Hot weather knocking on our door takes us to humid summer days. When we watch the weather in summer, we all take into account the humidity rather than the temperature.
On some days the weather can be very oppressive although thermometers do not show very high degrees. This is where the concept of humidity comes into play.
First of all, let’s explain the concept of “humidity”, which is our leading role:
In its simplest form, we can say that humidity is the ratio of water in the air. Since the moisture suspended in the air in the form of vapor is in gas form, we cannot see it with the naked eye.
We used the term “in its simplest form” when describing humidity, but the situation is not that simple. In fact, there are three types of the concept, the general term of which is “moisture”.
- Absolute Humidity
- Maximum Humidity
- Relative (Relative) Humidity
Humidity type that makes its presence felt intensely in summer: Absolute Humidity
It expresses the amount of moisture in the air in 1 m³ volume. In our country, it is actually “absolute humidity” that makes people feel uncomfortable, especially in the Mediterranean, on hot summer days. In other words, absolute humidity, expressed in grams, is the type of humidity that is popularly referred to as humidity.
Maximum load that can be loaded into the air: Maximum Humidity
As you can guess from the name, it is the maximum humidity level that the air can hold. However, there is an important point here: how many degrees the air has.
As the temperature rises, the amount of moisture it can carry increases as the air expands at certain rates. When the opposite happens, that is, when the temperature of the air drops, shrinkage will occur, and thus the maximum humidity will decrease. From this, we can deduce that the moisture capacity of the air depends on the temperature.
The percentages we encounter in the weather: Relative (Relative) Humidity
We can express it as the ratio of the amount of water in the air -in the form of water vapor- to the maximum amount of water that can be found in the air. The percentage humidity expressions we see in the weather condition actually refer to relative humidity.
For example, on Sunday, May 1, meteorology predicted that the highest temperature would be 20°C, and reported that the highest humidity would be 85%. The first of the conclusions we can draw from here is that the air may carry 85% water on Sunday, while the second is that a sweltering weather awaits you that day.
So if the relative humidity is 100%, does the air turn into water?
Relative humidity, that is, reaching 100% of water in the air means that the air is fully saturated with moisture. If we think of the air as a sponge; when this sponge fills its full capacity to absorb water, this indicates that that sponge cannot carry any more water.
The best example of relative humidity rising to very high levels is “fog”. When the humidity in the air is very close to reaching maximum capacity, we see a dense fog.
In other words, if the humidity in the air reaches 100%, it means that the air has filled its water vapor capacity that it can trap. However, when the relative humidity is 100%, precipitation occurs when the air that does not turn into water encounters water vapor above its capacity.
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