How humidity affects the human body

As summer draws closer, the heat and the humidity continue to ramp up here in Mid-Missouri. With many people taking vacation and enjoying the summer sun, sometimes it can be unbearable and feel quite sticky. This occurs because of the high moisture content in the atmosphere, which can be measured by a locations dew point. As a rule of thumb, anything above 60 degrees is a very humid atmosphere, with anything above 70 feeling significantly uncomfortable.

Beginning Thursday and lasting through the weekend, Mid-Missouri will get a taste of the heat and humidity. Each day temperatures are expected to top out in the 90s, with the heat indices climbing into the triple digits. It’s not only uncomfortable territory, but dangerous as well. According to the NWS, heat is the number one weather related killer in the US. A big reason the heat can take a toll on our body has a lot to do with the humidity and how it can hinder our body from cooling down efficiently.

The human body is very impressive, but can be quite fragile at times. Just a small change in temperatures in the body can lead to hypothermia or heat related illnesses. The average temperature of the human body is 98 degrees, so when outside temperatures deviate from that your body works to cool itself off or keep heat trapped in the body.

When the outside temperature is lower than 98 degrees, your body begins to work in different ways to save energy and keep heat trapped into the body. This is done through saving energy, reducing the blood flow to certain parts of your body, or shivering the bones and organs in your body to produce heat.

When the outside temperature is higher than 98 degrees your body begins to sweat. Sweating is one of the most efficient ways at cooling the human body off. The average human has 5 million pores on their body and on a hot day, you are sweating through every single one of them. As your body releases water through the pores, it evaporates into the atmosphere and cools you off. This can only occur though when humidity is on the low side.

When humidity is high, much like we’re going to see this weekend across Mid-Missouri, it is extremely difficult to evaporate sweat. The higher the humidity (or the higher the dew point temperature), the more moisture that the air is holding. With more moisture in the air, it’s very difficult for the sweat to evaporate off of our skin. This keeps the heat trapped closer to our body and makes it feel even hotter than what the actual air temperature is.

Higher humidity also leads to a greater risk of seeing heat related illnesses. Not only does it feel uncomfortable and/or sticky outside, but when our sweat doesn’t evaporate our body temperature keeps rising. This leads to either heat exhaustion, heat stroke, or even death.

In the summer months it is crucial to make sure you know what the heat index will be during the day, so you can take the necessary precaution to prevent any heat related illnesses. One of the key ways to do this is to drink plenty of water, take it easy during the hottest part of the day, and cool off when you do begin to get hot.

Other things you can do to prevent your body from overheating is by wearing light colored clothing, stay away from heavy meals, as this sends your body into metabolic overdrive and causes more heat in your body, and stay away from alcohol and caffeine.

Stay with ABC 17 Stormtrack as we continue to monitor the heat in Mid-Missouri and follow us on Twitter @ABC17Stormtrack.