While running errands around St George, we parked the car at one point and walked around several blocks to hit a number of stores. The temperature was somewhere around 109°F. It felt very warm, but it’s a dry heat, you know. Actually, it is not oppressive, but you quickly realize that you have a very dry mouth. It is so dry and hot that you are never aware of sweating, your clothes are perfectly dry, but you are constantly very thirsty. A number of shops have misters that spray down from the eaves in front of their shops. Those are heavenly. There was also another shop with a big cooler of cold drinks out front, $1 each, and you put your dollar in the can on the cooler. We bought a couple of waters and guzzled them, but were thirsty again in about two blocks!
One other interesting thing about most Utah towns is the width of the streets. Brigham Young declared when Salt Lake City was being built that the streets must be wide enough “for a team of four oxen and a covered wagon to turn around.” They are certainly wide enough in St George, Ogden, and Cedar City for an M to do a U-turn with plenty of room to spare. I swear you could play a soccer game crosswise in the streets. Crossing even a residential street on foot can seem like an endless trek.Throw in the heat and you practically need a water bottle to make it all the way across.
It doesn’t get near that hot here but I often walk past people sitting in their parked cars, the engines on and the windows rolled up. I assume they are running the air-conditioning. People here have a small window of temperature tolerance: if it’s over 78 they are too hot and if it’s under 70 they are too cold.