MY MISSION

ITS ALL ABOUT COMFORT LEVEL

I look at the dewpoint as kind of like the wind chill only in reverse. Most people understand in the winter when the weather is cold, and it is a windy day it “FEELES” even colder than the temperature indicates. The same could apply in the spring. Say its mid-day with a temperature of 70 and a dew point of 62 this would feel reasonably comfortable, but if the temperature was 70 degrees and the dew point was 25 degrees that might “Feel” chilly or to some people almost cold, especially if there was a breeze or if it was windy. Even indoors the dew point plays a role in our comfort. I live-in south-east Georgia. I have a heat pump for heating and cooling which is the most common way to heat and cool in the south. I set my thermostat in the winter to 73 which you would think would be comfortable well, it is not. I feel cold all the time. Spring ahead to the same indoor temp of 73 only it is an April day and I feel completely comfortable. Why? You guessed it correctly “It’s all about the dew point” The winter day that was 73 inside had a dew point in the low 40’s yet the same temperature of 73 degrees in April had inside dew point in the mid to upper 50’S. The problem in the winter is there just is not enough moisture in the air. I have tried using humidifiers in the winter, but they had their issues. I even tried a whole house humidified attached to the air handler and that too had problems. You cannot beat mother nature adding that moisture to the air. It takes several days of outside dew points in the lower 60’s to filter inside the house but once it does it feels so much more comfortable.

The above example also applies to the skin. In the winter, my hands and fingers become all cracked and red and sore. I use all kinds of creams and it helps a bit but not much. Of course, frequent hand washing which is a must only makes the problem worse. Now, spring ahead to April and all that hand and finger discomfort has miraculously gone away, why? You guessed it the consistently higher dew points makes all the difference.

THE PERFECT DEW POINT

What is the perfect dew point? That is a very subjective question, however generally most people find a dew point between 55-65 degrees is ideal. According to who you say. Well, that is what the NWS says. Here is the link if you want to go read it. https://www.weather.gov/arx/why_dewpoint_vs_humidity.
To some one who lives in North Dakota or Minnesota might say on a day the dew point is 65 degrees it is uncomfortably humid turn on the air conditioning. Yet that same dew point of 65 degrees to a resident in Florida might say turn off the air conditioner and open the windows for that refreshing air. I lived in Florida for twenty-three years I never put the air conditioning on until the dew point was 70 degrees or higher. A lot of this comes down to personal preferences, like what’s better vanilla or chocolate ice cream or who makes the best pizza. Obviously where one lives and for how long they have lived there plays a tremendous difference in comfort level.
In Florida they rarely would discuss the dew point in the media because most of the time even in the winter it can get excessively high. Sometimes in the summer the dew point could be in the lower 80’s. that is oppressively HOT! The Florida tourist industry do not want to dwell on how uncomfortable the weather can be most of the summer and well into the fall. Even with air-conditioning virtually everywhere. Meteorologist do not like to bring up the dew point because It is Floridan’s dirty little secret. Going back to North Dakota or Minnesota maybe they have their dirty little secret too like dew points well below zero I mean 60 to 70 degrees below zero in the winter. Surprisingly, I had trouble finding record low dew points for those areas. Google listed plenty of data for record high dew points but nothing for record low dew points. See what I mean about dirty little secrets!!!