Why is humid heat so much more unbearable than dry heat?
In: Biology
How hot you feel has to do with how well your body can expel excess heat (and in the winter, how cold you feel has to do with how quickly heat leaves your body when you don’t want it to). You expel heat by:
* sweating (sweat evaporates, taking heat energy with it)
* breathing (warm, moist air leaves your body)
* just radiating it away (so it helps to wear less clothing)
On a humid day, your sweat doesn’t evaporate quickly, so the heat stays in your body, making you miserable.
This is also why you can get heat exhaustion without realizing it in a hot desert: sweat is carrying your excess heat away quickly, right up to the point where you are dehydrated. You feel fine up until you don’t.
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