We will hear more about wet bulb temperature
You know how it is: -5 degrees doesn't always feel the same. And not plus 35 degrees either. Jörg Kachelmann explains how this phenomenon can be measured.
Is the air warm or hot? Is the air dry or humid? From a wet bulb temperature of 35 degrees, the human body can no longer cool itself and becomes life-threatening.
Photo: Getty Images
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If you still have an old analog thermometer in which the liquid rises or falls depending on the temperature, you are ready to use a wet bulb thermometer. This was the usual method for accurately determining relative humidity.
Weather stations had so-called psychometers. This consists of a regular thermometer and also a thermometer that looks just like it with a wet sock around the bottom of the ball.
This pair of thermometers was then rotated around an axis to create a draft. Depending on the humidity, the reading on the thermometer becomes much lower due to evaporative cooling. The drier the air, the greater the evaporation, and the greater the difference between a thermometer without one and one wearing wet socks. Using the table, you can use the temperature difference to find out exactly what the relative humidity is. You can find this online under “Stress Scale Table”.
Artificial snow is also possible at 7 degrees
Using hygrometers and electronic methods to determine humidity, the wet ball became quieter again for a while. But you'll hear more about this soon. The wet bulb temperature is already the deciding factor today when it comes to assessing the risk of frost in fruit and wine growing, or when it comes to knowing whether or not you can make artificial snow on a slope: if the air is completely dry, the temperature can also be 7 Warm degrees, this works great with artificial snow, while one degree below zero would be too warm in fog.
The reason you'll hear a lot about future wet bulb temperatures is because of climate change. As the temperature increases more and more, it is not the temperature that determines whether people can still stay outside, but the wet bulb temperature.
At what temperature does it become dangerous?
From a wet bulb temperature of 35 degrees, the human body can no longer cool itself and becomes life-threatening. Now in India, in West Bengal, we are already very close to that limit with temperatures reaching 34 degrees. If it gets warmer or wetter due to rising sea temperatures, you won't be able to stay out for long.
If you don't have any big plans this weekend, have an old thermometer and a small piece of cloth, and you can spend hours with a wet bulb thermometer. If a dry thermometer and a Sockley thermometer show the same temperature, there is no evaporation, so the humidity is 100 percent.
This brings us to the wet bulb temperature: a hygrometer for measuring relative humidity.
Photo: Getty Images
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