The Southern Tier is finding little relief from the heat following a few downpours late in the afternoon and evening July 18. But what do relative humidity and dewpoint have to do with how muggy and uncomfortable it feels?
Kathy Whyte/ WNBF News
As for the downpours, Emergency Services officials say there were no major problems with flooding in spite of the ground being so dry that a quick blast of water tends to run right off instead of sinking into the soil. New York State Electric and Gas, likewise, reported no problems with only a very few and widely scattered power interruptions in the entire NYSEG service area.
The heat over the next few days will be an issue with a pull on the power system by air conditioners as very uncomfortable, humid conditions persist.
The National Weather Service office in Binghamton is predicting high temperatures today around 90 but with dewpoints in the 60s, conditions are in the uncomfortable range. July 20, the temperature is expected to be a few degrees higher and NOAA is predicting heat index values in the upper 90s. No heat advisories have been issued as of July 19 for the Twin Tiers or Central New York.
If you’re calculating just how miserable it may be out of the climate control, bear in mind the dew point temperatures are a better indication in how humid it feels on the skin than the relative humidity levels.
Relative humidity relates to how close the air is to saturation of moisture. A 100 percent humidity means moisture has reached the point where it has to come out of the air in the form of fog, mist or rain. The National Weather Service explains the higher the dewpoint temperature rises, the more uncomfortable it feels but relative humidity at a higher reading may not feel as uncomfortable if the air temperature is lower. A high dewpoint, like those above 50, along with higher temperatures in the 80s and 90s makes for a muggy, tropical day.
According to one NOAA webpage, “If you want a real judge of just how ‘dry’ or ‘humid’ it will feel outside, look at the dew point instead of the RH. The higher the dew point, the muggier it will feel.”
