How does humidity work? Right now, where I live it is 73% humity and 75 degrees and it doesn’t feel humid. In Costa Rica, the numbers were similar and it felt like I was in a shower. I know it has to do with humidity, temps, and dewpoint. I just can’t wrap my brain around it.
In: Planetary Science
Lets take an example of a bathroom sponge which will represent the air in this example. If the sponge is completely dry, it can be said to have zero percent humidity. If you dip it in water, some of the water ‘evaporates’ into the sponge, raising it’s humidity. Eventually after repeated dippings the sponge is completely full, having 100% humidity.
Now, go ahead and squeeze that sponge. If the sponge is at 100% humidity any squeeze will release water back as liquid. However, if the sponge is only half full of water, squeezing it a little might not release any water. Further squeezing is required until it is dense enough for water to condense out.
Air works in a similar way as the sponge, where the dew point is the temperature ‘squeeze’ where the air can’t hold any liquid any more. As air cools it becomes more dense, thus squeezing the water out just like the bathroom sponge.
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