Sometimes I can be outside in shorts in 40-50°F weather and feel great and other times I am shivering in the mid 60’s.
Other than humidity, are there some internal things that affect how we feel at different temps such as blood sugar or hormones or the like?
In: 7
Two things: Humidity and Wind
First, the way your body cools itself down is by sweat evaporating on your skin. When you sweat a thin layer of water goes on your skin. The sweat absorbs heat from your body, cooling the body off to evaporate. So…
When humidity is high, the air is already rich with water, so your sweat has a harder time evaporating. This making it feel warmer than it normally would with ‘dry’ air.
When it’s windy, more air is passing over your skin, allow more sweat to evaporate, which cools you off more than it would with still air at the same temperature.
u/Shawnaldo7575 covered the external physics part. There is also your body temperature which can change your perception. For instance if you are sick and running a fever vs not, you will perceive the same temp differently. All of a sudden in your home at the same temp, same humidity, you got the Flu running a 101.5 temp and you feel chilled.
Your body doesn’t feel temperature as much as it does heat/energy transfer. I’m addition to things like wind chill and heat index, it’s why materials feel hotter or colder than others of the same temperature, a 50F block of copper will feel cooler than a 50F block of plastic because the material has a higher thermal mass and conductivity and will draw more heat more quickly from your skin.
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