As we all know, most folks from our neck of the woods are not too keen on those stiflingly muggy days, where you feel like all of the energy has just been drained right out of you.
On the other hand, many of us delight in bright summer days, without any noticeable humidity at all. And thus the title of this week’s column, which you’ll understand as you read on.
You see, we hate muggy days because our body’s cooling mechanism, the evaporation of our sweat, works less efficiently, since the air is already chock-full of water vapor. These are the days where you sweat a ton, and need to keep drinking to avoid dehydration.
But there is another, sneaky, way in which we can become dehydrated. On the very days we love, those low-humidity days, the air can sometimes be so dry that you hardly notice you are sweating at all while working or playing hard outdoors.
The reason?
Your body’s sweat is instantly being evaporated by the super-dry air, and, here’s the key, you don’t realize how much fluid you are losing! So it is absolutely critical to drink lots of water, even if you don’t see yourself sweating during a workout!
Just because you are not sweating does not mean you don’t need to drink!
So low humidity? Yes, I’ll drink to that!
Ted Shapiro holds the Broadcast Seal of Approval from both the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association. An Alexandria, Va. native, he has been chief meteorologist at WAGM-TV since 2006. Email him at tshapiro@wagmtv.com.
