NOT!!
If I had a dollar for every time I heard that back home. No, it is NOT a dry heat. The past few days we've been havin' a cool snap. A tropical cool snap.
Even though daytime temps are hovering in the low 100's, the humidity has soared to near 80%. Yuck! Really, I don't know what's worse: Temps near 100 with 80% humidity or temps near 110 with humidiy at 45%. With one, my feet are slipping around inside of my shoes and my hands feel as if they are coated with slime (my own body slime). With the other, it's like a furnace blast resonating up from the pavement through your shoes and into your face every time you walk around.
It's so humid! . . . How humid is it?
When I walked out of the office this morning my glasses fogged up.
The building is collecting condensation on all the windows
I had to run the windsheild wipers to wipe of the condensation that formed where the A/C air is hitting the windsheild.
My hands are slipping off of my handbag straps as I walk down the street.
My hair has developed curls that have never been seen before.
The water on the pavement that leaked from watering the plants last night was still there when I left for work this morning.
Maybe if you've lived in Louisiana or Mississippi, you're used to this. But to me it is just too odd to see the whole building sweating like a cold pitcher of water.
How to cope?
Stay out of the sun (no brainer there).
Learn to live with sweat (sweat happens).
Use prickly heat powder (J&J makes one here).
Carry an umbrella.
Get outside once the sun goes down - or else you'll go mad!
Take a dip in the pool.
Speaking of which, I noticed this morning that the pool is now clean. When I got back from the US, it had been suffering from 3 weeks of no pool guy. It wasn't exactly green, but I couldn't see the bottom - murky. When he came by last Saturday, I saw him head out back, see the mess, and heave a heavy sigh. He mostly vacuumed when he was in on Saturday. When he left, it was still murky, but less so. This wasn't going to be solved in one visit. I figured it was probably ok to swim - I'm sure he had shocked the water. But it seemed less than inviting. Plus, I've been working late and not up for a swim when I finally have a moment around 9 or 9:30 (at that time, I'm feeling a lot like going to bed!) But today, after his second visit yesterday, the pool is crystal clear. I dipped my toe the other day. It's not bath water temps, but there won't be any hint of that cool-shock that you can get when you first get into a pool. I'm hankering for a swim tonight. After I clean the patio, maybe.
And a question for you physics-geeks out there - you know who you are. So, when it's hot - I mean really really hot - like say 110 or 115, it actually seems quieter when I go outside. Doors close more quietly, footsteps sound more muffled. Is it possible that the heat interferes with the transmission of sound? with my ears reception of sound? or am I just imagining it? It's also possible that it is actually more quiet. When it's hot like that - ain't no one wants to be out in that.
Edited to add
So, I looked it up and found this:
http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/may98/896275999.Ph.r.html
It's not super conclusive, but does seem to point to sound traveling better in cold air. And from other web sites I looked at - it seems that maybe humidity has more to do with it than temps. I've yet to find something in plain English that will tell me if things sound more quiet when it is hot and humid. So, if you find it, post here.
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5 comments:
I vote pool and never, EVER leaving the house.
OK. I'm no physics geek but think about this....what if its actually your EARS that are being affected by the heat? Maybe the ear canal swells or the little hairs do something different in that kind of heat? Just a thought from an amateur....
The humidity in the air can effect how far sound travels. I don't know the details but I remember reading some book about lion researchers in East Africa years ago. These guys debunked the previous belief that lions did not roar during part of the year - I think the theory had something to do with mating season. Anyway, they found that lions roar at all times of the year, you just don't hear it from very far away sometimes because of the humidity in the air.
This would be a more impressive factoid if I could remember anything more than that.
BTW I admit to my physics geekiness, it just didn't help me out on this one.
Unless, of course, that was the reason I was fascinated enough with the idea of humidity effecting the distance at which you could hear a lions roar.
:-)
for Amygirl.
From B-I-L.
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