Can I offer a topic perhaps less contentious -- weather reports?
The local tv weather reports now always include something about "and the temperature will feel like N'
This morning the report was that the actual high temperature was predicted today to be 95 degrees F and feel like 104
The temperature right now is reported as 92 and feels like 101.
That prompts two questions for me. A bit of unskilled googling tells me 'the answer is complicated. Anybody here take a crack at making it simple?
Can the typical human being tell the difference between an air temperature of 101 and 104?
Under what conditions would temperature, measured by the standard procedure, of 100 also be a 'feels like' temperature of 100?
snailgate
Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
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Burning Petard
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Re: Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
It's all about the dew point. Lower dew point and 100 feels like 100 - dew point in the 70s with 90+% humidity, and it feels like 110 etc.
The wet bulb temperature (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature) is what will ultimately kill off many humans in the coming decades. When it's too hot and wet outside for the human body to sweat, the human body cooks instead.
It's been absolutely miserable up here for most of the month of July - after a heat wave already in June. I'm shut up inside with the AC on (eco setting, fan low, temperature fairly high) and the dehumidifier running nearly nonstop. I LOATHE living with windows closed in summer, but it is too hot to think or sleep right now.
I'm not looking forward to a worsening trend in summer weather. I was considering moving north again, but in the summer it doesn't seem to matter anymore - I spent a week house and dog sitting for my friends in Fall River last month while they visited Montreal and Quebec, which during the same week were hotter than southern New England!
We are cooking the planet and there is no escape.
The wet bulb temperature (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature) is what will ultimately kill off many humans in the coming decades. When it's too hot and wet outside for the human body to sweat, the human body cooks instead.
It's been absolutely miserable up here for most of the month of July - after a heat wave already in June. I'm shut up inside with the AC on (eco setting, fan low, temperature fairly high) and the dehumidifier running nearly nonstop. I LOATHE living with windows closed in summer, but it is too hot to think or sleep right now.
I'm not looking forward to a worsening trend in summer weather. I was considering moving north again, but in the summer it doesn't seem to matter anymore - I spent a week house and dog sitting for my friends in Fall River last month while they visited Montreal and Quebec, which during the same week were hotter than southern New England!
We are cooking the planet and there is no escape.
Last edited by BoSoxGal on Mon Jul 15, 2024 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan
Re: Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
Here's a nice resource from the National Weather Service that explains the heat index, or 'feels like' https://www.weather.gov/ama/heatindex#: ... self%20off.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan
Re: Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
That has been our issue here thus far. Not incredibly high temps (low to mid 80s), but if the temp drops below 70 at night, the city is engulfed in fog. After it rains, the evaporating water just hangs in the air turning the outdoors into a sauna. And generally just feels oppressive to be outside.
Re: Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
It seems to me that it would be a lot simpler if thermometers and weather people would only report the feels like temperature. Who cares what the temperature actually is if it doesn't feel like it?
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Burning Petard
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Re: Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
That i my question -- how do they calibrate this 'feels like' temperature? What is the standard? A 150 pound human male 18 years old, wearing old blue jeans, , a wife-beater shirt, going commando? Or a 75 year old 95 pound human female 'decently dressed' by her standards and exposing no skin beyond face and hands?
snailgate.
snailgate.
Re: Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
As I recall from High School science (back in the dark ages, but its the only meteorology course I ever had), this is a combination of air temperature, humidity, and wind speed, and is a calculation on how well the average human will cool him/herself (by perspiration) or feel chilled. I recall a table took those parameters into effect and gave the "feels like" (I think they called it relative temperature), but i am sure there is a formula that can be used.
As it is based on an average person experiencing the conditions, "your actual results may vary"; some cool or get chilled more readily than others, so the actual temperature is valuable as well. I know I rarely, if ever, get cold--even while skiing or walking at subzero temperature, and feel even temperatures in the 80s (F) can be quite warm, while many others (including my daughters) are the opposite, so the "feels like" is of little value to me other than giving me an ideal of what discomfort I might experience.
As it is based on an average person experiencing the conditions, "your actual results may vary"; some cool or get chilled more readily than others, so the actual temperature is valuable as well. I know I rarely, if ever, get cold--even while skiing or walking at subzero temperature, and feel even temperatures in the 80s (F) can be quite warm, while many others (including my daughters) are the opposite, so the "feels like" is of little value to me other than giving me an ideal of what discomfort I might experience.
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Burning Petard
- Posts: 4409
- Joined: Fri Feb 12, 2016 5:35 pm
- Location: Near Bear, Delaware
Re: Hot Enuff Fur Ya?
This reminds me of Mark Twain's observation: lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Clearly this is false precision. "Today will be much warmer. The feels like temperature yesterday was 100, but today it will be 102." Rare is the human who could feel the difference.
snailgate.
Clearly this is false precision. "Today will be much warmer. The feels like temperature yesterday was 100, but today it will be 102." Rare is the human who could feel the difference.
snailgate.