From what I understand of the planet Mercury, it rotates on an axis at approximately the same rate that it revolves around the sun. This means that one side of it is always facing the sun. The side that faces the sun is extraordinarily hot while the side that never gets sunlight is freezing cold. That's why - I presume - all the little planetary pictures I was shown as a kid had one side of it red (hot) and the other blue (cold). I vaguely remember a teacher saying that if you were to stand at the top of the planet, in between the hot and cold regions, half of your body would freeze and the other half would burn up.

Almost as much as the temperature differential, if not more, one of the cheif meteorological differences between Idaho and southeast Texas is the humidity. Up here there is very little of it. One of the interesting results of this is that the temperature swing between night and day feels a lot severe between night and day. I sweat during the day and shiver at night. I was warned about this before I moved up.

What I wasn't expecting, however, was the Mercury Effect. Because of some of the recent rain (or maybe it's perpetually like this), we've had cloudy skies. What's interesting is even during the daylight, the difference between direct and obstructed sunlight is pretty severe in its own right. At 10 in the morning, if the clouds move and I'm exposed to the sun, I immediately need to take my jacket off. What's particularly weird is when half of my body is exposed to the sun and half of it is in the shade, I simultaneously feel hot and cold at the same time in a way that I never did in Houston.

Kinda like standing at the top of Mercury (minus the fact that half of my body would melt, the other would freeze, and I'd probably explode).