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We have to compare apples to apples here. Everyone knows that if you're wet and cold, you're worse off than being dry and cold, which is why comping a rain event to a non-rain event is generally not what people are talking about when they say a a "wet cold" is worse than a "dry cold."
When someone in my area (semi-arid) says to me, "I prefer minus 10 in Vernon to minus 10 in Vancouver because of the humidity", they are comparing apples to apples. The irony here is that when it gets down to -10 C (14 F) in Vancouver (which hardly ever happens), the relative humidity is no higher to a typical -10 event in Vernon.
I've lived in northern Ontario in Canada where it is routinely -35C and am now in southern Ontario where the coldest it typically gets is -15C and if I dressed now like I did when I lived up north I wouldn't even know it was cold outside. Dry cold is a load of crap. Once you are get to about -10C there isn't any difference. Cold is cold.
Interesting discussion. Relevant to me because I am looking at a town that is about 20 degrees colder than my current town, but much more sunny and dry in winter. I am pretty sure it will feel colder, but not as much as the absolute temps say.
In December, I was able to observe this first hand. We had a spell of single digit and low teen (Fahrenheit) temps with low humidity, followed by a batch of freezing fog with tems in the 30s and 40s. I found the latter to be more uncomfortable, but I don't think I was dressed exactly the same (less layering with the warmer temps). Still, I think the humid cold is more miserable than you would expect, the dry cold less so. Still 30 below is damn cold, no matter how you slice it.
I will add that here in the Pacific Northwest, where I want to and from work in all sorts of weather, I find our most disagreeable days to be those with heavy rain (big, splashing drops) and temps in the mid 30s. When it cools a bit more and turns to snow it is much nicer.
To add another layer, I would add altitude. If the sun is out, higher elevation areas seem to me to feel warmer during the day, because of the greater short wave radiation on the skin. This occurs in winter and summer.
Well I mean mist as in fog, like we have in high pressure scenarios. Not actual precipitating water like rain or drizzle. When you feel that saturated air on your body/skin at least with me, I lose body heat so fast.
It's the way my body works, but I've been known to get "chills" (and nearly hypothermia) from damp cold, such as at an airshow I went to in 2008, whereas I have tolerated temperatures of -10°C outside for over an hour when it was very dry air (as in low relative humidity) such as when I missed my train at Stockport station in December 2010 and had to wait outside for over an hour. I found this interesting.
I'm not trying to assert any theories, just describing what I have witnessed really.
Your observations match mine exactly (I live in the Pacific Northwest, so we too get the darn valley fog during cold winter periods). Perhaps we are comparing Polar Maritime and Polar Continental air masses. The former tend to have much higher dew points than the latter. They slug it out in my neck of the woods too, but with the Polar Maritime air dominating most of the time.
I still think that 'wet' cold feels much cooler - You lose body heat quickly due to the moist air.
Cold wet air at times lowers the temperature - when we have dry winter days (in Sydney) the temperature would usually be around 17C. Moist cool air, however, lowers it to 13C.
As what someone said up there, humidity makes cold air colder and hot air even hotter. Humidity just intensifies stuff - even our sense of smell (that's why we smell rain when the humidity rises).
^I take that all back!...
Dry cold ACTUALLY feels much colder because the dry cool air dries out your nostrils, which hurts your nose/head whilst at it. There is no moisture to feed your lungs. The dry cold in here is usually windy and bitter. Right now it's 13C and humidity is 52%. With the windy air and all, it feels like 9C rather ('feels like' is that figure). I had to wear extra clothing today because of the windchill - which is what makes it feel 'colder' for us (the wind 'bites' you).
Moist cool air is at least breathable. The steamy feel to it can warm you up either way (i.e. fog) and it's easier on the nose & lungs. Since moist air is usually still you don't feel as cold. Now, of course, you can get hypothermia in wet cold but ONLY only if it's raining (ON YOU) - But that isn't the point as I'm mainly comparing cold moist air and cold dry airwithout the rain.
I was also wrong up there btw - Winter days at 17C are usually humid here (or at least 'comfortable). Whereas 13C days contain cool, mountainous air that is very dry in nature and bitter for the senses, making the temps feel as low as 9C (thanks to the windchill). I've woken up to cold, humid mornings (foggy or not) where the air temperature is 13C, and they never felt as cold as the windy and dry 13C weather.
I think the total disagreement in this thread proves that there is no difference...
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