Hot Dry Arizona or Hot Humid Florida
 

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Having lived in both, I'll opt for Florida. The arid desert is brown except in springtime. The air is so dry that noses bleed and lungs can burn. Within a week if moving to Florida I personally felt better as if my skin and body rehydrated. You don't miss rain until you haven't seen if for months. I still have family in scottsdale and they leave every summer for at least three months because of 120 degree days.

S/B: HOT, HOT, HOT Dry Arizona or Hot Humid Florida.

You can't go outside in Arizona when the temp is 115 for 6 months of the year.


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We lived in Phoenix for many years and loved it. The heat can get to you after many years. After retirement moved here to Florida because it was too dusty in Phoenix for husbands breathing problems. The humidity here helped that however after he developed Rheumatoid Arthritis after we moved here and found the humidity isn't good for that and Arizona with the dryer heat would be better. Love TV and you can't find the lifestyle in any development anywhere in the US........so we will suffer with humidity and stay here. But if I had my way.............I would be back in Arizona (or Utah, NM) with the dryer heat in a minute. You can avoid the extreme heat of Phoenix and live a little further north in Prescott, etc where the weather is much cooler. It's probably 6 of one, half dozen of the other. Me, give me the West any day.

I am always afraid that someday I will hear "yes, it's hot down here in hell, but at least it's a dry heat."

an earlier year, I was going to Arizona for the first time from Florida...people told me not to worry, it's dry heat....yeah, it's dry heat, just like a turkey in an oven...don't worry....

By posting on this forum you will be receiving mostly pro Florida posts since most posters have chosen or hope to live in The Villages.

If I had a serious health issue which would be alleviated by moving to a particular climate I would do so. My father did, he (we) moved for his health and he lived to be 94.

I really like the hot weather; in fact, when it drops below 60 degrees, my body starts hurting. However, I remember once walking out of a probably too heavily air conditioned hotel into 114 degrees of dry heat in Phoenix and felt like I was walking into a blast furnace. Yes, there is a/c everywhere there much as it is everywhere here in FL. But to get even to the car was an exercise in breathing. I too will stick to FL, which I find much more moderate.

I would suggest spend 6 summer months in each of the places mentioned then decide for yourself where you feel better. I've lived in Arizona and am currently in TV. Truth be told, if The Villages' were available in Arizona I would be there in a Minnesota minute! Then I could have free golf for life along with free hiking in the desert.

I have been to the Verde valley and Phoenix. Ill take Florida any day.

The humidity really does hurt the RA, no question. But breathing in the searing heat just to go from store to car hurts, too. I prefer dry heat -- a lot less pain. But, I still chose Florida (although my reasons had nothing to do with the weather, which was actually a huge minus when considering whether to move here).

So, I'd say it depends on your health issues. If asthmatic, have COPD, Florida would be the better choice. If mobility issues, consider Arizona. Also factor in that Florida has more allergies here. However, I think you also have to factor in TV. That is a lifestyle you won't find anywhere else (unless the Morses go through with the plan to build a TV in Texas).

I have lived in both states, and after a certain temperature, hot is HOT. In both places it becomes the same, running from the airconditioned home to the airconditioned car.

I grew up in Phoenix, and also spent many years there recently. So I really don't mind the dry heat and find the humidity of Florida oppressive. 90 plus degrees in The Villages is way more uncomfortable than 110 degrees and 10 percent humidity in Phoenix.
My wife, who grew up in Indiana, feels just the opposite. She says the lack of humidity in Arizona dries up her skin, her nose, even her eyes. She likes it much better here.
I suppose dry heat might be better for arthritis than constant dampness, but haven't been here long enough to tell for sure.
By the way, in the old days growing up, Phoenix temperatures used to cool off a lot at night. Now it's so big, the asphalt and concrete sucks up heat all day from the sun, and releases it at night. So sometimes the LOW temp for the day can be 85 degrees at 6 am. Tucson is not so big and is a much better choice for those considering Arizona.

I flew into PHX at about 5:00 pm three days ago, on May 21. It was 99 degrees F!

Although it is still arid there, the humidity in the Phoenix area seems also to have increased over the years, more swimming pools, lawns and irrigated farm land in surrounding areas.

Over many years several people living in the west I have known who were retiring moved to the Green Valley area south of Tucson which contains many 55+ communities. On the other hand most of my east coast and midwest friends look forward to retiring or already have retired in Florida. The Mississippi River seems to divide the country that way.

It seems to me that people who have experienced hot humid summers over most of their lives are accustomed and acclimated and can deal with high humidity at 90+ degrees. Those who have spent most of their lives in low humidity areas feel washed out in high humidity high temperature environs.

