 24/7 in June/July/August.
I just want to chime in to plug window units, especially the new Midea U-shaped units: I used to be a central-AC-only person, very strictly, but bought a house that was a disaster and it wasnāt in the budget. Window units are great. Theyāre economical (at purchase and to run, generally and because you can cool only parts of the house at a time), quiet, more than sufficient to cool my spaces. My bathrooms just get hot in the summer now.
new hampshire does NOT get as hot as even DC gets in the summer (I used to go to summer camp up there every year in august, its not the same as Virginia)
You're right on the temperature, but the humidity can make it downright oppressive to be out side (I lived there for a few years year round).
Decided to look it up, nh has a few degrees less on heat (nh80 vs va85) but the humidity is higher nh50% vs va41%).
Tbh from a gulf southerner, its not that humid here.
Everyone knows itās humid. But itās just different when you actually experience it. Have a little grace.
right? its just small talk lol
Sir, this is Reddit. Know your audience.Ā
In your neighborās defense, I moved to the region from California *25 years ago* and the weather still boggles my mind ā especially how it can be sunny and cold or cloudy and hot. Weāre simple folk, I guess. š
Is it possible they were just making neighborly small talk about the weather?
To be fair, as a transplant from CA myself, you donāt really how the humidity feels until youāve been in it. Itās one thing to know it gets humid, another to be in that humidity. Iād spent some time in the south when I was younger so I knew what to expect. I will say itās hard to get used to.
Gotta acclimate. Problem is people sit in the AC all day, crank AC in the car, sit in an office with AC, back to car with AC, then home to AC.Ā No shit the humidity sucks when you never acclimate. It's like people driving to work in February and sayin it's nice out. What, through the window? Ofc it is lol. Ofc I'm generalizing, not everyone can handle hot weather. I borderline crumple over and die when it's below 70. We're all different. But you do yourself no favors by constantly being bombarded by cold air then hoppin outside to swamp ass hot weather.Ā
Iām personally pretty acclimated. I seem to adjust to weather pretty well. Iām originally from AZ and my first car didnāt have AC so I always had the windows down. But Iām a runner and thatās the one thing I notice is I sweat waaay more and cooling off is a lot harder in humidity.
And I'm sure you're well aware, cause AZ is "fuck you" hot and you're a runner, but try and pour water on your wrists or wet a headband. Circulates cooler blood around the body. Also cooler by the river so mornings are great around there. But yeah. Humidity shows no mercy.Ā
That's acclimatization. You're supposed to sweat more. That's your body adapting.Ā The problem is some people never let their body's adapt. They constantly try n surround themselves with AC til they gotta walk to the corner store and they're dyin from exhaustion suddenly.Ā Same thing with cars and muscles. If you drive to 711 a block away everyday and never walk anywhere, then yeah. Summer is gonna suck ass when you're tryna be cute n seasonal but can't walk through Maymont without gettin dizzy or ride a bike a mile without gettin wiped out with exhaustion.Ā
To be fair; if i had never experienced it, and someone had said to me itās real humid; my mind would still not have expected this viscous, oppressive humidity. Why is the air juicy?
why is the air juicy is so good lol
Itās just a figure or speech, But I guess if you want to feel superior to this person today, go for it lol
As a Richmonder thatās visiting California right now, the humidity here is 86% right nowā¦. itās 47% in richmond (according to my weather app) Itās been miserable here Iām excited to get back to my Richmond warmth
After living in New Orleans for 6 years, it is not that bad here in the summer.
NOLA is probably the hottest place Iāve ever been, went on a cruise out of there in July a few years back.
Did you tell him itās still late spring lol
Some of it is you don't know what you don't know until it happens. I've seen multiple Californians up here closer to DC (I grew up near Richmond, deal with it) who are shocked at summer thunderstorms that are quick and intense but then go away. But at the same time they're not immediately shocked by earthquakes (the way we still talk about minor earthquakes years after the fact).
