Icky Sticky

by Sam
(Concord)

Its all icky and sticky

Barry's Response - Let me see if I can help, Sam. We use humidity to refer to the quantity of water vapour in the air. Relative humidity, the fraction of partial pressure for water vapour relative to saturated vapour pressure at that temperature, is what we usually mean when we just say "humidity". Meteorologists use technical terms like absolute or specific humidity as well.

We care about humidity because of the icky sticky feel it gives to an otherwise pleasant day, and the lack of wind compounds the situation. And no matter how much you sweat, you just can't get any cooler. Forecasters care about it because of its importance in weather changes: precipitation, fog, dew for instance.



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