When I moved to Coastal Orange County, CA another man where I worked had just moved there from Philadelphia. He kept commenting on how dry the air was. I had come from New Mexico so on the contrary I found the air in coastal Southern California rather humid. It is all what a person is used to, I guess.

I agree that The Villages could be anywhere having a relatively decent climate since it is a lifestyle community and simply outshines its competitors in so many ways.

We never lived in Arizona but have a first cousin who does. In addition, looked at various retirement communities----Saddlebrooke (Robonson community) just 20 miles north of Tuscon interested us the most----a beautiful place with the mountains in the background. But it was no TV!! The winter mornings are cooler there, most everything is "brown tone", it's hotter than "hell" for several months and anybody that can----leaves in the summer----we had lots of people tell us that and they were not joking. It was 113 degrees on June 1, when we were there. However, "different strokes for different folks". It didn't take us long to make up our minds but if I had a health problem that I believed might be helped with the hot/dry climate I would rent me a place for a year and give it a try. Good luck.

I'm FL all the way. The dry heat out West dries my skin beyond dry. Before I'm even off the plane, I can feel the moisture being sucked out of my skin. No way. Give me the hot and humid any day. I'd rather appear moist and dewy, than like a dried out prune.

But to each his own. The place to be is where you feel the most comfortable, without pain. I do not have arthritis, if I did, I may think otherwise but for right now it's FL baby!

A cabbie once said to me-Do you want to live in a furnace[AZ] or a sauna[FL]?-When i was in Palm Springs[CA] in the middle of the desert,it was very humid due to the watering of all the golf courses.

dry! cracks my sinuses! spent a few weeks in Utah dancing...I bring a hot spot and hang out in the bathroom bathing my bleeding sinuses in steam.

saunas in my exp are dry. steam rooms are wet.

I think it's like asking do you like chocolate or vanilla, its a matter of preference

I have a close friend with severe arthritis who has lived in both Florida and Arizona. He much prefers the dry heat of Arizona which immediately takes away his inflamation, and he is able to be pain free and active. Other than the arthritis issue, The Villages is definitely unbeatable.

I was born and raised in Phoenix, and lived there until age 28. When my husband and I decided to leave the Valley of the Sun, it was because we were SO tired of being hot! We both worked in a hospital, which was overly air conditioned. When leaving it felt like stepping into a blast furnace. Then we would go to our locked up tight car and hope we could actually hold onto the steering wheel, it would be so hot. Maybe the car would start to cool down by the time we arrived home. We had a swimming pool which also warmed up in the AZ sun, so that in the evening if we went swimming it felt like being in a bathtub, not refreshing and cool.

Now we live here, but have only begun our adventure in Florida. I do not like humidity either...I hate to sweat when I'm not even doing anything but breathing. We have lived all over the country but mostly in cooler and less humid places than TV.

I would not move back to Phoenix, and will tolerate the humidity in exchange for all the wonderful things to do here in The Villages!

I lived in Chandler, Mesa and Glendale over my 33 years there. Worked as a Letter Carrier for 20 years of that. If you only want to go from a/c to a/c then there is no difference. But if you want be outside for any length of time I would vote for The Villages. Not FL because you deal with all the rest of the bugs. There is seldom any breeze in AZ versus almost always a breeze here. The pollution factor is very big in Phoenix, lots of pollution warnings. Tucson is not a problem as well as Flagstaff. I started to miss having some weather other than dust storms and the very infrequent rain shower. But I miss the sunsets and for the most part the cleanliness and newness of Phoenix. But you won't find anything that compares to The Villages in AZ. After spending 20 plus years in the heat I find it refreshing to have a milder heat with some humidity. I met a man once who told me not long after I moved there from CT. that there is only 2 seasons in Phoenix, heaven and hell.

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Both very similar
 

Moved my parents here last fall after a 24 year retirement in Mesa AZ. Their experience in AZ was that you spent 95% of your time in air conditioning in AZ and now do the same here so there is very little difference in either place day to day... that said, if your issue is inflamation go to AZ... but if you have any breathing issues come here as there is fine sand/grit in the air in AZ.

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The times I was in the Phoenix area, I was surprised at how cold it gets in the winter. And yes, 110 degrees in the summer is still hot no matter how dry it is.

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This is a very interesting thread. My parents were advised to move from VA to AZ in the 1940s because of my asthma. Well, we didn't move and I got over the asthma and all my allergies, only to develop new allergies in NY and now more new allergies in FL and my osteo arthritis is worse. So what does it all mean? No single answer for everyone or every health problem

I have friends who lived in Mesa, AZ for many years in a 5,000 sq. ft. house on several acres. Their cooling bills several years ago ran about $1,500 some months. When they both retired a couple of years ago they sold the big house and acquired a 1,200 sq. ft. semi-detached condominium in a 55 and over community in Mesa in which they live during the cooler half the year. They bought a home up in Idaho for spring to fall. They did this solely to escape the incredible summer heat in the Phoenix area.

