If our internal body temperature is 98°, how come we prefer weather at about 70?

Question

If our internal body temperature is 98°, how come we prefer weather at about 70?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Only your core temperature is at 37ºC. Your skin temperature is a lot less, and varies during the day depending on the surrounding climate, how much exercise you have been doing, illness, alcohol intake etc

We find 20ºC comfortable because that is roughly what our skin temperature is most often. If you have been exercising, your body has generated extra heat and wants to get rid of it. You then vasodilate the blood vessels in your skin to bring more of that hot core temperature to the surface to radiate it (and evaporate via sweat) away.