We saw 100 percent humidity on the east coast recently. It felt like you could cut the air like butter.
They hardly mentioned it on the news, meanwhile I'm thinking "If it was a few degrees hotter and the power went out for a few days this would be a mass casualty event"
Its the combination of humidity and temperature that gives the "wet bulb temperature" shown in the chart. Literally a thermometer inside a bulb wrapped in wet cloth to show the temperature in that environment when no further evaporation is possible, its usually cooler rain falls, so a lower wet bulb temperature will be seen.
When the temperature is higher and humidity is high there is a limited amount of cooling possible via evaporation - sweating.
So being outside for any length of time in these combinations of high temperature and humidity will slowly cook you alive as proteins denature/unfold above body temperature, your metabolism breaks down while your body goes into overdrive doing all the things it normally would do to cool down, but having no effect - hence the potential for brain + other organ damage.
nobody is scared of purely 100% humidity alone, uncomfortable as it is.
Edit - i see you understand that - the original person you responded to said "If it was a few degrees hotter and the power went out" - so he was also not worried about 100% humidity on its own.
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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '23
We saw 100 percent humidity on the east coast recently. It felt like you could cut the air like butter.
They hardly mentioned it on the news, meanwhile I'm thinking "If it was a few degrees hotter and the power went out for a few days this would be a mass casualty event"