How many times have you heard that one on a hot, muggy summer day?
Well fortunately we haven’t had to talk about the heat index that much this season. In fact so far this summer we’ve only had 2 days of 90 degree heat. Now that’s all about to change as we see a string of 90+ degree days coupled with some pretty high humidity.
So in addition to the current temperatures I will also be talking about the “feels like” temp. What is that you ask? Well let me explain.
Back in the late 1970s one of the all time great meteorologists George Winterling came up with something called the humiture. Here’s how George explained it on Facebook.
“After reporting the day’s high temperature day after day I came to realize that days with low humidity/dew point did not feel as hot as days with high humidity/dew point. I picked out dew points of 65 degrees as the boundary between less sultry days and very stifling heat. When the dew point was below 65 I subtracted those degrees from the temperature. A day with a high of 90 and a dew point of 60 would feel like 90 degrees. When the dew point was 75 degrees, I added 10 degrees to the temperature and said the day felt like 100 degrees. I printed cards with the feel-like temperatures (called Humiture) and mailed them to newspapers over the central and eastern parts of the U.S. The next year NOAA started the Heat Index which was remarkably similar to the Humiture.”
Here’s what is happening to your body when the humidity is high and why you might “feel” sticky.
Our temps will reach the low 90s with heat index values in the upper 90s this week. The “feel” will be quite real! Here are some ways to protect yourself.