Flip Flop Degree Days

The energy industry uses "heating degree days" and "cooling degree days" to predict anticipated energy costs for large buildings in particular locations. The way it works is, you pick a temperature, say 65 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature outside falls below 65 degrees, then a building will have to turn on its heater. The "heating degree day" could be calculated by taking a particular day of the year in a particular city--let's say January 20th in Chicago. Pretend the average high for January 20th in Chicago is 20 degrees F, and the average low is 14 degrees F. So the average temperature for that day would be 17 degrees F. A building in Chicago will have to heat up air from the outside 48 degrees F in order to reach the mark of 65 degrees F. So for that one day of the year, there are 48 heating degrees. You could do this calculation for each day of the year (in summer you set a bottom temperature and do a "cooling degree day" calculation). The sum of all the heating degrees for all the days in the year gives you the "heating degree day" value, which can then be used to anticipate the energy demand for a particular region for the year. Brilliant.

Well, today I was thinking about heating degree days and cooling degree days because I noticed that our air conditioning had been turned on in the apartment building one month earlier than planned, I'm assuming because we are supposed to get 80 degree weather this weekend. And then I thought about how awesome it was to wear my flip flops for the second day in a row. And then I thought, how awesome would it be to keep track of how many days out of the year I wear my flip flops in any given city!? What a great measure of quality of life?! Unfortunately, I have not taken advantage of past opportunities to measure my flip flop wearing days thus far in life, and I will soon be exiting the student phase of life to become a professional, who will likely be unable to wear flip flops even when the weather is appropriate. (Don't remind me or bring this up, this whole transition and all it entails is a sensitive subject.) So, absent scientific data collection, I think it is safe to rank the cities I have lived in in the following order (from most flip flop degree days to least): Los Angeles > Houston > Washington, D.C. > New York > London > Provo (brrr...).

However, I lived in Los Angeles prior to discovering the joys of flip flops (thank you, Andrea). So, I have no long-term experience with Los Angeles (though I frequently take ONLY flip flops and running shoes home for visits regardless of the time of year). On the other hand, I have probably worn flip flops the highest number of consecutive days in London, seeing as how I wore flip flops almost exclusively for two months (May and June, not exactly warm months in London), and even had one of my flip flops rescued (thank you, Tiffany) from the Tube tracks. Yes, it is important to "Mind the Gap," but that's a story for another day. This much I know: Higher frequency of flip flop wearing leads to greater happiness. Welcome Spring!