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Re: [Phys-l] Gotta love these HeadLine Writers!




On Jul 26, 2011, at 11:43 AM, Paul Nord wrote:

Does any of us have the experience to know what 98º would feel like WITHOUT the local humidity common to your area?

To me it "feels-like" 98º when it is actually 98º with the the same awful humidity that we had around here when I was a kid.

I don't give much credit to those "feels like" temperatures. Were any of those studies done to discern the heat transfer properties of actual human skin under the temperature, humidity, and wind conditions described? (When it comes to windchill, I have a suspicion that damp conditions cause the skin to be more moist. That moisture will provide better thermal transfer from the lower layers of the skin and will increase the rate of heat loss in a way that does not happen to something like an open bucket of water. If it's dry, you don't get much evaporation from the surface of the skin. But you'll get even more from the surface of a bucket of water. Science fair project anyone?)

Paul


Howdy,

Well, in the Chicago area we now have 85°F temperature but the humidity is 53%. We also get 85°F temps with 70% (tropical) humidity. They feel distinctly different. So the Temperature Index has some meaning (wasn't originally called the Temperature-Humidity Index, THI?) out this way.

On the other had the weather folk here give both the real and THI (:-)) temp. I don't like the fact that they call the multiple year average temperature for the area the Expected temperature rather than the Average temperature.

Finally, are you sure that you don't get much evaporation from the surface of the skin when it's dry?

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)