Oh boy...it is all relative, isn't it? I kept my windows open in San Antonio through most all May and part of June. End of September they were open again. Humidity??? Hill Country? You all don't know nuttin'!

LOL ...of course we moved here from Tampa. We need to keep ourselves oiled up lest our skin begin cracking from the dryness here in south central Texas. 50% humidity is HEAVEN!

P_M, thanks for your cordial invitation. I may in fact do that.

Yes, I was in Austin for a couple of months a few years ago. Obviously, the city didn't appeal to me or I would have stayed longer.

Austin's major flaw, in my opinion, is its size. It just isn't a big enough city for me. I'm used to the buzz you get in a megacity... like the Washington metro, the Boston metro, the San Francisco metro or the Dallas metro.

For an overkill buzz, New York is it for me, or maybe LA. But as far as living day in and day out in a place that feels like the center of things, metro Dallas, with its 6 million people does it for me. Austin with 1.2 million just doesn't give me that buzz.

OK peoples, I'll try to settle the humidity question with some numbers. These numbers are from the Statistical Abstract of the United States for 2000.

I'll give the name of the city, followed by the average afternoon summer humidity percentage:

Atlanta 55
Houston 58
Minneapolis 56
New York 55
New Orleans 66
Miami 63
Chicago 57
St Louis 57
Boston 56
LA 68
San Francisco 60
San Diego 67

Dallas 50

Dallas has lower humidity than any of the other cities I've mentioned.

What about Austin? Unfortunately, it's too minor a metro to get a mention in the Statistical Abstract, but we can extrapolate. As you go south from Dallas to Austin, the trees get more and more stunted, the grass is shorter, everything's drier. So I deduce that Austin's afternoon summer humidity is less than Dallas' 50.

Thus, if Austin is supposed to be humid, then every city in America (outside of the deserts) is humid. And more humid than Austin.

LA at 68 percent humidity? Higher than HOUSTON?? Where did you get these "facts?" Just not possible.

Stunted trees and grass in Austin? Oh please xbt! You do yourself a disservice making such comments! It immediately raises a red flag, making the rest of your assertions questionable.

Using another website, here's a humidity comparison. By the way...Austin wasn't omitted because of size, your chart took 3 points in the state...Dallas, El Paso, and Houston which have significant geographical and climatic differences.

http://www.cityrating.com/relativehumidity.asp

Yearly relative humidity, morning and night


Los Angeles: 79 and 65%

Dallas: 81 and 58%

Austin: 83 and 59%

Houston: 90 and 63%

Another website: http://www.vias.org/tmdatanaleng/data_humidit2.html

Annual Mean and Average Humidity:

Los Angeles: 79 and 65

Dallas: 82 and 56

Austin: 84 and 57

Houston: 90 and 60

Malesherbes, your numbers are inappropriate.

The issue is not humidity averaged over the year, but humidity in the summer, when the combination of heat and humidity makes people uncomfortable.

Relative humidity in the winter is higher just because the air is cooler... but it is not that much of a problem in January.

I'll stand by what I said... the farther south you go in Texas, the drier it gets... vegetation in the Dallas area is much greener and more lush than in Austin, 200 miles to the south.

Aggiemom... you don't know where I got these numbers?

I said in my post that they came from the Statistical Abstract of the United States for the year 2000. This is a sizable set of data on the byreau of the census website.

It was a rhetorical question.

Hmmmm.... rhetoric is USUALLY intended to support an argument of some kind... not sure what point you're trying to make.

Pardon me. I used it incorrectly.

Please let it be known to all that I, XBT, hereby issue an executive pardon to Aggiemom, for any and all crimes commited in the scope of her rhetorical question.

Welcome back to the community of the law-abiding, A..M..

From one of the websites: http://www.vias.org/tmdatanaleng/data_humidit2.html for June, d*amn it...and it only gets worse from there,

Los Angeles: 85% (mean) 58 (average)
Dallas: 86 M, 55 A
Austin: 89 M 57 A
Houston: 92 M 60 A

And I am equally certain there are any other number of websites that will show exactly this same information. I have lived in Dallas and I now live between Austin and San Antonio. I can tell you firsthand, even if the numbers weren't sitting in front of me, that this area is more humid than Dallas--to say NOTHING of the number and quality of trees for heavens sake.

I honestly do not have the time at this time of year to be digging into this further to prove this point and know from your past posts on Dallas that I could talk this point to doomsday and you would persist with your argument. I have two websites giving annual averages and one giving June figures as well as the annual...the annual of course being relevant as well. Take from it what you will. LOL, and unfortunately, I know what form your response will take.

Now, as far as I am concerned, over and out. I have family coming in tomorrow and the next day and I am slammed. Take this where you will, but you are the lone voice, have you noticed, claiming Dallas is more humid than Austin. Not that it makes a difference to you of course!

Crony, I encourage you to visit and explore Austin. Great city that would support a great retirement lifestyle. A very nice area indeed.

Malasherbes, I don't understand your mania... to try to prove Austin is slightly more humid than Dallas in JUNE, for heaven's sake... quoting some numbers from some source of doubtful, if that, accuracy...

What's your problem?

A friend looked at Sun City in Georgetown, if you'd like living in a place with a couple of hundred pages of regulations then you'd like it but it's not for me !
Don't confine your search to just Austin, check out the whole region - Texas Hill Country.

My mania xbt??? Austin's dryness was the drum you were beating and I was pointing out that you were wrong. You made the assertion that Austin was less humid than Dallas with absolutely no numbers to back your assertions. You "deduced" Austin was less humid because the "grass was shorter and trees stunted"--which was your first error.

I provided two websites with annual averages for the cities. You wanted summer averages. So, I gave you June and you scoff at June. LOL OK, tell you what...you provide us with a website with data proving Austin is less humid than Dallas, not your deductions based on erroneous assumptions, and then perhaps you'll have a leg to stand on and we'll listen.

I'm beginning to think that xbt:

a) doesn't even live in Texas and/or

b) he stays cooped up in his room with his computer looking up arcane "facts" and butchering them to his liking and he never spends time actually outside.

It is all about the dewpoint, not humidity. Dewpoint is a better indicator of how uncomfortable it feels at any given time. I'd be interested in those numbers.

Malesherbes, I thought you said that "I honestly do not have the time at this time of year to be digging into this further to prove this point"...

Looks like you came into a whole bunch of time after all, and were able to continue your manic argument. Funny how we always find the time to do what's important, eh?

Aggiemom, you don't want to descend to a personal level, especially with me. Believe me, I'm very good at dealing with that sort of thing. If you have information to contribute to society, well and good... but don't stoop to namecalling or personal mischaracterization.

oooh, I'm so scared....