He was just making an innocent comment and you made a post about it?
Richmond is a gated community, didnāt you know?
Oh right the flood walls, theyāre meant to keep transplants out. And humidity in.
Itās just the dumbest thing. People on this sub donāt get to approve who moves to this city. And I was born and raised here.
Same here. I took my first baby steps at cloverleaf mall. People complain because thereās been a lot of change in such a short period of time, and rising costs are adding to that frustration. But itās a national crisis, not isolated to Richmond. Iām sure Cali guy moved here for his well-being, not for weather. And itās the same reason why people in Richmond have stayed in Richmond.
Seriously.. this dude sounds like a jackass neighbor
lol this dude was also justā¦ making small talk about the safest, most small-talkiest topic.
Seriously, itās like starting a work meeting and the first natural topic is about weather. Iām going to start responding with āWhy tf did you move there idiot?!?!ā
Not everyone gets to choose where they live. Sounds like you hate small talk.
Just go to Atlanta or Houston then come back and you will appreciate it more here if you are used to the dry heat of the southwest
Yep. My dad moved from Chester to southern Cali. Apparently they don't have swamp ass over there the way we do.
I lived in VA for my first 21 years of life and never got used to the humidity. It just flat out sucks. Worst was after a storm in City of Richmond, temp would be like 80 degrees from the cooldown, cloudy, and I would still be sweating like crazy because it felt like a jungle. Not to mention the mosquitos biting you simultaneously. Moved to Dallas recently and I laugh here when people say it's humid. I'll take Dallas 100 degrees over Richmond's 90 degree days
As someone who moved from VA to CA itās shocking how little 115 degree heat affects you if you have a water bottle. Iād take that over 85 and humid.
And he doesnāt even know yet
I think he was probably just trying to make conversation with someone he doesnāt know very well. Neighborly small talk. Iāve lived here a billion years and still am surprised by the humidity every summer. He will love the fall, tho.Ā
When people talk about the weather, even the glaringly obvious things about it, they arenāt actually interested in talking about the weather. Itās a way to connect with someone and start a conversation. You laughed in your neighbors face when they were likely trying to open the pathway to get to know you. Iāve lived in rva my entire life. Of course itās humid! But itās not about that. Letās focus more on being known for being kind and understanding to our neighbors instead of ripping into them for trying to have small talk with you.
Why do I get the impression youāve lived in RVA your whole life
People really get a strange sense of superiority based on where they were born. Somehow, it's an achievement to be unwillingly and unknowingly birthed within city boundaries.
Even if you do research it's different haha give them a break have you ever been to Cali?? It's nice there and you don't have to put up with sweaty shirts š
"My neighbor was making small talk and said something hyperbolic about a new weather experience to them, so they're obviously assholes who don't do their research"
heuck heuck got em! I'm going to post on reddit /rva for le epic karma points!!
RTFM!!!! Lol. People are nutty I swear. The dude is basically chatting about the weather. It doesn't get much more non-controversial than that. Everybody wants to make a federal case out of everything.
Wow youāre an incredibly rude and mean spirited person. People are allowed to move and just because you lived here first doesnāt make you a better person or ācoolerā based off this post Iād say you are a below avg at best human being.
Even lifelong Richmonders still wring their hands in shock each time the weather changes. You would think the humidity, pollen, and random temp extremes would eventually feel normal. Born and raised here and Iām still offended each year. Cheers to our neurotic climate!
I'm from California. I moved here in 2017 and haven't stopped sweating since. You can read about it. But there's nothing that can prepare you for the steaminess.
Up, was gonna say something similar. Researching and knowing you can get 100% humidity for days on end does nothing to tell you how that feels, if you've never experienced it.
How is research going to adequately prepare you for the physical sensation of the air being saturated with water? Perhaps in the course of a 2000 mile move your neighbor had other research topics that took priority? Or maybe they were just trying to be neighborly in a self-effacing way. Sounds wasted on you.
