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Needles: A Dry Heat; Abu Dhabi: A Wet One

August 1st, 2013 · 2 Comments · Abu Dhabi, UAE

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Weather. You know the saying. Everyone talks about it; no one does anything about it.

I was struck by this, though.

How different one sun-blasted desert can be from another. And having lived in both.

I never actually lived in Needles, California. But I lived in the San Bernardino County, which includes Needles, for 30 years, and my newspaper covered the high school, and I have driven through it, on Interstate 40, and frequented one or more of its fast-food establishments.

Needles is hot. You bet. It’s in the same enormous dry patch of the U.S. that gave us Death Valley. And Phoenix.

The average high in Needles, in July, is 109 degrees Fahrenheit. In August, it’s 107. The average.

But this is that “dry heat” you hear so much about in places like Arizona — and the Mojave Desert, which surrounds Needles. The heat with no humidity, that leads to some bizarre “feels like” temperatures.

Like the one in the screen grab, above. (Click on the screen to enlarge.) Note that it was 101 degrees but felt like 95.

Because the humidity was 6 percent.

The air was almost completely dry, and dry air takes the sweat off your body, and your body cools itself more efficiently.

Here in Abu Dhabi, and the UAE, the opposite is the case. As I write this, the outside temperate is 95 degrees — but it feels like 109. Because the humidity is 56 percent. Sweat tends to cling to you and, in high humidity, the air sometimes feels too thick and heavy to breathe.

It terms of choosing where to live and work, Abu Dhabi obviously outstrips Needles. The former has a booming economy and a major daily newspaper. Needles has been struggling economically for a long time, and I wonder if their little newspaper, the Desert Star, still exists.

But, if you plan to go outside and walk around … you would rather be in Needles than the UAE. Just about everyone would prefer their “feels like” temps to be below the actual. Certainly not 14 degrees above.

Tomorrow, in Needles?

A predicted high of 112 which feels like 105.

I would take that.

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2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 George Alfano // Aug 10, 2013 at 10:28 PM

    Funny you mention the dry heat. When I first moved to the Inland Empire in 1992, I lived in a furnished apartment where the laundry was near the swimming pool. I would put the clothes in the washer, go in the pool, come out and put them in the dryer, and go back in the pool.

    I got the clothes when they were finished, put them in the basket, and carried them to my apartment, which was about 125 yards away.

    By the time I was halfway there, my body was dry. My other California culture shock came when I covered a motocross event in January and got sunburned.

  • 2 Judy Long // Aug 11, 2013 at 4:57 PM

    Nothing like East Coast humidity to make me miss the Mojave!

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