Here in Washington DC, the temperature has reached 96 degrees and the news warns of the dangers of such heat. When I was in college in California (Bakersfield College and UC Berkeley) in the early 1960s I worked in the oil fields as a Roustabout for Shell Oil when the temperature was generally 104-6 degrees every day with two or three days each summer reaching 112. Why were we not in danger and you might be here in DC? The difference is humidity. Bakersfield is in the semi desert of Kern County and the hot air is dry. This facilitates sweating that cools our bodies. The Washington DC area has very high humidity, which impedes sweating and its cooling affect.
I learned the power of sweating when in my third summer in the oil fields I was promoted from a Roustabout (ditch digger, basically) to a Well Puller. As a well puller I worked on a well pulling, or service rig. Unlike the bigger drilling rigs, a service rig does no drilling. Rather it pulls up the pipes and pump of an established, operating well for servicing. You might have seen the oil well rockers that move the rod holding a pump at the bottom of a well up and down thus forcing oil up the pipe to the surface. Over time the pumps wear out and need to be serviced or replaced. Our service rig performed that task by first remotely opening the bottom of the pump so that the oil flowed out the bottom rather than being lifted up the pipe to the surface.
Occasionally the pump can’t be opened. When that happened the oil was pulled up with the pump as our service rig pulled the pump to the surface, resulting in what the guys called a wet well. As we pull the pump up on a wet well the oil spurts out the top of the rig and all over the surrounding area.
As luck would have it on my first day on our well pulling rig, we had a wet well. I was advised by the other two guys on our rig to put on rubber rain gear to keep the oil from getting on my skin. I thought that was rather sissy (not to mention really hot inside the rain gear) and choose not to. So, I became drenched in oil, which sealed all my sweat glands and I almost passed out. I had to quit working for the rest of the day.
Warren's space 
I remember sweating in DC for 20 years, 1979-1998, and then moved to climate-perfect southern California. I left there 20 years ago due to the rents and overcrowding in Orange County and located in Phoenix. I share your feelings about the weather and dryness. When I have it now, sweat here dries instantly as I dash from the car to the building.
It is not unusual for me to feel the current level of summer heat, but there are places in the US where 3 months are horrible – in most of those it is winter. I remember Chicago fondly, and DC has the joy of “black ice” on the roads. But where ever you live (except Dana Point, CA, my brief home, 1998-2006) there are those 3 months where you live in climate-controlled places (and cars) and spend most time undercover.
If the hoi polloi could overcome its phobia of nuclear power, the economy would electrify almost everything, but that would not change anything worldwide. The rest of the world will fully compensate with more dirty air.
There is something weirdly Maltusian about energizing Asia and Africa. And what fun the news would have with images of dictators with uranium to play with, so maybe coal is better.