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
100% humidity is the maximum amount of water that the air can hold. Exactly how much water this is depends on temperature, so if you took a warm room at 50% humidity and cooled it down the humidity would rise – not because more water appeared but because the water that’s already there is getting closer to the maximum as the maximum is decreasing.
If you have a room at 100% humidity and cool it down, the extra water that can no longer be held gets dropped and becomes a liquid. When this happens outside, it forms dew. For any amount of water in the air, there’s a temperature where that would be 100% humidity and further cooling would cause liquid to form. This temperature is the dew point.
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