Wikipedia is too complicated for me
In: Chemistry
The amount of water in the air (“humidity” on the weather report) is measured as a percentage, but how much water the air can hold varies by temperature. Warm air can hold more, cold air can hold less. If the temperature goes up but the amount of water in the air stays the same, the humidity percentage goes down. If it cools, the humidity percentage goes up.
“Dew point” is the temperature where humidity will exceed 100%. Which can’t happen.. instead what actually happens is water starts appearing on things as it’s forced out of the air when humidity goes over 100%. This is why your car might be wet in the morning even though it didn’t rain last night.
Why should you care? Well, if you want things to stay dry, don’t let them get cooled below the dew point. If you have clothes hanging on an outdoor clothesline to dry, the temperature is 70 degrees and the dew point is 68… maybe bring them in now if it’s getting colder. If you have equipment that could be damaged by getting wet, maybe it needs to be heated to avoid this or otherwise brought inside.
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