As a survivor of FL summers, I will nitpick your comparison of PA vs Tokyo. While daytime temps are similar, what is most noticeable to me are the night time lows… PA is comfortably in the 60s, and Tokyo is in the 70s.
That’s what summer (May through October) is like here in FL…it just never cools off. Walking outside at 7am, you are hit with a wall of humidity and hot air. There is no “comfortable” time to ride. There is a “less oppressive” window before 10am (after which you want to die), but it is always a degree of misery here in the summer. I imagine Tokyo is like that.
I hear all the time from folks up north (KY in my case) “Oh, the heat and humidity here is terrible! It was actually 95 here today, while you in Ocala were only 88!” Yes, it was “only 88” today because half the day was thunderstorms, and when the storm clouds leave the humidity not only comes from the air, but up from the wet ground as well. Gah. What separates us from more northern climes…and what wreaks havoc on the non-sweaters…is that after our endless 90-degree days, our evenings never cool off to the 60s. Our lows are in the 70s, and it makes a HUGE difference. We never get a break. Horses sweat, outside, in stalls, in the shade, all the time, all day long. Most adapt, some don’t.
Summers in KY, it is comparatively refreshing to step out the front door at 7am, to a crisp 67 degrees. The temperature is tolerable, dare I say pleasant, until about 11am, and does not make you want to crawl on your knees to the nearest AC and hide until dark. If you come from an arid location (looking at you, AZ/NV desert), trying to breathe in FL feels like drowning, the humidity is truly that bad.
