Why is there such a thing as a “feels like” temperature? For example, in NYC, it’s 91 degrees today but the weather app says it “fees like” 99 degrees
In: Earth Science
Your body does not sense temperature. Your body senses the rate of heat transfer to your surroundings. This is why grabbing a bag of ice from the freezer feels colder than a freezer meal in cardboard packaging. Your body feels heat leaving your hands and finger tips and tells you about it via the sensation of cold. It’s a function of how fast the heat is leaving. Touching 30F cardboard is almost negligible because cardboard is a poor conductor of heat. Touching 30F ice feels very cold because ice conducts heat extremely well, and has a large specific heat, so it’ll absorb lots of heat before changing its temperature much.
So for the “feels like” temperatures, it’s a function of how quickly your body sheds heat to the air around you. In areas with very low humidity, sweating is a very efficient process. If you increase the humidity percentage, your body can’t shed heat as well because sweat doesn’t evaporate as quickly. In addition, the air itself now holds more moisture, which holds more thermal energy. Surprisingly, humid air actually transfers heat less efficiently than dry air (even though water transfer heat better than air) and this is because water vapor changes the thermal properties of dry air. Because the air transfer heat more poorly, your body can’t shed heat as quickly. The end result is your body feeling like it’s hotter outside because heat isn’t leaving your body as quickly, which is perceived as hotter ambient temperatures.
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