"Sunny and 97 degrees...but it feels like 100."

Because triple digits = moar hotter. And they need to be as sensational as possible, even with the damn weather.

I am guessing that somewhere around 92 is where “hot as balls” starts, and anything above that remains as such.

I remember it starting in the 70's with windchill. It was taught to snomobiliers and skiers, so you would dress properly to not freeze off yer nose, then made it to the nightly news.

Then someone figured out if wind made it feel colder, humidity and no wind made it feel hotter in the summer.

Here it’s sunny and 91, but feels like 99.

Yes… it does.

When I was still surfing several days a week, I was always on top of the weather, especially offshore bouy data, which provided early warning of impending swells, hours or even days in advance. Swell size, direction and interval registered by buoys far to the north gave good indications of what I could expect down the line locally. I also monitored Indian Ocean water temps which could give indications of developing El Niño/La Niña events developing long before they actually affected the West Coast of North America.

Now that I'm surfing less frequently, I'm not so obsessive about keeping up with all that data.