NORTH CAROLINA -- It goes without saying that this week has been a hot one. We’ve now had several days in a row of heat advisories being issued across the coast, which get issued when we could see heat indexes up to 105 degrees.
- A heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature
- When the moisture content in the atmosphere is high (aka the relative humidity is high), it makes it more difficult for sweat to evaporate
- If sweat can’t evaporate as quickly, we can’t cool our bodies down as effectively as a drier air mass, therefore making high humidity and high heat more uncomfortable for the human body
But what is a “heat index”? By definition, the heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. It is also known as the “apparent temperature.”
As we all know, high humidity coupled with hot temperatures results in very uncomfortable conditions. This is because when the moisture content in the atmosphere is high (aka the relative humidity is high), it makes it more difficult for sweat to evaporate.
Sweating is, of course, our bodies’ way of cooling us down through the the process of evaporative cooling. So, if sweat can’t evaporate as quickly, we can’t cool our bodies down as effectively as a drier air mass, therefore making high humidity and high heat more uncomfortable for the human body. This is what a high heat index is!
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