What is more likely to make me crazy than the technical temp is the humidity. I’ve lived 40ish years in the American Southwest, 30 of them in Colorado, the first 10 in New Mexico. There were plenty of days in NM over a hundred, though fewer than you’d think given most of the places I lived were at substantial elevation.
And the same, but more so in Colorado, though climate change has “encouraged” most with the means to add A/C to homes that had never had it before. As an example, our house, built in 1982 which we purchased in 2002, did NOT have A/C until we had it installed before the next summer.
But in both, the humidity was generally in the teens or less. Single digit humidity is pretty common. Which means on days like yesterday and today, where it was 50-60%, it feels -gross- no matter the absolute temps. And thankfully, at our 6000ft in elevation, the temp drops overnight are still pretty noticeable - sure the high was 88, but the low was right around 60F! Which means if I keep the windows open all night, the A/C doesn’t normally kick on until early afternoon (set to 75F).
But if I visit my Austin friend right now, he had a high of 94, a low of 77, and a current humidity of 77%. I’d be wishing for death from that combination.
Granted, in 4-5 months, he’ll be bragging about having beers out on his mini-porch while it’s still in the 60s-70s, while we’re getting sub freezing lows already, but it’ll be a dry cold at least!
JFC! In my part of the world anything above around 30°C (86°F) triggers a heat warning. I don’t believe temps here have ever exceeded 100°F and if they ever did, I’m pretty sure a state of emergency would be declared.
Where is your phone at the time? Temperature measurements represent ambient air temperature and have to be measured in the shade. In direct sunlight temperature measurements could get ridiculously high and are not representative of actual air temperature.
It’s called the humidex by Environment Canada and is a fair representation of how hot it really feels by combining humidity with temperature, since high humidity inhibits the ability of your body to shed heat through perspiration. This is definitely a real thing, because with inhibited cooling ability, there’s a greater possibility of heat stroke.
I normally expect a temperature swing of 70 degrees during the year: at least one day at -35 in winter, and at least one day at +35 in summer.
A few years ago we had an 80 degree swing during the year. One day in January it was -40 (I walked to work because the car wouldn’t start), and that same year we had a high of +40 in July.
Montana checking in–146 degree Fahrenheit swing last year. It’s not uncommon to have 90 degree swings in a week. But it is dry, so there’s that. I’m good hiking in a fleece and a shell at -20F.
I was curious, so I looked up humidity here in the UK. It rained today after a long period of hot dry weather (just in time for our friends’ garden party ) and humidity is at 90%. But it’s set to fall to 58% by Friday. It’s not hot anymore, but it does feel very clammy. We’ll have to get air conditioning installed if we keep having heatwaves like this year; it’s repeatedly been over 30°C.
I do know that preferred humidity is highly personal. My friends who visit from more humid climes complain about dry, cracking skin, especially on the lips or sinus. What they prefer is what makes me feel gross. And I counter that I can leave a box of dried pretzels or a box of cereal out unsealed and it’s still fine the next day. But again, 40ish years of adaptation of both body and expectations!
Of course, they also complain “You don’t even have AIR to breathe!” - what, you want me to get an oxygen tent for you?!
Today it’s 60% humidity and 25°C in my home office, and that’s comfortable (prob wouldn’t be if I had to wear a suit).
Flights are the main time I experience low humidity (10-20% according to Google) and it is indeed very uncomfortable. I always bring lipbalm to deal with the lips cracking issue, and plenty of water to rehydrate, but it hurts my eyes and there’s not much I can do about that. I wouldn’t want to live somewhere where that humidity is normal, but I suppose you get used to it.
Me, too. And i find it physically uncomfortable enough that i routinely wear a face mask to retain humidity in my respiratory system. I’ve done this for more than a decade, and it’s why i had a box of face masks in my cupboard when the pandemic began.
That’s clever. But I found the masks pretty uncomfortable during Covid. They always made my glasses steam up no matter how I bent the little wire thing, and it’s annoying. We’re flying to America again soon, so I suppose I could try it.
That sucks. I guess they think people prefer it? Air conditioning is often way too powerful IME.
I didn’t come up with the idea. I bought a lot of make when the original SARS hit the news, thinking they’d be hard to find if the virus spread. So i had these masks lying around. Then one day i had to fly somewhere when i had a minor cold. So i thought I’d be cautious, and wear a mask so i didn’t spread my cold. And it was the most comfortable flight I’d had in years.
After that, i wore a face mask every time i flew, except on short business trips. (Because, you know, wearing a mask was weird.) And i waited until everyone sat down to don it, and explained to my seatmate. Because i didn’t mind if they thought i was nuts, but i didn’t want them to worry that i had TB or something. So I’d actually run low on masks and recently purchased a new case when covid-19 hit the news.
One advantage of the pandemic to me is that i can now wear masks in public.
) and humidity is at 90%. But it’s set to fall to 58% by Friday. It’s not hot anymore, but it does feel very clammy. We’ll have to get air conditioning installed if we keep having heatwaves like this year; it’s repeatedly been over 30°C.
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