Why does humidity make temperature feel hot, but restaurants use misters to cool the patrons?

Question

I live in a town with a lot of humidity in summer. I perspire a lot, but restaurants around here have misters outdoors to “cool things down”. How does that work? How can adding more humidity make the heat more tolerable?

In: 340

Answer 1

When it’s humid outside, the water is already in the air and already at the same temperature as the air. When you use misters, you’re adding cool water to warm air. This means, as the water evaporates, the humidity goes up while making the air temperature go down. So it’s taking warm, dry air and turning it into cool, damp air.