In Vegas It's Hot In The Sun

Talking about the weather is a funny thing. I was tweeting about this a few weeks ago when a friend had similar, unrelated, thoughts about talking weather. Usually weather is a topic just to fill awkward moments of silence. When I told friends I was moving to Las Vegas they all asked me about how I’ll deal with the weather. Truth is that there’s 4 months of sweltering heat in Vegas while there’s up to 6 months of cold and snow back east. I win the battle of bad weather.

Still, it’s hot in Vegas. Today will be the second day the temps reach 100 degrees this year. 100 degrees is hot but it’s not obscenely hot. That happens when the temperatures reach 115 and above. There’s no humidity in Las Vegas and that makes a huge difference. There really is something to there being “dry heat”. 100 degrees with zero humidity feels better on the skin than 90 with 100% humidity in New York City.

Last summer some friends were in town and we met up in downtown Vegas to play craps and Sigma Derby at The D among other games at other places. We joked that the weather was fine as long as we stayed under the canopy on Fremont Street. We joked about it until walking all the way to Mob Bar for a drink.

While it was fine being outside on Fremont Street the 115 degree temperature on that 1 block walk to Mob Bar was nasty hot. I woke up early this morning and decided to watch Channel 8 news and the weather person mentioned that it’s 15 degrees hotter when you stand in direct sunlight as opposed to the shade. Today’s 100 degrees will feel like 115 degrees and the temperature in July will feel like 130 when we walk to Mob Bar from The D.

Now we have a number to prove that it’s hot in the sun in Vegas. If you follow me on twitter you’ll notice me reference “closest _____ with covered parking” pretty often this summer. That’s my trick to avoid the extra 15 degrees. It’s also a good excuse to visit a casino since they have covered parking.

The heat is normally fine when you’re in the shade but you may want to stay out of direct sunlight if you don’t like the heat or you’re physically sensitive to it. Wether you’re covered or not it’s always a safe bet to drink water.

PS: On a side note it will be interesting how The Linq and MGM Park complex will deal with the sun and heat.