Dubai: The sun has set and the mercury has gone down but none of that is helping with the heat — you still feel as if you’re inside an oven and you can hardly breathe.
This feeling is normal at this time of the year, forecasters said, because relative humidity — which measures how much moisture is in the air based on its capacity to hold moisture — tends to increase at night till early morning when temperatures go down.
On Monday, the coastal areas of Abu Dhabi will have higher relative humidity reaching up to 90 per cent from Al Ruwais onwards. The city centre will have lower levels at 75 per cent, similar to Dubai, Sharjah, and Ras Al Khaimah, that will have a maximum of up to 70 per cent.
This comes as no surprise as the average maximum relative humidity in July is between 65 per cent and 81 per cent, according to the National Centre of Meteorology and Seismology (NCMS).
It reached 100 per cent during the first week of July in coastal areas, including Dubai.
“This is so because of the air mass affecting our area at this time,” a forecaster from NCMS explained to Gulf News. “Normally, with high temperature, low humidity is recorded. But the air mass coming from over the sea or from over the Indian Ocean is different. This air mass already has higher humidity levels or water vapour or moisture content because, during daytime, the temperature is very high and humidity is also high in the area where it’s coming from.”
The higher the humidity level, the more moisture there is in the air. And once it reaches 100 per cent, people will feel even hotter because the body cannot dissipate heat.
Sweating is the body’s way to cool itself off. But that’s not enough. The sweat drops have to evaporate in the air to complete the body’s cooling process but high humidity disrupts this, giving the body that sticky and uneasy feeling.
To help the body cool off, wear loose and light cotton clothing. Stay indoors in air-conditioned rooms, especially the elderly and young people.
Why does my car thermometer have a higher reading?
A slight increase in temperature recorded in car thermometers compared with outside is due to many factors, including ambient temperature.
For thermometers to be completely accurate, they should be placed in areas completely isolated from structures, crowded streets or any heat source. They should also be placed somewhere without insulation.
Thermal sensors should be placed between 175cm and 225cm above the ground. But, in most cars, the sensors are placed in an area that could be influenced by another heat source like the ground since asphalt absorbs and reflects heat, making the temperature reading slightly higher than it normally is.
Source: NCMS
