Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Message to Heat Wave: Go Back South!

In case you didn't know, we're getting baked here in Rochester and I don't mean that in a good way. Currently, the heat index is 108 degrees in the Flower City and it won't peak for another couple of hours. That's a miserable twenty or more degrees hotter than it should be in Rochester during our usually warm but comfortable summers. Like many folks around town, one of the many reasons that I love living in Rochester is because it NEVER gets hot like this here. I can take the cold, but dammit, you can't escape the heat.

But maybe there is a silver lining to all this heat. One, it has to be convincing at least a few of the naysayers that global warming is for real. But more importantly, it should be a wake-up call to the morons that continue to flock like sheep to places such as Atlanta, Texas, and Florida. You see, this weather that we're all complaining about, yeah, this is pretty much par for the course down there. Currently, the heat index in "the ATL" as the kids say is 100 degrees, yet there is no excessive heat warnings in effect for that area. The same goes for Miami which, despite being on the coast, has a heat index of 96 degrees. Go a bit in-land to Homestead and it's right back up to 100 degrees. The same can be said for Tampa, Houston, Charlotte, Raleigh, New Orleans, etc.

So why is it desirable to live in these Confederate boomtowns with such God-awful weather for months out of the year when we complain about having that same weather here for just a few days? Let's use this nasty situation to promote our region's typically superior climatological experience. For instance, GRE or the Visitors Association could put together a slick seasonal ad campaign with taglines such as "Prefer high 90s and humidity to a breezy 75? Love being indoors with the a/c running full-blast? Then you'll love Atlanta!" or "Rochester: Because summers shouldn't be spent indoors". Just a thought. Stay cool Rochester, this Florida weather will head back south soon.

posted by Man About Town @ 12:35 PM Comments: 13