I was in NYC during a heat wave about 10 years ago. It truly sucked.

Chicago is worse. It stinks, literally, when humidity and heat rise together. It's impossible to even get from the house to the car in the garage without feeling the need to go back and shower again!

I had an August business meeting in Grand Rapids Michigan several years ago. At 7AM it was in low 80's and fog/humidity so thick we could not see across the street. Not as bad as NY today, but a real unpleasant experience for a NW person.

We Portlanders are spoiled.

Spent a year in FL and 3yrs in NM. I'll take the dry heat over humid heat please.

Portland is gold in the heat compared to back East. You get off the plane in - let's say - Hartford, and that oppressive humidity number hits you right upside the head.
Of course, don't get me started on heat waves. I was born in Arabia. You could see the Persian Gulf from the roof of my house and we had months where the humidity would make you feel like you were drunk. The windows in the morning looked like a shower door after you take a shower.

Then again, the humidity usually meant there was no wind so it was a nice break from the sandstorms.

We didn't dwell on the temperatures, but I remember glancing at a thermometer one day and it was 114 in the shade. And it didn't strike me as an unusually hot day. I also used to camp out in the desert and it would feel like 90 by 8 a.m.
It was so hard to keep hydrated, that the water fountains in my town had salt tablet dispensers to help you hold onto the water.
It was like your body had the only moisture in the whole kingdom and giant forces were set on taking it back from you. You were a containment vessel under siege from the heat. That's why they wear the robes, folks - to prevent evaporation.

If you go out in the Arabian desert on a scorching hot day without bringing enough water and wearing only a tank top and shorts - before too long, you'll feel kind of strange. Then you'll start laughing for a while. Then you might feel really sick, and then - if you don't get a few gallons of water back in your body - you might die.

We're talking seriously hot here.