3 ms·
That's highly dependent on humidity. If it's dry your body has means to cool itself through perspiration, but if the air is saturated in water vapor, temperatur
by ajnin 5y ago
That's highly dependent on humidity. If it's dry your body has means to cool itself through perspiration, but if the air is saturated in water vapor, temperatures as low as 35 or 36C can be deadly.
- jandrewrogers 5y agoFortunately, we are not on the east coast. I don't know about Portland but Seattle's humidity is < 50%, which means normal human cooling systems will be efficient assuming you drink prodigious amounts of water to replace the evaporative losses. Also some electrolytes. It reminds me a bit of when I would go on expeditions in the southwest deserts. I am constantly drinking prodigious quantities of water throughout the day but rarely need to urinate. But with more sweat than the southwest deserts, which have extremely dry air (you mostly don't sweat at all because it has no liquid phase). As long as people drink enough fluid, they should be fine.
- jfengel 5y agoI grew up on the east coast, and was always baffled by the notion that sweat kept you cool. In my experience, sweat just made you slimy. I knew the physics of it, but it just didn't seem to work. Then I visited the southwest, and noticed that I was perfectly comfortable on 100F days. Then I noticed that I wasn't slimy, either. And then it all clicked into place: the basic physics explanation doesn't apply if the air is already saturated.