It’s the darn humidity!  Both Jesse and I have made trips back to the midwest in the past month and the difference in temperature (upper 80’s there/mid 90’s here) hasn’t been as drastic as the difference in comfort.

So, I did a little research.  Humid heat is worse for us than dry heat, because humidity interferes with our body’s temperature regulating mechanism. When the temperature is very hot outside, the body’s regulating mechanism prevents heat from building up inside by releasing the heat from the surface of the skin through the evaporation of sweat.

On the other hand, humid heat does not allow sweat to evaporate from the skin. This makes a person stay hot longer and prevents the body from cooling down quickly. Thus, you feel hotter.

Here in Denver the relative humidity in the afternoon is around 40%, which up to 90 degrees is pretty much air tempurature.  In the midwest, because the relative humidity is so much higher, it can feel up to 15 degrees warmer!

It’s going to continue to be hot all week, and dry or not, upper 90’s is still hot.  Drink lots of fluids or do what I do… stay inside in the air conditioning.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 7:55 am and is filed under Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.