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It's currently 12°C and very humid and damp here in Buxton, in August. It feels freezing.
It felt a lot warmer in March when it was 9°C with low humidity. Fact. I don't care what this "scientific theory" says. I know what it feels like in different conditions. Just because it calls itself "scientific theory" it doesn't mean it's in any way accurate and won't change how quickly my body is losing heat.
I've experienced humid 40F weather and dry 20F weather, that the latter felt much colder.
Dry weather may feel warmer for a number of reasons - it might have been sunnier, wind calmer, etc. That's why I don't put a lot of stock in anecdotal evidence - people tend to compare apples to oranges. All things being equal, I believe that humidity has little to no effect on how cold the air feels.
^^ yes, they are ignoring the factor of condensation.
It's like calling BS on someone getting colder because it started to rain and they got wet.
100% humidity without rain isn't nearly as bad as getting soaked in rain, but it is noticeable.
Even above 85% you can find microclimates cold enough there is condensation.
I would say for humidity at 75% and below, I agree with the original point.
Condensation only occurs when you have warm air and a cold surface. For example, a bottle of ice-cold beer on a hot day will instantly "sweat". But unless your body has a lower temperature that the surrounding air, I wouldn't worry about condensation much. Unless you are a zombie.
And rain is very different than air just being humid. The whole point is that cold air has very little moisture in it. At the freezing point, if you could squeeze ALL the H20 in the air in a entire room, it would still be just a couple of ounces of liquid.
A good part of my working life has involved frost protection and snowmaking. Both involve a good understanding of how humidity affects the rate of heat loss. When air contains moisture it has a higher potential than air (at the same temp)with lower humidity. Heat will move from warm to cold rather than cold to warm. Dry air always represents the greatest heat difference. The same principle applies to when it's hot and your sweating, as too when it's cold, there is no magic temp at which this process reverses.
Having visibly wet skin is different to high humidity with low temps, but even with wet skin, dry air will cool you faster. Think about dry skin and chapped lips in cold weather, both due to moisture loss, both more noticeable in dry climates.
Most people I know assume higher humidity equals cold, and I don't bother telling someone who is cold, that they aren't, but we live in such a way that it really doesn't matter that much.
A good part of my working life has involved frost protection and snowmaking. Both involve a good understanding of how humidity affects the rate of heat loss. When air contains moisture it has a higher potential than air (at the same temp)with lower humidity. Heat will move from warm to cold rather than cold to warm. Dry air always represents the greatest heat difference. The same principle applies to when it's hot and your sweating, as too when it's cold, there is no magic temp at which this process reverses.
Having visibly wet skin is different to high humidity with low temps, but even with wet skin, dry air will cool you faster. Think about dry skin and chapped lips in cold weather, both due to moisture loss, both more noticeable in dry climates.
Most people I know assume higher humidity equals cold, and I don't bother telling someone who is cold, that they aren't, but we live in such a way that it really doesn't matter that much.
I think most people don't understand. I see it a lot with European immigrants here saying that the humidity here makes it feel a lot colder than Belgium or the UK ( as examples). I think what they are noticing (heavy dew) is the bigger temperature variation over a shorter period, than what would be more typical of those winter climates. The craziest example was someone from Halifax who said he would feel warmer in -20C in Nova Scotia, than 0C here.
The notion that you can feel colder due to humidity is an odd one to me, but as MrMarbles said, apples get compared to oranges.
I live in Denver where it's very dry (low humidity/dew point) in winter and can say from experience that going to a location in the Northeast in winter feels very much colder to me, even if the temperature is higher. For instance, I went to Baltimore in January and at first, I thought the temp. must have been in the low teens, but it was actually low 30s. And I've heard plenty of people who come to Denver in winter and remark that the cold doesn't feel so bad, or that it feels warm to them. If humid heat feels much worse, it makes sense that a humid cold would as well.
I live in Denver where it's very dry (low humidity/dew point) in winter and can say from experience that going to a location in the Northeast in winter feels very much colder to me, even if the temperature is higher. For instance, I went to Baltimore in January and at first, I thought the temp. must have been in the low teens, but it was actually low 30s. And I've heard plenty of people who come to Denver in winter and remark that the cold doesn't feel so bad, or that it feels warm to them. If humid heat feels much worse, it makes sense that a humid cold would as well.
I have the opposite experience when I go south a couple of times a winter to a drier climate than here. It feels cooler at similar temps in the drier climate.
Humid heat feels worse because it slows down evaporation of sweat from the skin. Lowering the humidity means sweating/evaporation is more effective, and this still applies at lower temperatures.
Condensation only occurs when you have warm air and a cold surface. For example, a bottle of ice-cold beer on a hot day will instantly "sweat". But unless your body has a lower temperature that the surrounding air, I wouldn't worry about condensation much. Unless you are a zombie.
No but I don't think that has any bearing on how condensation works.
You can do an experiment: put a cup of hot coffee in the bathroom after you've just showered. Come back in 5 min and see how much water has condensed on it.
Or better yet, do this: put a hot cup of coffee with a thermometer outside on your porch (not in the sun, obviously) on a dry 20F day and a humid 40F day. Measure the time it takes to cool. That should end the debate.
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