Although I would suggest it's an appropriate assumption. I really know nothing about this man or his familiarity with the region but I do know that folks in this part of Ontario (I'm not that far from Guelph) have literally no idea what the heat is like in the desert of CA. While it DOES get very hot here often in the summer, it's a very wet, humid heat and thankfully only lasts for a few days at a time, for the most part. Very very different from the dry heat of the desert. I used to live there (Palm Springs), so that's the only reason I know the difference and how deceptive the different type of heat can be.
Here, when it's 85f, it can often feel like 100+ due to the humidity. There, in the arrid heat of the desert it can be 120f and you'd never in a million years guess it was that hot, because there's little humidity with it. Very, very deceptive for those not familiar with it.