I don’t have air-conditioning at home. Some summers, there are a handful of days where, to sleep at night, I have to run a fan drafting air directly over me from toe to head. Last summer I did, but this summer not yet.
Last summer, our "dwarf" okra grew over six feet tall. This summer it seems resigned to at most two feet. I think it’s the lack of truly hot nights that has held back the okra: it just hasn’t triggered it’s growth spurt. It’s already beginning to flower, so I think now it’s too late.
Plants can "observe" their environment, and integrate (sum up and average) such things as daylight and temperature, by accumulating certain chemicals. When they build up enough, that triggers a change. Quite possibly, okra is observing the average temperature, and nightly lows, in order to decide whether to switch to giant growth mode.
So next year, let’s hope I have a few insufferably hot nights in July, so our smart okra decides it’s okay to be a giant!