Phoenix is the hottest city I've ever visited. The people were great, but I struggle to imagine why anyone would want to live there, let alone build semiconductor factories in an area already short on water supply.
This is something that I fail to understand - why are there so many people there? Is there unobtainium in the hills that can only be mined from the region? Prior to modern air conditioning, why would people setup there when there are seemingly more hospitable areas?
The arrival of AC meant there was suddenly a lot of very cheap land around cities that are extremely unpleasant without AC. This resulted in migration and a housing boom which drives up the economy attracting more people.
The only person I know that lived near there had fibromyalgia, and had deliberately moved there from NY as they felt better in that climate. So YMMV I guess. They didn't actually live in phoenix, don't know how much difference that made.
Can confirm the heat. In the early 1990s I got bumped from a flight out of Phoenix because it was so hot the density altitude meant they couldn't load the plane as heavily as usual.
>but pedestrians faced higher radiant heat
As would vehicles.
Phoenix is the hottest city I've ever visited. The people were great, but I struggle to imagine why anyone would want to live there, let alone build semiconductor factories in an area already short on water supply.
This is something that I fail to understand - why are there so many people there? Is there unobtainium in the hills that can only be mined from the region? Prior to modern air conditioning, why would people setup there when there are seemingly more hospitable areas?
The arrival of AC meant there was suddenly a lot of very cheap land around cities that are extremely unpleasant without AC. This resulted in migration and a housing boom which drives up the economy attracting more people.
[delayed]
The only person I know that lived near there had fibromyalgia, and had deliberately moved there from NY as they felt better in that climate. So YMMV I guess. They didn't actually live in phoenix, don't know how much difference that made.
Can confirm the heat. In the early 1990s I got bumped from a flight out of Phoenix because it was so hot the density altitude meant they couldn't load the plane as heavily as usual.