10 most humid US cities

[n2doc]

http://www.divinecaroline.com/22360/102047-sticky-business-ten-most-humid
The Most Humid City: Quillayute/Forks, Washington
This moody, wet, rainy area on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula has the highest average levels of relative humidity in the country. The yearly average is 83.5 percent, even though the average temperature—even in the summer months—doesn’t rise above 70 degrees. Since the area is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean on the west, Puget Sound on the east, and the Olympic Mountains to the south, the wet, humid air and precipitation systems blow in off the ocean and get trapped by the mountains. The peninsula is so humid that it even features one of the world’s few temperate-zone rainforests.

The Rest of the Top Ten Offenders:
2. Mount Washington, New Hampshire (83 percent)
3. Astoria, Oregon (81 percent)
4. Port Arthur, Texas (80 percent)
5. Lake Charles, Louisiana (79.5 percent)
6. Corpus Christi, Texas (78.5 percent)
7. Victoria, Texas (78.5 percent)
8. Brownsville, Texas (78 percent)
9. Houston, Texas (78 percent)
10. Olympia, Washington (78 percent)


let the arguing begin.....

[SugarShack]

1. Florida is not on the list? Not one city? It is swampland after all...

Water everywhere!

[SugarShack]

3. Went from NYC to visit a relative down there...it was horribly humid!!

[Bitwit1234]

5. So suring the Second World War military stationed in DC

got extra tropical pay. How come if it is not humid.

[dmallind]

2. Not arguing - just clarifying

Humidity only becomes a comfort problem when combined with heat. A 100% humid day in 55 Degree weather is quite refreshing. Absolutely terrible in 85 or 95 though.

So if we get beyond the niceties of relative humidity as a stand alone measure, the ranking for all but a few days a year inasmuch as it affects peoples' lives starts at 4 and ends at 9.

Having never been to 4-8 I can however vouch for the fact that 9 is unbearable 3mos out of the year. 10 however I have been to in high summer and not had a problem. Same I suspect goes for 1-3.

This is at least useful in knowing I shoudl never apply for a job in 4-8 as I have turned one down in 9 for the weather alone (the only place I have done so - and I lived in MN and NE too!)

[marmar]

4. I have never been more miserable than when visiting relatives in Houston in late July once.....

You'd do just as well to sit in a giant pot, put the water on boil and close the lid.

[demosincebirth]

11. Ditto

[LWolf]

6. The rest of the article:

However, just because these places’ levels of relative humidity are at the top of the list, they don’t necessarily feel the most humid. Eighty percent humidity at 60 degrees feels much different from 80 percent humidity at 80 degrees. Heat alone doesn’t make a person uncomfortable in warm weather. It may seem obvious, but humidity paired with heat is considered more troublesome because of the simple fact that it’s hot. When the outside temperature is high, the body wants to sweat; but in humid conditions, the air is already so saturated with water that the body has a difficult time sweating and, therefore, with thermoregulation. Residents of places like Washington, D.C.; Mississippi; Alabama; South Florida; and coastal Texas—all locales notorious for their oppressive humidity—can rest assured that they still have bragging rights. Even though these towns’ humidity levels are technically lower than those of the cities in the top ten, their humid conditions coupled with their higher-than-average temperatures make their climates more difficult for the body to handle.

Despite all the precise and scientific ways that humidity can be measured and quantified, there’s no way to get around the idea that all those numbers don’t really mean much when compared with how a place’s humidity makes us feel. A summer in Quillayute may technically involve a higher percentage of relative humidity, but it still doesn’t hold a candle to the discomfort felt by someone standing in downtown Atlanta on a muggy August day.

[damntexdem]

7. And half are on the Texas Gulf Coast.

And once inland away from the Gulf breezes, think of the summer heat plus this humidity.

But it's still nice ON the Gulf Coast.

[XemaSab]

8. I spent 5 years in Arcata, California and a summer in South Carolina

Arcata is DAMP; South Carolina is HUMID.

[demosincebirth]

12. Thats the difference. Damp or Humid. The Olympic Peninsula is damp not humid

[Lochloosa]

9. Here are the current conditions in Jacksonville, FL Com' on Down

and sweat your ass off.....



Mostly Cloudy

93 °F
(34 °C) Humidity: 52 %
Wind Speed: Calm
Barometer: 30.00" (1015.5 mb)
Dewpoint: 73 °F (23 °C)
Heat Index: 102 °F (39 °C)
Visibility: 10.00 mi.
More Local Wx: 3 Day History:

[MineralMan]

10. All I know is that I walked out the door today and hit a wall

of hot humid air. In Saint Paul, that's not that uncommon, but it doesn't come near to what some places have all the time. I hate humidity on hot days.

[Odin2005]

14. The dew point was in the MID 70s F today in Fargo! YUCK!

That's rainforest humid!

[Odin2005]

13. The feeling of humidy is based on the DEW POINT, not the Relative Humidity.

If it's 50F out and it's foggy the dew pount is only 50F, not humid in terms of how we feel humidity. What we feel is humidity is the total amount of moisture in the air, which is what the Dew Point indicates, indirectly.

[Javaman]

15. I don't want average levels, give me the mean.

These cities could have 2 or 3 insane days of humidity a year that would push them to the top.

I've been to both Florida and Louisiana. For days on end, I was nothing but a wet rag of sweat and stink. (nice image, huh? lol)