"In March, the sun is still not too high, and under a clear blue Mediterranean sky in this seaside city, the daytime temperatures are int he comfortable 75-degree range. This is not the case in the summer when temperatures may go over 100 degrees, humidity is overpowering, and most activity stops during the heat of the midafternoon. The intense heat not only debilitates the body, but surprisingly, affects suburban development, concentrated within 15 miles of the city center. To drive more than a half-hour in the oven-like heat of a car's interior is too uncomfortable for long-distance commuting."