Over the years I have gotten to know several native Central Floridians. Those who have had the means usually had summer retreats in cooler parts they used during the sweltering humid Florida summers.

It seems to me that if one can afford it become a 'splitter' to get the best of both worlds.

I was born and reared in Upstate New York and until felt the summers hot but it wasn't the heat since most days were 75 or below. It was the very high humidity 90 and above most days. This was worsen when I lived in Virginia and even worse when I lived in Memphis. I found DesMoines warm because of the humidity but Minneapolis an absolute delight, except of course in the winter......but its a dry cold.

I survived every summer in florida until last year and the cause was the higher humidity. So for me humidity is the culprit and not so much the heat. No i wouldn't want to sit in the Arizona sun for tooo long but I had learned that in those states with high humidity one has a tendency to change shirts about three times a day.

for us, it's also the ease of visiting relatives
 

We have kids, siblings, grandkids and all of our friends (so far - some may end up retiring in Arizona) in basically the eastern third of the country - would be more expensive for everyone to visit us and us to visit them if we were out west, so never considered Arizona. Think about this if it is also the case for you, and vice versa. Family is important.

We thought we'd be frogs in TV, but have now become snowbirds, buying a condo back in Ohio for the summer. We get heat and humidity sometimes, but except for last summer, usually only lasts a week or two at a time, and then a cool front will move in. We love the summer city life, so it's working well for us.

Depends on your individual financial situation, but we would rather have 2 inexpensive places than one bigger place in TV - but that's us, and everyone is different.

[QUOTE=senior citizen;681505]...Our "peeps" live in Marana Arizona which is north of Tuscon.......
It's in the foothills of the Tortolita (sp?) Mountains.....high Sonoran Desert.
I believe it's about 3,000 ft. above sea level......so not actually desert.

We know many residents from our town who LOVE Arizona........many are rock hounds and such.......retired earth science teachers.....also some ex military guys....just love Arizona....

QUOTE]

We moved here (Dec 2012) from Marana, AZ. ("suburb", if you will, of Tucson) Still own our house there (leased it out). And yes, while it is about 3,000 ft above sea level, it is still DESERT! After spending more than 20 years in the Tucson area desert, when we found The Villgeas by accident, I was totally ready to move here. Wife still misses the dry heat. I don't. However, I have heard her telling many friends and releatives in AZ that so far, the weather here has been very nice.


Here's one for you, because of the extreme low humidity (8-15% is very common) (just checked, it is 10% as I write this in Marana, and 34% which is low, actually, here in TV) when you go away for a week, the water in the toilet bowl will completely evaporate. In 7 days! By the way, the name Arizona means "Arid zone". Dry, no water...etc. The annual rainfal there is about 12 inches....most of which occurs during the Monsoon...which actually just indicates a change in the direction of the prevailing airflow, when the airflow starts coming up from Mexico, bringing moisture laden air. That mixes with the hot dry air, and creates summer thunderstorms. The time frame of Monsoon used to be determined when the dewpoint hit 55 degrees for 3 days in a row... now they claim it starts June 15, I think, and it lasts usually until Labor day.

Admittedly, we haven't spent a summer here yet.

2 weeks ago we went back to AZ for our son's wedding, it was already over 100 degrees there. I love the weather here so far.

OH, and by the way, I have severe arthiritis, and again, so far, I have felt much better here. In fact, I have cut down on my pain meds.

One more thing, sorry long post.

We ALMOST bought in The community referenced above called Saddlebrooke, North of Tucson...nice community, but can't even begin to compare to The Villages. We are SO GLAD we didn't buy there!

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Heritage Highlands sound heavenly no crowding lots of space mountain view gated community homes well spaced WOW

[quote=senior citizen;681872]Well, my wife's brother lives there.... Our home there is about 3 miles east...in a non 55+ community.

The homes are NOT well spaced....lots of open space, but where they have built homes, that are close...not unlike The Villages. They need lots of open space for the water to run down the "washes and ravens" when it comes down in the summer. It is very hilly and much of it is not buildable. We briefly considered Heritage Highlands, but they were at build out, and we wanted a new home, and the "new neighborhood" experience. Saddlebrooke was/is much larger, and offers more, but nothing like TV. AND the homes are very small in HH, mostly 1300-1700sq ft. if I remember correctly. A few near 2000, but the majority are small. It is a very scenic area, but remember, there are at least five months with daily temps at or over 100 degrees...

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