China Heatwave!

[abcdefg]

Hate to rub it in, but Kunming is still rocking along with daytime highs in the upper 20's and nights in the middle to upper teens. Pleasant breeze in the evening. Rain showers off and on, but not violent or prolonged.

[jbradfor]

How's the weather now? Has the third plague started yet, after the heat and the rain?

[xianhua]

I believe gnats were heavily involved in the third plague. Let's wait and see if the next round takes on biblical proportions.

[roddy]

How's the weather now? Utterly horrible. We've seen neither rain nor shine for weeks, it's just been an interminable gray haze, stifling heat and sweat-inducing humidity. Those weeks of plain heat and sun I quite enjoyed, the rain you can at least engage with a bit, but this . . .

Rumours of rain tomorrow night bringing the temperature down to 30'C. We shall see.

[Flying Pigeon]

Was wondering when it was going to rain. Two plates of dumplings, two beers, a cranky waitress and a bike ride home in warm rain. I am cleansed.

[roddy]

Have you had proper rain? There were some droplets earlier as I was walking from dinner to pudding, but I think it was just the air wringing itself out.

[Flying Pigeon]

Proper. I'm pleasantly soaked. I think it has stopped, but there's still water on the roads. The cars make a sloshing sound as they drive by.

[Brian US]

I didn't know how much longer I could take of the humidity, but at least today has a slight breeze. Plan to go to Guilin in two weeks, but it has and will continue to rain everyday...

[SiMaKe]

@Brian

The humidity in Beijing is currently 74% while in Guilin it's 94%. So I guess you are not expecting much relief when you get there. :rolleyes:

But looking on the bright side, just think of all the toxins that are being washed out of your system by the "sweat-inducing humidity".

BTW, here it's 40% humidity, 74F (23C) with blue skies, white puffy clouds and a light breeze. Give it some time for the prevailing westerlies to bring this your way.

[skylee]

I am not sure why 94% humidity is special ... here in HK humidity of 90% to 99%, and up to 100% in spring, is nothing unusual.

BTW, could someone tell me what 100% humidity means? I know it is "relative" but I am not sure what it means (except that it is really humid).

Today it is 29 to 33 degrees in HK.

[jbradfor]

It's relative to the maximum amount of water the air can "hold" at that temperature. [The higher the temperature, the more water air can "hold".]

[i don't know if that actually helps...]

Another interesting weather number to track is the "dew point"; not sure how common it is to discuss other places, but it's mentioned a lot here. It's the temperature at which, with the current amount of moisture in the air, one would reach 100% humidity. It's useful as it is an "absolute" measure, unlike relative humidity.

[FWIW, we had a beautiful day here in MN. High around 80 (I'm too lazy to convert, sorry!), low humidity, slight breeze, some clouds. Had some friends in town and we went to a local park for 2 hours for the kids to play while we talked.]

[Brian US]

I walked out of my air conditioned room into the rest of my apartment to have my glasses fog over...I've never had that happen before.

Also heard from someone today that it is the hottest summer in over 50 years here in Beijing. Haven't seen that confirmed or bothered to look anywhere for that statistic.

[SiMaKe]

@skylee

I am not sure why 94% humidity is special ...

It is "special" in the context of my remark to Brian US' s comment that while he thought it was excessively humid in Beijing, I took the opportunity to joke with him that since he is heading to Guilin, he should not expect lower humidity as it was 20% higher there than what he is already experiencing in Beijing.

BTW, could someone tell me what 100% humidity means?

To expand on jbradfor's response a little, let me offer the following analogy. Think of air as a sponge, e.g., something you might use to wash dishes. The sponge can be completely dry/void of moisture (theoretically). That state would represent 0% humidity. Now start adding water to the sponge. As more water is added, each stage represents the different levels of humidity. At the point where the sponge is saturated and water starts dripping out, the sponge is now "holding" the maximum that it can. This state represents 100% humidity. It's "relative" because it measures the amount relative to (or as a percentage of) the maximum amount possible for the sponge.

BTW, it doesn't need to be at 100% humidity before it starts to rail. Rain and humidity are related but not that directly.

[skylee]

Thanks for the explanation. I remember that there were at least 2 days earlier this year when the HK Observatory told us that the relative humidity was 100% and each time I thought to myself "then why is it not raining".

[roddy]

Humidity is important as the more moisture there is in the air, the harder it is for sweat to evaporate. So it just accumulates and drips, and it's not very nice. Unless you are an ever-fragrant beauty such as Skylee, in which case you don't even perspire.

[gougou]

Oh how nice and cool it was this morning! Somewhere around 25C, i'm guessing, with the high forecast for only 31C. Should be a nice day!

[roddy]

Yeah, things have been easing off a bit lately.