Heat index. A combination of air temperature and relative humidity that determines the human-perceived equivalent temperature. In other words, how hot it feels. Developed in 1978 by George Winterling and adapted by the National Weather Service in 1979. I suppose that’s why it seems hotter now than when I was a kid. Back then, all we had was a regular old thermometer. It wasn’t even digital.
Normally, a body is cooled through sweating which then evaporates and carries heat away from the body. Unfortunately when it’s muggy (high relative humidity), the evaporation rate is reduced to heat is removed at a lower rate causing more heat to be retained than it would be in dry air conditions.
Now I could go into all the technicalities of this and give you a very involved formula and caution you about how it makes certain assumptions about body mass and height, clothing, physical activity, blood thickness, sunlight, wind speed, and ultraviolet radiation exposure but instead I’ll direct you to this simple conversion site. You enter the temperature and humidity and with one little click they’ll do all the calculations for you.
Oh, in case you’re wondering, it is most definitely too damn hot here, no matter how you look at it. Temperature - 96° Heat Index - 104° At 5:30 PM. And tomorrow’s going to be even worse. Have I mentioned how much I hate summer?
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