WEATHER TRIVIA - VIRGA and DEWPOINT
WEATHER TRIVIA QUESTION:
What is the dewpoint and why is 65 degrees
so "key" to how it feels.
ANSWER: The dewpoint is the temperature
where the air becomes saturated. In other words
if the temperature were to drop to the dewpoint,
dew, clouds, rain, fog, snow , frost or some
kind of moisture would form. So, the temp. can
never fall below the dewpoint. However, it also
happens to correspond with how much water there
is in the air, so coincidentally, our bodies
react to a dewpoint of 65 or more in terms of
"feeling" the humidity. Whether the humidity is
50%, 70%, even 30%, it does NOT matter, we feel
the dewpoint more than the actual relative humidity,
as odd as that sounds.Of course when it is 95
degrees with a dewpoint of 75, we REALLY feel it,
as it makes it feel kind of like 105 (the heat
index, which isn't perfect)... Interesting
stuff! By the way, anything under 60 is comfortable
and any dewpoint over 70 is just plain muggy or
oppressive.
Last week's Weather Trivia Question is: What is Virga?
ANSWER:
Virga is simply precipitation falling that doesn't ever reach the ground. It shows up on radar very often and makes it "appear" to be raining or snowing on radar when actually it is not.
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