Looking for a town with cool weather: how to measure humidity? (move, retire)

[oneblock]

Hi

I,want to retire to a warm place but I dont want to sweat a lot

How do I check if a town has high levels of humidity: by
the altitude, the temperature, ?

I was in cancun last month and it was extremely hot, I was
sweating intensivly, I had to change shirt several times a day

Does tropical locations have seasons?

Thank you

[jtur88]

What you want to know about humidity is that the announced "relative humidity" means absolutely nothing. It is the percentage of moisture present that the air at that temperature can actually hold. If the air at the present temperature is capable of holding X amount of water vapor before it condenses, and the actual amount of moisture in the air at this moment is 4/5 of X, then the relative humidity is 80%. But ignore that, because it will constantly change as the temperature changes.

Instead, look at the DEW POINT. That stays relatively constant during the day. The dew point is the temperature at which the moisture in the air would condense as dew, as it cooled down. The amount of moisture in the air stays basically the same all day long. If the dew point is above 75 on a summer day, you will feel uncomfortable humidity no matter if it is 80 or 105. If the dew point is below about 65, you will feel fairly comfortable, no matter if it is 80 or 105.

When the temperature goes down overnight, if the temperature falls below the dew point, the moisture will condense out of the air and form dew or sometimes fog. So if the overnight low is down to about 60, than the air loses a lot of its moisture in that way, which falls out as dew. If it rises to 90 the next day, it will still have that fairly low amount of moisture in it, but the humidity will be fairly low, since much of the humidity condensed out overnight.

The temperature can never be below the dew point, so you can fairly well predict how humid the day will be, by looking at the overnight low. If it goes down to 60 overnight, there will be low humidity. If it only goes down to 80 overnight, it will be a very humid day.

So, check out a city's climatological records and see what the average dew-points are for the hot months. You'll be pretty comfortable if they are not much above 70, and usually below 70. Or you can look at the overnight lows. Daytimes will be fairly comfortable if it goes down to 70 or lower almost every night. Here is a chart of last month's daily data for Cozumel down at the bottom:

http://classic.wunderground.com/hist...lyHistory.html


Tropical locations, where the temperature is fairly hot all year round, usually have two seasons---a wet season, when it rains a lot, and a dry season, when everything turns dusty and brown.

[oneblock]

How jtur88 you rock!

[HonuMan]

Originally Posted by oneblock

Hi

I,want to retire to a warm place but I dont want to sweat a lot

How do I check if a town has high levels of humidity: by
the altitude, the temperature, ?

Look into higher-altitude locations in the tropics. The latitude will keep the temperature fairly constant, but as you move up in altitude, the year-round temperature will move from hot to warm to cool. For example, my wife is from the Big Island of Hawaii. At sea level, it can be hot and sticky, although the trade winds moderate things. A few hundred feet up the sides of the volcanoes, evenings in particular are quite cool. Up at Volcano Village (about 4,000 feet, if I recall), it feels like the PNW, but a lot sunnier, and can get chilly at night. Yes, it's humid, but at the higher altitudes, it doesn't feel uncomfortable (to me, anyway).

The effect is similar in arid locations, although usually there will be a wider temperature variation between day and night.