It really is the humidity

I've wondered whether it really is more humid than I remember it being growing up here in Minnesota. So I did a bit of research. Guess what? It is! The dew point is an absolute measure of how much water is in the air. The higher it is, the more humid. On my personal scale of discomfort, anything under 50 is fabulous, over 55 it starts getting sticky, over 65 is nasty and over 70 it's more like breathing water than air. Don't even ask me what I think of one of 80 - I can't use the words in a public forum. A high dew point also means the air won't cool off as much at night (or get as hot during the day - I think Miami's record high ever is 99 while ours is 108). Well, I found a couple of articles to help me figure this out (yes, I'm a librarian - notice my user name!). One, from about 10 years ago, lists the number of hours the dew point was above 78 in previous years (that's Florida level humidity). In the entire decade of the 1960s - and yes, I know I'd dating myself here - 12 hours. The 1970s - NONE. Yep, that's right. We went from 1966 to 1983 without a single hour of the dew point being over 78. No wonder I remember it being less humid - those were my growing up years. 1995 - 21 hours, 1996 - 10, 1999 - 20. So in one year, we had more hours over 78 than in a well over a decade. I don't have those stats from 1999 on, but I know there have certainly been more. A graph of average dew points shows several very high years. Why do I care so much? That's easy - I hate to sweat! Fun factoid: The time of the Dust Bowl had some of the lowest yearly average dew points ever - big surprise, eh? One theory for why this is happening is the change in the cultivation of corn. The new way it's planted has it releasing way more water into the air, so more humidity.

On the brighter side, the Roundup did kill some of that pesky ground cover after all.
And the flowers are really happy with this weather. So I'll be grateful for air conditioning and appreciate drier weather when I get it.