I don't get it (a brief bit of musing about climate)

You can't live in a northern city like Buffalo without hearing constant refrains from people who pine for the day when they can finally ditch the snow and what they claim to be oppressive humidity (which, in Buffalo, isn't nearly as bad as what you'll find in cities that are actually on the Atlantic seaboard, like NYC, Boston, and Philadelphia) for places like, say, Phoenix. Phoenix is a big one, and when I stare at them, slackjawed, at the very idea of living in a place where highs reach 120 degrees fairly regularly, the old chestnut always comes up: "But it's a dry heat!"

Well, here's my thing. When I watch the TV meteorologists, during the summer we hear about the "Heat Index", which is how hot it feels due to the temperature and the added effects of humidity. And if the Heat Index reaches, say, 100 degrees, well yes, that's unpleasant, but I just completely fail to see the attraction of leaving a place where it occasionally feels like a hundred degrees in favor of a place where most times it actually is a hundred degrees. Is there some "reverse Heat Index" whereby in Phoenix, a thermometer reading of 110 only feels like 85 because it's "dry"?

According to this site, at lower temperatures and lower humidities, the temperature can actually feel cooler than it is, but the difference doesn't seem that great (a single degree in most cases), and that is only at lower temps to begin with. Even 105 degrees, at just 30 percent relative humidity, feels like 114 degrees. And then there's that little clause beneath the table: "Exposure to full sunshine can increase HI values by up to 15 degrees F". How often is it cloudy in Phoenix?

I'm not trying to pick on Phoenix here (although I once looked at a street map of the place, and I found its nearly perfectly aligned street grid a bit unnerving). I just find odd the degree to which we've come to worship sun and heat in this country, much to my poor city's detriment. I blame the Beach Boys. Longhaired twits.