Acclimating to Florida’s Summers
 

Curious as to how others have/ have not acclimated to living in Florida during the summer months.

I’m from the West (California, then 20 years in Colorado), where the summer temperatures generally peaked around the mid 80s during the day (50s at night), with very low humidity. My Colorado home didn’t even have air conditioning. I’ve never done well with heat, and that was the only real concern I had about moving to Florida.

Last summer, was my first summer here, and everyone told me that it was hotter than normal. We’ve already had some toasty temps this year, and I have seemed to have already surprisingly adapted to the Florida heat/humidity. I get out early in the morning for my physical activities, stay indoors for a few hours during the afternoons, then back out again for evening and social activities. I’ve come to actually look forward to summers here (way less crowded and I like the fact that it’s already warm when you wake up).

Have you adapted well to Florida summers, or is it a season you don’t look forward to?

Find a shady, breezy spot at one of the pools when it’s too hot for you and you will be fine.

How do you acclimate?

Embrace it!

It is gonna be in the mid-90's here with more or less high humidity until October. You can choose to huddle around your A/C unit moaning about the GAWDawful heat, or you can make up your mind to enjoy it. It is like anything else: you can acclimate really fast if you make up your mind to do it and keep a positive attitude.

The Villages, as well as Florida in general, really lives up to it's name in the summer. Flowers--both wild and domestic--abound. Lawns and golf courses are a lush green that they never achieve in the winter. Snowbirds by and large have flown north, so tee times and restaurant reservations are a lot easier to get. If pickleball, tennis, etc. are your thing, courts (especially in the afternoons) are readily available and most of them have ice-cold water available for the patrons. Life moves slower here in the summer and people by and large seem friendlier. Bear in mind that "hot and humid" are guaranteed, but the thermometer almost never reaches triple digits here and an ample supply of water will get you through even extended outdoor sessions. Just don't forget your umbrella, or you might end up cooling off really quick! Those storms can blow up out of nowhere.

Shady area at pools and nicely air conditioned rec centers

Given cold tightens my back muscles, irritating my discs, we are back in MA after a month in TV, and find it cold in MA
The daily high here is the same as the daily low in FL, so we are in long pants and shirts. .

Spent a week in FL 15 years ago, including snorkeling in the Keys, and upon return to NE in the summer, the ocean water just looked too cold to swim in again. . . Took about 5 years to get back in the ocean in NE after growing up in/on it.

embrace it, and its just a schedule adjustment like a snowstorm in the winter.

Suggestions for clothing?
 

Great thread... I'm beginning to pack for a lifestyle visit. Any suggestions for clothing to help deal with the heat?

Thanks,

-George

T shirt and shorts

7 years and I still hate the heat. I can take it if it's 95 and cloudy but most of the time is sunny and that really adds to the heat.

We just pack and go north, is our answer to adjusting to heat. We also had a Chiller:cold: added to the pool to enjoy during summer. Not a fan of temp over 70, to say you get used to extreme heat, as you age one can have less mass, less muscle, cold is a norm. So maybe that’s how one acclimated to southern heat.

Doesn’t matter where you live elderly are cold in their house, car. Pretty sure our parents keep their heat on year round. 80-84 is their inside temp, and still wear a sweater. It’s hard to spend 5 minutes in their house.

OP, I would think about heading to Colorado (especially if I had lived there) for some relief during the summer. We stayed a couple of summers in TV. After a month or two, the heat and humidity just got old. We spent some time at the Beach too. Life is too short and we still like to travel some. We go to Illinois and also vacation in other cooler places like Colorado. A lot to like about the mountains during part of the summer. To each his own.

Colorado is a beautiful place all year long, but summers are near-perfect, especially in Colorado Springs where I moved from (runs about ten degrees cooler than the Denver metro area in the summer), and you are then just minutes from the high country (8500 feet and above elevation), where the temps are even cooler, and can get down right chilly on summer nights. I’ll be back for a week or two this summer to visit all my friends there.

I haven't lived in California for 50 years, but I still miss that Big Sur weather from my hippy phase, when I spent a year in a tent in an old-growth redwood forest, down the lane from David Crosby's brother's teepee. A few years later, I found myself in Denver for nine month's training at Lowry Air Force Base. The summer was nice, but the only thing good about the winter was the skiing. 20 degrees and icy mountain roads make for miserable and dangerous Harley riding. Then I did three years in Plattsburgh, NY and discovered a huge appreciation for Southern weather. Yeah, you didn't need A/C for that 3 weeks when you didn't have to shovel a tunnel through the snow to get to your mailbox, but there is no way to describe what 50 below zero with a 20mph wind feels like when you're trying to work on an FB111A on a flight line. I swore I would never live anywhere cold ever again.

So I wound up in Tulsa, and then Houston. You haven't experienced summer until you've spent an August in Houston over 100 degrees, with 95% humidity -- and Tulsa is not much better. Still, way better than Plattsburgh in January, but Florida in August is heaven compared to either one.

And there is no place on Planet Earth with better weather than Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. So what. I wouldn't live in California today on a bet, even if I could afford it. All those hippies out there ruined it. Apparently a bunch of them never grew up.

I can handle heat, but humidity is very challenging. I know it affects some people more than others because I can see most people are not sweating through their t-shirts and I am. Not even from exercise, just routine activity when it is really humid. We get some relief in CT, for example today it is 76 with 47% humidity and it is perfect. But it will be hot and humid here for all of July and August and half of September....uncomfortable, but a few degrees lower than The Villages and several points less humidity. Nonetheless, we plan on visiting The Villages in the middle of the summer for a month....I guess that makes us snowflakes instead of snowbirds...we miss the place and six months is too long between visits.

I did a search: coldest weather in Plattsburg NY: 1981 -34.
I agree that's COLD, but -50 is just exaggeration. Just saying.

If you’re in reasonably good shape At 61 you should be able to cope with it. There will be magical age were you can’t cope with heat and high humidity. For me once I hit 72 I hit brick wall I feel old and can no longer cope with heat and humidity between 10 to 5 outdoors activities. My skin can’t cope anymore either. :shrug: