Feeling the Heat?
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Feeling the Heat?
| Tue, 07-19-2005 - 1:41pm |
Thanks to Yankee Magazine, here's the 411 on what we're feeling.

As the days begin to shorten,
the heat begins to scorch them.
-- Weather proverb
BE SURE TO check this handy chart before you head out in the heat of summer, because when the temperature is high and accompanied by high humidity, it can feel a lot warmer than the thermometer indicates. The following chart measures this phenomenon, known as the heat index. The combination of high temperature and high humidity reduces your body's ability to cool itself. For example, the heat you feel when the actual temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 70 percent is 106 degrees Fahrenheit. When the heat index is high, drink plenty of water and spend the midday hours someplace cool.


When the glowworm lights her lamp,
the air is always damp.
-- Weather proverb
IT'S EASY TO tell when it's sticky outside: You have to peel yourself off vinyl car seats and plastic lawn furniture, and the laundry you hang on the line never seems to dry. Now you can get a more accurate measure of the mugginess, or relative humidity, by using the following charts and a simple tool called a sling psychrometer that you can make yourself.
Absolute humidity is the amount of water vapor in a given volume of air, usually measured in grams per cubic meter. However, because air can hold varying amounts of water vapor at different temperatures (the warmer the air is, the more moisture it can hold), a more useful measurement (and the one used most often in general weather information) is relative humidity. Expressed as a percentage, this is the amount of water vapor in the air compared with the total amount that the air can hold at that temperature. For example, at 60 percent relative humidity, the air contains only 60 percent of the total water vapor that it can hold at that temperature before it will be saturated, causing the water vapor to condense.

As the days begin to shorten,
the heat begins to scorch them.
-- Weather proverb
BE SURE TO check this handy chart before you head out in the heat of summer, because when the temperature is high and accompanied by high humidity, it can feel a lot warmer than the thermometer indicates. The following chart measures this phenomenon, known as the heat index. The combination of high temperature and high humidity reduces your body's ability to cool itself. For example, the heat you feel when the actual temperature is 90 degrees Fahrenheit with a relative humidity of 70 percent is 106 degrees Fahrenheit. When the heat index is high, drink plenty of water and spend the midday hours someplace cool.

When the glowworm lights her lamp,
the air is always damp.
-- Weather proverb
IT'S EASY TO tell when it's sticky outside: You have to peel yourself off vinyl car seats and plastic lawn furniture, and the laundry you hang on the line never seems to dry. Now you can get a more accurate measure of the mugginess, or relative humidity, by using the following charts and a simple tool called a sling psychrometer that you can make yourself.
Absolute humidity is the amount of water vapor in a given volume of air, usually measured in grams per cubic meter. However, because air can hold varying amounts of water vapor at different temperatures (the warmer the air is, the more moisture it can hold), a more useful measurement (and the one used most often in general weather information) is relative humidity. Expressed as a percentage, this is the amount of water vapor in the air compared with the total amount that the air can hold at that temperature. For example, at 60 percent relative humidity, the air contains only 60 percent of the total water vapor that it can hold at that temperature before it will be saturated, causing the water vapor to condense.



