Air Temperature and Human Comfort

Probably everyone realizes that the same air temperature can feel differently on different
occasions. For example, a temperature of 20°C (68°F) on a clear, windless March
afternoon in New York City can almost feel balmy after a long, hard winter. Yet, this same
temperature may feel uncomfortably cool on a summer afternoon in a stiff freeze. The human
body’s perception of temperature obviously changes with varying atmospheric conditions.
The reason for these changes is related to how we exchange heat energy with our environment.
The body stabilizes its temperature primarily by converting food into heat (metabolism). To
maintain a constant temperature, the heat produced and absorbed by the body must be equal to
the heat it loses to its surroundings.

There is, therefore, a constant exchange of

heat—especially at the surface of the skin—between the
body and the environment.
One way the body loses heat is by emitting infrared
energy. But we not only emit radiant energy, we absorb
it as well. Another way the body loses and gains heat is
by conduction and convection, which transfer heat to
and from the body by air motions. On a cold day, a thin
layer of warm air molecules forms close to the skin, protecting
it from the surrounding cooler air and from the
rapid transfer of heat. Thus, in cold weather, when the
air is calm, the temperature we perceive—called the
sensible temperature—is often higher than a thermometer
might indicate. (Could the opposite effect occur
where the air temperature is very high and a person
might feel exceptionally cold? If you are unsure, read the
Focus section above.)
Once the wind starts to blow, the insulating layer
of warm air is swept away, and heat is rapidly removed
from the skin by the constant bombardment of cold
air. When all other factors are the same, the faster the
wind blows, the greater the heat loss, and the colder we
feel. How cold the wind makes us feel is usually expressed
as a wind-chill factor. The wind-chill charts
(Tables 3.2 and 3.3) translate the ability of the air to
take heat away from the human body with wind (its
cooling power) into a wind-chill equivalent temperature
with no wind. For example, notice that, in Table
3.2, an air temperature of 20°F with a wind speed of
30 mi/hr produces a wind-chill equivalent temperature
of –18°F. This means that exposed skin would lose
as much heat in one minute in air with a temperature
of 20°F and a wind speed of 30 mi/hr as it would in
calm air with a temperature of –18°F. Of course, how
cold we feel actually depends on a number of factors,
including the fit and type of clothing we wear, and the
amount of exposed skin.*
High winds, in below-freezing air, can remove heat
from exposed skin so quickly that the skin may actually
freeze and discolor. The freezing of skin, called frostbite,
usually occurs on the body extremities first because they
are the greatest distance from the source of body heat.
In cold weather, wet skin can be a factor in how
cold we feel. A cold, rainy day (drizzly, or even foggy)
often feels colder than a “dry” one because water on exposed
skin conducts heat away from the body better
than air does. In fact, in cold, wet, and windy weather a
person may actually lose body heat faster than the body
can produce it. This may even occur in relatively mild
weather with air temperatures as high as 10°C (50°F).
The rapid loss of body heat may lower the body temperature
below its normal level and bring on a condition
known as hypothermia—the rapid, progressive
mental and physical collapse that accompanies the lowering
of human body temperature.
The first symptom of hypothermia is exhaustion. If
exposure continues, judgment and reasoning power begin
to disappear. Prolonged exposure, especially at temperatures
near or below freezing, produces stupor,
collapse, and death when the internal body temperature
drops to about 26°C (79°F).
In cold weather, heat is more easily dissipated
through the skin. To counteract this rapid heat loss, the
peripheral blood vessels of the body constrict, cutting off
the flow of blood to the outer layers of the skin. In hot
weather, the blood vessels enlarge, allowing a greater loss
of heat energy to the surroundings. In addition to this
we perspire. As evaporation occurs, the skin cools. When
the air contains a great deal of water vapor and it is close
to being saturated, perspiration does not readily evaporate
from the skin. Less evaporational cooling causes
most people to feel hotter than it really is, and a number
of people start to complain about the “heat and humidity.”
(A closer look at how we feel in hot weather will be
given in Chapter 4, after we have examined the concepts
of relative humidity and wet-bulb temperature.)