Why is the temperature taken in the shade and not in the sun?

Question

Seriously I work outside and why is the feels like a real temp and the temp on record is taken in the shade?

In: 75

Answer 1

Solar radiation has an effect on temperature as well as radiation reflected and emitted off of surfaces in direct sunlight, think hot asphalt parking lot, amongst other things like humidity, and wind. The temperature normally reported is the dry bulb air temperature, the kinetic energy of the air without any other factors.

There are other metrics like the Wet Bulb Globe Temperature which takes these other factors into account and can more accurately reflect how the temperature “feels”. The WBGT is in fact what the military and other agencies use to determine work rest cycles for operations in hot environments.

Edit to add: I don’t know for sure, but I’m assuming that the reason these more relevant measures like the WBGT are not used more often is simply due to the fact that they require many more measurements of different factors and are more complex to calculate.