# Why is 98 degrees too hot?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-98-degrees-too-hot/238272>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 5, 2004, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-98-degrees-too-hot/238272 "2004-04-05T01:28:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![fundamentalz85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/34f0e0/32.png) [@fundamentalz85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fundamentalz85)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-98-degrees-too-hot/238272/1 "2004-04-05T01:28:44Z")

</div>

How come that even though ur body temperature is 98.6 degrees, if it is 98 degrees outside, then we are uncomfortable. You would think that would be the perfect temperature

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-98-degrees-too-hot/238272/2 "2004-04-05T01:36:02Z")

</div>

Someone else with more expertise will probably be along shortly to go more in depth but to put it simply, we need a lower temperature outside our body to vent our extra heat, otherwise we’ll get too hot.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\
**Post date:** [April 5, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-98-degrees-too-hot/238272/3 "2004-04-05T01:50:07Z")

</div>

The Master speaks:

[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_059.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_059.html)