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Can somebody explain humidity to me?

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  • 08-08-2009 12:35am
    #1
    Bougeoir
    Registered Users Posts: 170 ✭✭


    Hey there,

    I'm going to Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands next Saturday for two weeks and I was looking up the forecast which has the actual temperature in the mid-20ºC - 30ºC. I was asking my Spanish friend about this and he said it's actually the humidity that determines how you feel in the weather. Apparently the weather there is always hot and humid but the humidity is always in the 20-30% range and I thought that was low humidity (Dublin currently is about 88% humidity)! I'm totally bad at geography and weather. Can somebody please explain it all to me? :(


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    #2
    jumpguy
    Registered Users Posts: 7,962 ✭✭✭jumpguy


    Humidity is the amount of moisture in the air. The higher it is, the more likely it'll rain. The lower, the less likely. At 100% humidity the air is saturated and can no longer hold any more water (hence rain). On a misty day, the air would have very high humidity.
    Anyway, in relation to heat, a day of high humidity and high temperature would be very uncomfortable. It'd feel very muggy, your body would sweat more (sweat works be evaporation, so if there's lots of water in the air it's gonna be slow to evaporate), unlikely to be alot of wind. It's harder to withstand "wet" (or humid) heat due to the fact is reduces sweat's effectiveness. Hence, if it was humid and warm, it would determine how you feel the weather.
    If it was high temperature and low humidity, it'd be more comfortable, for the opposite reasons. Your sweat would work more effectively.

    The 3 factors that effect perspiration (sweat) are heat, humidity and wind.


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    #3
    Welsh Wizard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 452 ✭✭Welsh Wizard


    jumpguy wrote: »
    Humidity is the amount of moisture in the air. The higher it is, the more likely it'll rain. The lower, the less likely. At 100% humidity the air is saturated and can no longer hold any more water (hence rain). On a misty day, the air would have very high humidity.
    Anyway, in relation to heat, a day of high humidity and high temperature would be very uncomfortable. It'd feel very muggy, your body would sweat more (sweat works be evaporation, so if there's lots of water in the air it's gonna be slow to evaporate), unlikely to be alot of wind. It's harder to withstand "wet" (or humid) heat due to the fact is reduces sweat's effectiveness. Hence, if it was humid and warm, it would determine how you feel the weather.
    If it was high temperature and low humidity, it'd be more comfortable, for the opposite reasons. Your sweat would work more effectively.

    The 3 factors that effect perspiration (sweat) are heat, humidity and wind.


    THis has something to do with using a propagater for small cuttings / seeds...

    Sorry for going off topic... Enjoy your holiday...


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