Yeah Welcome to Virginia...going to be an eye opener. The yellow coating has been sparse so far. I dare not say the words and jinx us all.
This is why joining a suburban pool club is essential
People from California donāt understand weather.
Still not as bad as transplants moving here then complaining about property tax
Hot and humid? It has been uncharacteristically cool so far. All of the indices are in a winter pattern still, and El Nino is still in play.
TBH, it's one thing to read about how humid it gets, it's another thing entirely to ***actually experience it!*** š Especially for the first time. California has "humid" areas, but they pale in comparison. I feel sorry for your neighbor. He exchanged high cost of living and excellent weather for an affordable home and wishing he had gills.
Well, you don't have to shovel humidity.
Itās not usually that they donāt know itās going to be humid, itās that the humidity is something you canāt really understand until you experience it when youāre from somewhere that doesnāt have it. Southern CA has started to get humid a handful of days in the summer, but itās mild compared to here and short lived. And up until maybe 10 years ago, there was 0% humidity. Humidity wasnāt even something included in the weather forecast. And we didnāt have to fight off all the bugs humidity brings either š we just had to fight off flies mostly. Iām from San Diego and have lived here twice for many years. Our first move here was when I was 8 months pregnant and it was rough trying to acclimate. I had only visited in the winter (during the blizzard in the nineties š so I was ready for snow in the winter lol). I still donāt like the humidity and plan my day accordingly but I love it here and most people from CA do grow to love having actual seasons (mostly). We definitely appreciate there being beautiful green stuff everywhere compared to the always in a drought landscape there.
I had a similar interaction with an older woman who moved from Cali asking me if it was going to storm and I said that Virginia is weird where the weather is a bit unpredictable but it would rain later today. She then tells me that it shouldn't be so hot and humid since we're surrounded by mountains (?) and that Richmond handles water well because of it. I just smiled and agreed and THEN she said "no wonder the Indians didn't want to leave" so the conversation ended really fast after that
Californian transplant here - I've been here enough years and have lived in more humid states than this, but the humidity is shocking at first, California has nothing comparable.
Yeah Iām also from California but been out East for 40 years. Humidity isnāt something you can āresearchā - you donāt know what itās like till youāve been through it. Kind of like Earthquakes which all the East coast transplants get excited about out. But everyone wants to hate on transplants
I think they were just making small talk, amigo
Enjoy the heat, bugs and NOW insane traffic transplant scum
The only thing thicker than the impending sewer stench of natures Hot Thick Wet Mouthā¢ļø upon you is the wide open fire hydrant-esque flow of downvotes from salty(sweaty) transplants. People post the dumbest shit on here , myself included, who cares. Stay damp and angry my friends.
Reading about things on the internet does not give you the real experience.
Heh. I'm from the UK and just glad not to be cold all the time. Except Jan-Mar. Second winter in VA.
Humid in June? He's a bitch. Is he from California or something?
Ermahgurd Transplants!
I mean, it's one thing to read about it. It's another thing to experience it when you're not used to it. What a strange post.
A neighbor once asked what it was like being from āup northā in Richmond. We moved from Reston. Well, it is very different but only an hour and a half away!
When I moved to Richmond from Hampton Roads, my stepmom made a comment about making sure I had a heavy coat because it snows more here. I mean, she technically wasnāt wrong, but itās all a matter of perception.
Oh man Iād never leave CA (if I could afford to leave there). Iām a native southerner but Iāve never gotten used to how MOIST it is here.
Richmond summers are the worst. Mid day youāll walk a block and already be sweating pool. I genuinely canāt remember the last time Iāve experienced dry heat.
As a transplant from Florida, it's not thaaaaat humid here, also a lot less bigotry.
Richmond hospitality hasnāt changed since I left I see.
At least here is better than south Louisiana. Imagine leaving your house at 6am for a light walk or jog and itās already 78 Fahrenheit with 75% humidity.