This is going to be a work in progress because it will take a while to explain but gotta start somewhere, and it won’t be from the beginning - more like from the end.
look at this chart that i have just created:
curved lines from top to bottom are Orlando, Charleston SC, Raleigh NC and NYC - daily mean temperatures on the Y axis and months of the year ( 1 through 12 ) on the X axis.
horizontal straight lines are labeled on the right. the most important one is 62.5 degrees called “HVAC EFFICIENCY” - this is a temperature at which you don’t need to run either heating or cooling.
keep in mind these temps are DAILY MEAN so afternoon high will be about 10 degrees higher and late night / early morning low will be about 10 degrees lower.
i chose 73F for “outdoor comfort” and 50F for “car comfort” - as you know cars get hot in the sun by up to 50 degrees hotter than outside temperature so cars are most comfortable when it’s a bit cool outside.
summer tires are rated to about 40 degrees F but remember the chart is for MEAN temp and it will get colder at night so i chose 45F as “summer tire limit”
freezing point at 32F is self explanatory. if the average temperature stays below freezing any snow and ice will take a while to melt and it is something i would like to avoid.
this is one of the things that dissuaded me from Boston - is that any snow and ice in Boston just STAYS THERE - it doesn’t melt. it stays FOR MOTNHS. because average temps stay below freezing for months. Boston is not on the chart because of this - it FAILS.
in NYC climate typically with a bit of road salt the snow will go away but that salt is very bad for your car ( rust ). ideally i would want a climate where any occasional snow will melt by itself within a day or two, which is basically the case for all cities on this chart except NYC.
the climate in all 4 cities on this list is “acceptable” IMO with NYC abusing the privilege but then it’s NYC - it’s kind of a special place and it has the right to abuse the privilege.
i put night life and pool at 80F because at night when there is no sun 80F is comfortable with some breeze and during the day it will go up to about 85-90 which is again comfortable when you’re in the pool.
in Orlando in summer during the day people hide under AC but at night girls come out half naked which is what you want to see.
every city on this list hits hot enough temps in summer for night life or outdoor pool but NYC only really hits it for about 2 or 3 months whereas Orlando for like half a year.
on the flip side using a car is painful in Orlando in summer. black surfaces like dash board can reach 200F and car interior temp can reach over 140F. this is one of the main paint points with Florida - you can’t get into the car half the time - you need to open the doors and let the 140F air out but it’s still 90F outside so not much relief.
theoretically i have pre-conditioning but in practice it stopped working except when the car is plugged into the wall. they keep updating the app and it never works predictably.
i suppose they will eventually get these things to work maybe 10 years from now, but in the mean time you can literally get burned on something like a black metal object left inside a car parked in the sun in Florida in summer because as i said it can hit 200F.
subjectively living in NYC half the year you’re waiting for summer.
and subjectively in Florida in Summer you’re waiting for the sun to set so you can stop hiding under AC and come outside.
i feel like both miss the mark, and yet between NYC and Florida it’s mostly NEGRO WASTELAND.
that is the fundamental issue …
