the humidity certainly doesn't help, but believe it or not, it gets humid here in the US too. We get high humidity 85f days out here, if you're doing yard work, whatever clothing you're wearing is literally going to be soaked in sweat, it's not funny.

The bigger problem in some cases, is that european houses are designed differently to american houses, so the houses tended to be unbearably warm unless they had AC. Though a lot of people were still losing it with how hot 85f was outside.

Dry heat is "nicer" only in the sense that at the same temperature, you sweat less. That's it, 100f compared to 80f and humid, both are equally shit, one is just going to drench you in sweat and make you feel disgusting, while the other is going to exhaust you, drench you in sweat, and leave you feeling dry. With wet sticky clothing.