I don’t want to go camping with you guys, anyways, regardless of how hot (or not hot, just humid) it is. I’m a fall/winter and/or high country camper, as I was explaining to you.
Besides, I would probably have to chop you up into tiny pieces for my stew because you tend to get to get on my tit, ya know? (borrowed from a NADS thread, love the phrase, y’all) Which is the real reason why I’m not going. This inane comment about the weather is a long standing pet peave of mine, though, so thank you (dumb ass) for bringing it up yet again.
When I was young, I never understood what Walter Winchell had to do with the winter weather!
Our local weather forecasts tend to focus on dew points rather than humidity – the definition of “uncomfortable” is when the dew point approaches the ambient temperature. Channel 5’s chief meteorologist (who is a practicing meterologist, not an announcer given a faux title) suggests in some of his responses to inquiries that a temperature in the 60s with 90% humidity is usually not felt to be uncomfortable, so relative humidity is not a good guide to comfort level.
Oh, it’s there, all right! Haven’t you ever been outdoors in hot weather and wished, “Gee, I wish there were a breeze, to cool me off a bit!”? That’s wind chill in all its glory, only acting beneficially at that point!
Well, to a certain point, that inane little statement is true. Above 80 or so, the temperature tends to be less important to comfort than humidity. Hundred-degree heat with low humidity is a lot more comfortable than 85-degree heat with high humidity. The extra 15 degrees are nothing when you don’t feel like you’re drowning on dry land and the sweat can evaporate and actually cool you off instead of making you feel like you’re being boiled alive.
I used to live in the Houston area, for 14 years. And I would hear this all the time. It’s like saying the heat has nothing to do with our discomfort, it’s all the humidity’s fault. Which is wrong! Without the one, you wouldn’t be noticing the other. It’s BOTH, together, that cause the extra level of discomfort.
Trust me, being chilly and humid isn’t a very nice feeling, either. Merry Christmas, Houston!
As for the wind chill thingy, I have several friends who think that it means that if the wind is blowing, it’s actually colder. I tried to explain, in very simple terms, that it’s how it feels to you on your unprotected skin*, but they start bleating like sheep and banging heads with each other. Oh well, at least I got a nice sweater from them. My little cousin thought it was “windshield factor,” because the windshield always feels colder than the rest of the heated interior of the car. Smart girl, that Kim.
Ah well, at least my friends, family, and aquaintances aren’t murdering people or shopping at The Gap. Might as well count my blessings. which is why I always wear protection*. ALWAYS.
**Trojan man!
What gets me is people from Ontario who say “Oh, but it’s a dry cold” in response to hearing about a cold snap on the prairies.
Listen, bub! At -45C the ability of air to carry moisture is approximately nonexistent. The difference between 0%RH and 100%RH at temperatures like that is like the difference between black and black.
Data taken from Environment Canada
Average January temps (hi/lo/mean)
Fredericton -4.4/-14.6/-9.5
North Bay -8.0/-18.0/-13.0
Oh yeah, that’s the freaking coldest winters in Canada, for sure
Saskatoon -11.8/-22.3/-17.0
Winnipeg -12.7/-22.8/-17.8 (Odd, subjectively Saskatoon winters have always felt colder to me than Winnipeg winters. Perhaps it’s that Saskatoon cold snaps tend to bottom out a few degrees colder than those in Winterpeg.)
And of course, you’ll note I wasn’t even talking about averages, but about cold snaps. How many times you get a week at -40 in NB? Tell me, do you have any actual experience to determine whether it feels colder at -45 with “humidity” than it does when it’s dry? You simply don’t get “humid” and -45. You get -45 and ice crystals suspended in midair. And it’s much, much subjectively colder than a humid -20 is. I know. I wintered in Michigan a few times. Mind you, a humid -10 or so is subjectively colder than a dry -10. But the difference shrinks dramatically as it gets colder.
And just so you don’t think I’m whining about the cold, because I’m not:
Is this the Kim we were discussing earlier? :dubious:
It’s quite devoid of humidity here. It’s also 93 degrees. It’s 91 in San Francisco. It’s NEVER 91 in San Francisco. Quite frankly, I could give a flyin’ fuck less if it’s humid or not. I just want the damn breeze to come in off the bay and cool the place off. Didn’t happen last night, and we all slept downstairs.
First of all, if the wind is blowing, you will feel cooler. It’s a very real effect; if you stick a thermometer on your skin, it will show a lower temperature when the wind is blowing. If you don’t believe it, look up the words “heat”, “transfer”, and “convection” in google. Secondly, the effect will certainly be reduced by padding yourself with insulation. But the equivalent static “wind chill” temperature will still be the same.
Preaching to the choir, Crafter man. I know it feels colder, that’s what I said. What they think is that it’s actually colder, iow, the moving air is somehow a different temp than if it was still.
Mo, no, I am not related to Tiff’s little sister. How wierd would that be? I have a cousin myself who is named Kim.
Well, how would YOU put it then? That is, the fact that there is big difference between “humid heat” and “dry heat” (or whatever the acceptable and technical terms are).
I know that when I’m in Vegas, I can handle 107 with hardly a fuss, even though, yes, it’s HOT. I can walk from hotel to hotel to sight see, lay out by the pool without having to constantly be IN the water, and so on. But Texas heat, just KOs me completely, from about 80 on, that wet sopping, “can’t breathe because it’s like trying to bteathe in warm swamp water” feeling. I can’t do a thing, I’m just drained. It does FEEL different, and causes different reactions in me. And since I’m from AK, not one who’s lived around different sorts of heat, it’s not like I was “pre-conditioned” so that it would be the power of suggestion or something.
The moisture in the air also makes it much more uncomfortable when it’s cold also. It’s very dry in AK, but I did basic training in Texas many many years ago. It was 40 degrees when I left Anchorage, but when I got to San Antonio, it was a blistering 42 degrees. We were all wearing shirt sleeves in Anchorage, but I about froze in the moist cold at 2 degrees “warmer” than when I’d left.
So, without making it a long drawn out descriotion like mine above? What phrase, acceptable to YOU, should a person use to describe this difference in types of heat?
I said it’s BOTH the heat and the humidity. The phrase which chaps my hide is “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.” As though the heat has nothing to do with it.
So, a simple pet peeve becomes a drawn out debate.
Oh, never mind. Go on about misunderstanding what I was saying. I’ll just sit here in front of the A/C.
Yeah, I read your OP. My complaint/retort with it was what would be an acceptable saying to you that is Not a long drawn out description?
“It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” Isn’t so much a technical statement on the weather, as a sarcastic joke made because of course people KNOW that that’s not technically true.
Sooooo… You’re sitting around with a bunch of buddies, and it’s droopy swamp hot, what flippant thing does one say? I mean “it’s the heat and the humiidity” is dull and uninspired. Yes, we are well aware that “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” is very old, and very well used. But it’s still not dead like stating the obvious.