Humidity (relative) is a fairly useless quantity. Dewpoint is a much more useful quantity. It is a measure of the actual amount of moisture in the air. If the dewpoint is in the mid to upper 70s it is pretty miserable. Dewpoints in the mid 50's is pretty nice. You can have high relative humidities with low dewpoints and it feels pretty nice. Once the temperature climbs into the mid 90's you will hardly ever see relative humidities over 50% but I can assure you that 95 with a relative humidity of 50% is pretty nasty weather.
A little tidbit of information for golfers. Golf balls fly further (marginally) when the air is muggier than when it is dry, assuming the same temperature.
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Originally Posted by Abby10
A few years back, my husband and I purposefully spent the full month of August in TV. We wanted to see what it was like and to determine for ourselves whether it would be tolerable or not. Maybe we hit a good year, I don't know, but we found it tolerable and many days even comfortable. If we were outside during the middle of the day, we either stayed in shaded areas or under patios/lanais with fans. The evenings cooled down some and there always seemed to be a breeze. It felt to me as if between the sandy soil and very hot sun, it actually burned off the humidity somewhat. Does that make sense? Not so here in the mid-Atlantic at all. When it's hot it is stifling and although the temp may go down in the evening it still feels like a steam bath when you walk outside. And it can last for days, sometimes weeks at a time. The humidity and resultant heat index is so high it truly is intolerable. I attribute it here to the very damp soil (a lot of clay) and the overwhelming number of deciduous trees, not to mention the congestion and other things already mentioned by others on this thread. Unless we have a very dry summer up here, it always feels somewhat damp. Mix that with heat and that's what I call uncomfortable.
And let's not even discuss utility bills. The size of my house up north is not triple the size of my house in Florida but the utility bills sure are! Not happy about that at all!
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