How exactly does humidity affect comfort
levels.

i.e. assume 2 place with the same termpature
- how does the humidity of the place affect
the feeling of comfort one has in hot weather
& in cold weather.

"Palio" wrote in news:50hk4pF1fgg1vU1
@mid.individual.net:

How exactly does humidity affect comfort
levels.

i.e. assume 2 place with the same termpature
- how does the humidity of the place affect
the feeling of comfort one has in hot weather
& in cold weather.

It's mostly a balance. When humidity is high, water is saturating the air
so that the air cannot absorb more moisture.

Your body relies on sweat evaporating into the surrounding air to cool the
body. High humidity prevents this due to the air already being full or
saturated and you feel more uncomfortable. It's obviously more noticeable
in warm months. When it' cool you don't notice it as much.

If humidity is low, the air can absorb sweat and thus cool your body so
you feel more comfortable.

That's pretty much the short answer.

Thank you for your reply.

R. Hickey wrote:
"Palio" wrote in news:50hk4pF1fgg1vU1
@mid.individual.net:

How exactly does humidity affect comfort
levels.

i.e. assume 2 place with the same termpature
- how does the humidity of the place affect
the feeling of comfort one has in hot weather
& in cold weather.

It's mostly a balance. When humidity is high, water is saturating the
air so that the air cannot absorb more moisture.

Your body relies on sweat evaporating into the surrounding air to
cool the body. High humidity prevents this due to the air already
being full or saturated and you feel more uncomfortable. It's
obviously more noticeable in warm months. When it' cool you don't
notice it as much.

If humidity is low, the air can absorb sweat and thus cool your body
so you feel more comfortable.

That's pretty much the short answer.

That's as far as feeling uncomfortable hot is
concerned. But what about in colder weather.
Assume the temparature is slightly on the colder
side (not very cold though) - say it's just below
comfort temparature & you are different places
with RH 20, 40, 60 & 80 - What will be comfort
level in the different cases?

Palio wrote:
Thank you for your reply.

R. Hickey wrote:
"Palio" wrote in news:50hk4pF1fgg1vU1
@mid.individual.net:

How exactly does humidity affect comfort levels.

Leaving aside the skin sensory stuff, we also get psychosomatic
complaints when under stress from such conditions. I get a freely
clicking but fairly painless problem with my left shoulder (after an
ancient cycling injury) when Madagascar has a thunderstorm and when
they have a cyclone I get that again with a lot of pain and also some
back problems too.

I live on that longitude but 90 degrees north. Explain that.
I have spoken to people who get bad arthritis attacks when we have
thunder but it doesn't happen for all storms, the same way that snakes
and other animals do not give warnings of all earthquakes.

(I got the storm info from Eric Habich's site so if you know of anyone
who has arthritis you could ask them to help you study it using that
website. Beware that your /their mileage may vary. http://ehabich.info/
)

But what about in colder weather. Assume the temperature is slightly on the colder
side (not very cold though) - say it's just below comfort temperature & you are different places
with RH 20, 40, 60 & 80 - What will be comfort level in the different cases?

You mean if the water is cool enough to come out of solution but not
fall to earth?

We call that "mist" over here. Thicker examples are called fogs and
higher ones, clouds.

Palio schrieb:
How exactly does humidity affect comfort
levels.

i.e. assume 2 place with the same termpature
- how does the humidity of the place affect
the feeling of comfort one has in hot weather
& in cold weather.



Check in the internet the "Heat stress" theme. I think this explains
exactly how the human body is affected.

Marc