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

Finally I can add some additional information! Many of the other comments talk about the effect of the mist on the actual person. But misters actually provide an additional benefit that helps keep you cool.

The evaporation also cools the local air in the same manner it cools you. By constantly pushing out water droplets it provides a constant cooling effect. Of course once you turn off the mister the air quickly returns to an equilibrium with the surrounding hotter air. The same issues with humidity make it so the drier it is the stronger the effect will be.