Fluther: What happens when Humidity reaches 100%?

What happens when Humidity reaches 100%?

Asked by anthony81212 (389

) September 21st, 2008
20 responses
“Great Question” (0

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Weather forecasts always show the expected humidity levels for today, but I wonder, what would happen if the humidity level reaches 100%?

More important: Would we all drown?

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Topics: science, weather, geography, physics, meteorology, Earth, social studies

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Answers

Isn’t that called “rain”?

gailcalled (54644

)“Great Answer” (5

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The earth takes a shower.

asmonet (21445

)“Great Answer” (0

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100% humidity would result in low level clouds and or fog.

xioioix (92

)“Great Answer” (1

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I am wrong. Harp will explain.

gailcalled (54644

)“Great Answer” (0

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First, I think you’re talking about relative humidity. Relative humidity is “relative” because it’s tied to temperature. Warm air can hold more water in vapor form than cool air can, so it takes less water to saturate cool air than warm.

100% relative humidity is the point at which the air can hold no more water vapor. Liquid water left out would be unable to evaporate at all. If the temperature were to lower even a tiny bit, some of the water vapor in the air would be forced to condense back into liquid water, and you’d get precipitation, fog, or dew.

Harp (19179

)“Great Answer” (16

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My bad. Harp is clearly more genius on this subject than I.

asmonet (21445

)“Great Answer” (0

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Damn. Harp beat me to it. Maybe there is more than one resident meteorologist on Fluther.

Les (10005

)“Great Answer” (1

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Asm: Don’t feel bad. Harp is clearly more genius about everything than most people.

Nimis (13255

)“Great Answer” (1

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100% humidity is called “fog”.

AstroChuck (37609

)“Great Answer” (0

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@AC:Not necessarily.

Les (10005

)“Great Answer” (0

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As I know here in Florida, depending on the temperature, it can precipitate out onto cars, objects, plants, etc., especially this time of year.

marinelife (62485

)“Great Answer” (0

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The air becomes fully saturated and it sucks outside. But yeah, it can result in different types of precipitate (aqueous not the chemical type).

Jreemy (168

)“Great Answer” (0

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You will sweat out of control!!!

gooch (5749

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Yeah, the reason 100% humidity feels so godawful is that an important part of our bodies’ temperature control system can no longer function. We rely on the cooling effect of the evaporation of the sweat from our skin to cool us off in hot weather, but if the relative humidity is at 100%, the sweat can’t evaporate, so it does nothing to cool us off. You might as well be wearing a rubber suit. The body’s response is to send out even more sweat. I grew up in Houston, so I had ample opportunity to study the phenomenon

Harp (19179

)“Great Answer” (3

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