DewPoint & Humidity

Reading a lot of people's blog entires I'm noticing a lot talk about the hot temps and humidity. So I figured it would be good to post some sites on the subject. I have been one to follow the dewpoint number more then just looking at temps and humidity %.

http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/190/

http://www.shorstmeyer.com/wxfaqs/humidity/humidity.html

http://einstein.atmos.colostate.edu/~mcnoldy/Humidity.html

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/dry-wet-bulb-dew-point-air-d_682.html

http://www.runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=8290&page=1

PWATS too...that means alot around here. During last summer, the PWATS were extraordinarily high (the remenents of Hurricane Alex) that is made it hard to breathe.

The aforementioned high PWATs – precipitable water, a measure of how deep the water would be on the ground if a column of air over a given location were to wring itself out

I am a dew point follower as well. In general if the dew point is in the 50s it is somewhat noticeable, the 60s, very noticeable, 70s generally uncomfortable to oppressively humid, 80s oppressively humid unless it's actually raining by this time. As the air temperature rises, so does the capability of the atmosphere to hold more water. Last week we had a couple days of 105 plus heat index in the mid to late afternoon. July and August are the most humid months here in eastern NE. By September, it noticeably becomes less humid.

Very interesting! Thanks for posting these links! I have not ever thought about looking at dew point and how it will affect my run, and yet every minute of every day at work I am looking at dew point info for its affect on aviation. I'm keen to start paying attention to this detail. Thanks Schuey!

Thanks for sharing!

A comment: when I ran Twin Cities in 2007, the same date as THE Chicago marathon, I recall my brother-in-law saying that Minneapolis recorded the highest dew point for the date (the day before the marathon). I didn't really give it much thought at the time as to what that meant. Then we had high temps for our marathon and of course I heard all about Chicago.

80 degrees, 88% humidity, and a dewpoint of 73 this morning. Felt pretty darn oppressive to me!

@Ken Mello wrote:80 degrees, 88% humidity, and a dewpoint of 73 this morning. Felt pretty darn oppressive to me!

+1...

From the Storm2k.org forums:

From Tireman4 (me)

I officially HATE summer. Thank you.

Apparently Texas has 2 points system in summer: indoor or outdoor.

I lose most of the interest running those days.

@Ken Mello wrote:80 degrees, 88% humidity, and a dewpoint of 73 this morning. Felt pretty darn oppressive to me!

Go back to your liberal state.

Memphis: 84 degrees w/ dew point of 73 - at 5:00am this morning. We will all just have to deal with it for about eight more weeks. Bear down!

@charles wrote:Memphis: 84 degrees w/ dew point of 73 - at 5:00am this morning. We will all just have to deal with it for about eight more weeks. Bear down!

Two months for you...Around the last week of September for the folks in Houston....LOL

I feel much better about our summer here. According to weather.com, we have a dew pt. of 26 and humidity of 8% right now.

Last week, there were dew points in the 60s, and it felt more like the summers I was used to growing up in Nebraska.

Wowsters...

Yesterday, ran at an all-comers track meet in 87F deg (78F deg dew point), that is a heat index of 100F deg.
It was rough... Only about 1/2 the starters end up finishing the 5000m.

Ran in 97 F degrees (73 deg dew point) tonight, that is a heat index of 105 F deg.
Made my 10.5 mile run pretty tough.

I think yesterday was worse for running. Sweating did not cool you down at all.

@Matt W wrote:

I feel much better about our summer here. According to weather.com, we have a dew pt. of 26 and humidity of 8% right now.

Last week, there were dew points in the 60s, and it felt more like the summers I was used to growing up in Nebraska.

Matt you luck duck! I would kill for that dew point and humidity right now. And I though we were doing good with 57% and a dew point of 52 today. A break from the 70% and 60 to upper 60 dew points.

@Gobbles wrote:Wowsters...

Yesterday, ran at an all-comers track meet in 87F deg (78F deg dew point), that is a heat index of 100F deg.
It was rough... Only about 1/2 the starters end up finishing the 5000m.

Ran in 97 F degrees (73 deg dew point) tonight, that is a heat index of 105 F deg.
Made my 10.5 mile run pretty tough.

I think yesterday was worse for running. Sweating did not cool you down at all.

Gobbles I feel your pain, I was just down in Florida and everyday the dew point was in the 70's. Unreal and sure does make it tough to run fast in. It's like the body can't cool itself down. When I was running all I could think about was jumping in the pool afterwards.

Take a look at these AVERAGE Dew Points for the day for the end of each month (and yesterday) since April for Houston Texas! We aren't even to the worst part yet. I hate summer!!

April 30, 2011: Avg. Temp = 78 and Avg. Dew Point = 70
May 31, 2011: Avg. Temp = 85 and Avg. Dew Point = 72
June 30, 2011: Avg. Temp = 84 and Avg. Dew Point = 70
July 13, 2011: Avg. Temp = 85 and Avg. Dew Point = 75

@Joel H wrote:Take a look at these AVERAGE Dew Points for the day for the end of each month (and yesterday) since April for Houston Texas! We aren't even to the worst part yet. I hate summer!!

April 30, 2011: Avg. Temp = 78 and Avg. Dew Point = 70
May 31, 2011: Avg. Temp = 85 and Avg. Dew Point = 72
June 30, 2011: Avg. Temp = 84 and Avg. Dew Point = 70
July 13, 2011: Avg. Temp = 85 and Avg. Dew Point = 75

At least know you'll get a good sweat in...glass half full???

@Nick Morris wrote:

@Joel H wrote:Take a look at these AVERAGE Dew Points for the day for the end of each month (and yesterday) since April for Houston Texas! We aren't even to the worst part yet. I hate summer!!

April 30, 2011: Avg. Temp = 78 and Avg. Dew Point = 70
May 31, 2011: Avg. Temp = 85 and Avg. Dew Point = 72
June 30, 2011: Avg. Temp = 84 and Avg. Dew Point = 70
July 13, 2011: Avg. Temp = 85 and Avg. Dew Point = 75

At least know you'll get a good sweat in...glass half full???

As for a good sweat, if you call water pouring down my shirt as it hangs on my bathroom shower then I guess so. It literally was coming down 4-5 rows of sweat even 30 minutes after my run this morning. Not just dripping like a faucet but like a small constant flow of water.

The glass half full is that our winters USUALLY rock. This past winter was unseasonably warm with lots of up/down weather (some days lows were in the 30s then the next day it was in the low 60s) but usually we are in the low 30s/high 50s for most of the winter. I just wish our summer's weren't so dang long, nearly 6 months of Dew Points above 70 makes it hard to run fast.

I also follow the **Do Point**

When it's hot, I DO run.