Thinking about this while I sit in 20 degrees heat sweating my ass off. Like shouldn’t anything under 37 degrees feel cold to us?
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Sitting in the sun, beyond what other’s have said about skin temperature, causes sunlight to be absorbed by the electrons in your skin and quickly release that energy as heat. Even if it is, say, 20C, your skin can get well above that in direct sunlight. It’s also why a car sitting closed in a 27C day can reach up to 35-40C, which is why it can kill unattended children or animals.
Your body regulates its internal temperature by controlling (to a certain extent) how much heat is generated inside, as well as how much heat is lost through the skin and lungs.
Your body is basically constantly cooling itself through your skin and lungs to offset the heat being generated inside from muscles and organs and everything else going on.
Cooling through the skin depends on things like the temperature of the air, air movement, and humidity. If the air is warmer, the temperature difference might not be enough to lose enough heat through your skin directly and your body will respond by sweating so that evaporation increases the cooling effect.
So the hot feeling is your body’s signal telling you that it’s not cooling off fast enough and you’ll probably start sweating.
Having a fan blow on you doesn’t make the air cooler but it makes it move, so it can more efficiently remove heat from your skin. This is why having a fan on makes you feel cooler even though the air is the same temperature.
Side note, this is why spacesuits require cooling
In space there’s nowhere for your body heat to go, vaccum being a perfect insulator. Without significant cooling in the suit, your body heat would kill you in just a few minutes
Wow, so my skin’s a diva that can’t handle the heat? Typical.
Same reason why your car engine runs at around 100 degrees C (give or take several degrees) but still needs coolant even when the temperature is 0 degrees C outside: because your body generates a lot of heat by doing all of its body functions.
Along the same lines, does being in water at 37.5C, with no motion and no air, feel like nothing? Is that the temp of a sensory deprivation chamber?
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