Not So Humid Places in the South and the East Coast?

[Montecfo]

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Originally Posted by Nick12 Only bad thing is the infamous DC,NoVA traffic. When I asked when does rush hour traffic start in the AM while visiting, the front desk clerk told me - 530am.

You can't really go to mountains or beach, river, museums and monuments. Too much traffic. And the humidity? Don't get me started.

Both probably the worst in America.

[GalaxyBoy]

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Originally Posted by Montecfo I have heard people from here say DC is particularly bad. Having lived here in Northern VA and in Texas, it seems pretty mild to me.

Having visited relatives in Houston many years ago, I'd have to agree with you!

[audreyh1]

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Originally Posted by GalaxyBoy Having visited relatives in Houston many years ago, I'd have to agree with you!

Houston area coastal humidity is as bad as the wet side of any tropical island near the equator!!!

[harllee]

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Originally Posted by Gumby If you guys would just live in Connecticut like civilized human beings, you wouldn't have all this agita.

I have visited Connecticut in the summer--seemed hot and humid to me. And then there is the winter there....

[GTFan]

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Originally Posted by GalaxyBoy I’ve lived in the South all my life, places like Vidalia Ga, Birmingham, Ft. Worth, Little Rock, Oak Ridge TN, Richmond, Atlanta, now Roanoke, and extended business trips to Florida, Maryland, and I forget where else. You never get used to the hot and humility. DC is one of the worst.

Totally disagree as mentioned before, the ATL does not have excessive humidity in my book. Not compared to many areas of the SE coast. And it's no hotter than anywhere except the mountains, and often cooler. For example right now we're low to mid-80s where lots of other places (including the NE, NW) are hotter.

[Nick12]

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Originally Posted by GTFan Totally disagree as mentioned before, the ATL does not have excessive humidity in my book. Not compared to many areas of the SE coast. And it's no hotter than anywhere except the mountains, and often cooler. For example right now we're low to mid-80s where lots of other places (including the NE, NW) are hotter.

Very true, NJ is going through a " heat wave " and some homes do not have central AC or any AC.

[vafoodie]

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Originally Posted by KingOfTheCheapos Thank you! Can you be a bit more specific when you say Western North Carolina, in particular west of what? Charlotte? Rayleigh? What elevation Also, can one keep on going west and still have the low humidity? West of North Carolina is Tennessee which is a much more friendly tax state.

Definitely west of Charlotte and Raleigh. Western North Carolina is a whole different world from the rest of NC. We have a cabin in Waynesville, NC which is 35 min west of Asheville. Our cabin is about 3500 feet up, and we do notice a difference in heat when we are down the mountain, but compared to Yorktown, VA where we live the rest of the time, it is nothing. Great towns in WNC? So many—Waynesville, Brevard, Sylva, Marion, Maggie Valley. Waynesville is particularly great because it is in the middle of the Smokies and the Blue Ridge Parkway.
There are many peopls who live in Waynesville part of the time and Florida the rest. We are about an hour out of Tennessee—if even that far—but I’m an NC girl all the way. Come rent my cabin and explore all the amazing beauty of Western North Carolina!

[EastWest Gal]

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Originally Posted by NW-Bound I dunno. It's either too humid, or too dry, or too cold, or too hot. And most places suffer from 2 of the above, sometimes even 3, depending on the time of the year. A place that suffers from only 1 problem would be so desirable, that it becomes awfully expensive. And then, it suffers from something else that's not climate related, such as crowding or crime, and who knows what else. We simply cannot win!

One answer to that: Hawaii. Especially the big island. If it’s too hot, you have a couple of choices:
1. Snorkeling
2. Drive up to 3000-5000 feet.

[ExPatKiwi]

We are in our 2nd or is it the 3rd heatwave of 2021 already in CT. Man it gets hot and humid here in summer and Arctic cold in winter at times. They say the snow line is moving north 1 mile a year due to global warming so that's a good thing right?

[FreeBear]

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Originally Posted by ExPatKiwi We are in our 2nd or is it the 3rd heatwave of 2021 already in CT. Man it gets hot and humid here in summer and Arctic cold in winter at times. They say the snow line is moving north 1 mile a year due to global warming so that's a good thing right?

Similar in Frozen Flyover. Frozen in winter, hot & humid in summer.

Couldn’t wait for global warming. Gave up and went to SE Arizona. Besides, some predict even more heat and humidity in the summer. Wintered seemed barely warmer.

Will take our chances in AZ. We’re be long done before global warming roasts us and water disappears.

[Katsmeow]

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Originally Posted by KingOfTheCheapos So I visited the south to scout retirement areas: i) Florida Atlantic side, ii) Savannah Georgia, iii) Montgomery AL and iv) New Orleans/Mobile.

So from this is I take that part of your criteria is that you have a great desire to live in an area where you have considerable hurricane risk. Well, not so much Montgomery, I guess.

Seriously, I am a little puzzled about the list. These are mostly large cities (well, relatively large) and then there is Montgomery, which is not. For an inland city in Alabama I would probably go for Birmingham (on the other hand, I spent several weeks there years ago so maybe not).

About humidity. I have lived in humidity my entire life (Texas). No, I didn't get used to it. I do tolerate it, since I do still live here. There are things that I don't go in Texas due to humidity that I can do in another locations (like be outside in the middle of the day).

This isn't hard to understand though. The trade off is, ultimately, money versus climate. You live in California. As you surely know, there are areas of California that have lovely weather. I would absolutely love that weather. But, I do not wish to pay for it.

So -- I live in Texas. I trade the lower housing costs for the high humidity. Is it worth it? Not by itself. If all of my family and friends suddenly moved out of Texas the low cost of living wouldn't keep me here. But, they are here.

It sounds like you don't have family/friends in your choices. In that case, I am not sure that I would want to move somewhere with weather that I didn't live.

I would suggest that when you ultimately pick a locale that you like you try renting for awhile before you buy a house. I am actually not joking about hurricane risk. I lived in the Houston area for over 30 years and I don't miss not having to worry about hurricanes any more. Hurricanes come with lots of financial risks that many people don't think about. Insurance is often much higher in hurricane areas, sometime prohibitively higher. Hurricanes can cause all kinds of damage, not just to your personal home but to the overall infrastructure. All of this is leaving side the potential risk to your health and survival. Even if you don't have severe damage from a hurricane it can still cost you money. One time that we were 50 miles away from any of the water from a hurricane the damage to the trees and shrubbery at our house cost $9000 to repair (and making an insurance claim would not have been wise due to our high deductible and what it would have done to our premiums). The point is that many "low cost" places have costs in other ways that you may not realize exist.

[Out of Steam]

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Originally Posted by harllee In my opinion for cool summer weather with less humidity in the southeast you need to be at a high elevation--at least 4000 feet elevation.

Agree. The places I visit in the Virginia mountains are between 2500 and 3500 feet. It's certainly more comfortable than at 250 feet above sea level near the fall line, but not enough to call it cool.