the long hot summer
I love Virginia, but I absolutely do not love Virginia’s summers.
These days, the heat and humidity start climbing in May — sometimes earlier — and by the time we get into June, we are firmly ensconced in what I’ve started calling Florida Season, which now lasts well into September and sometimes into early October.
Look, if I wanted to live in Florida, I would move there.
True story: On October 2, 2019, after our first visit to Portugal, we landed at Dulles Airport at around 5:00 pm and it was 95°F. The heat didn’t break in Virginia until three days later.
In 2020, my part of Virginia experienced five straight weeks with temperatures in the 90s from the last week of June through the end of July. It was miserable.
I grew up in Virginia and lived in a house that did not have air conditioning. It was mostly fine because we didn’t have a lot of 90+°F days in the 1970s and 1980s. I thought maybe my memory was filtering out hideous summers, but I looked at historical weather data and confirmed that most of our summer days had highs in the 80s, with occasional spikes into the 90s.
Climate change is happening and it’s making a lot of places unlivable.
My dream is to go to other places during Virginia’s summers. Cool places. Chilly places. Places where I would need to wear a sweater.
I always guffaw when L.L. Bean sends me catalogs in June and July with “summer weight” sweaters for sale. Are you kidding me? Summer sweaters here in the Mid-Atlantic are not happening. For years, Maine sounded like a magical land to me and I fantasized frequently about those cool summers that required sweaters.
I’ve been to Maine exactly once, in the early 2010s, when we stopped for a short visit on our way to Canada. I remembered those L.L. Bean catalogs and got excited about cooler temperatures. I was so ready.
Y’all, it was 98°F when we got to Maine. And the place where we stayed overnight did not have AC. In fact, the house had exactly two fans to move around all that thick, humid, hot air. I was so disappointed.
I have a dream. A dream of spending summers somewhere cooler and I would need to wear a sweater. I’m not greedy, it could be only part of summer. If I could be somewhere where cooler in July — absolutely the worst month in every way — I could manage June, August, and September.
Where would I go?
As I’ve mentioned, Maine is not guaranteed to be pleasant. Ditto Quebec and Ontario across the border. The Pacific Northwest has started experiencing searing heat waves, thanks to climate change.
New Zealand would be lovely. I’ve been down there in both June and August and was absolutely delighted to experience their winter.
I love Portugal and I would definitely like to spend the summer somewhere on the Silver Coast. I wouldn’t be chilly enough to require a sweater, but cool ocean breezes would compensate for that.
I’ve been chilly in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden in June. I could live like that, for sure.
I just want to experience the joys of summer sweaters, is that so wrong?
What about you? What are your thoughts about summer weather and where would you like to spend your ideal weather?
I loved Virginia in October, and usually April, but that was about it. After 4 years there, we moved away from NoVA in July 2011, with an awful heat wave while we were packing the moving truck for 3 days; the heat index was 115-120 degrees Fahrenheit. It was simply awful. I've since moved back to the PNW and while we didn't need a/c when I was a child or young adult, it has become pretty miserable here for more than the formerly manageable two weeks of misery.
I don't mind hot days if I can cool down overnight. Anything over 70 degrees makes it hard for me to sleep, and perimenopause hasn't helped.
We love it here in Maine and talk about ,moving further north or downeast for similar reasons (also less people and more pretty scenery). You are definitely allowed to come on up!