Hyderabad: Ever wondered why it feels hotter than what the Met department says the temperature is? Forecasts on weather sites on the internet show how it ‘feels’, against the actual temperature.
Weather apps call this “feel like” temperatures which are determined by the human comfort index. These are different from the air temperature which the Indian Meteorological Department measures.
“The temperature measured by IMD is the air temperature. How the temperature is perceived depends on factors like wind speed and humidity," said IMD-Hyderabad director Y.K. Reddy.
If the wind speed is higher, heat from the body would dissipate more easily. In such a situation, the “feels like” temperature is much lower, Mr Reddy said.
If the humidity is higher, the chances of sweat evaporating from the body is lower. The monsoon months, thus “feel like” they are warmer despite lower temperatures as the humidity levels are higher.
Popular weather applications also take into account the angle of the sun during the day to determine how a particular temperature would feel for the people.
Meteorologists say these numbers may have variations as it is generated from a computer model. “Web-sites determine the feel-like temperatures from the global data pool, to which IMD uploads its data. They calculate the wind speed, humidity along with sun exposure to arrive at how a temperature would feel, so we can expect a 5-10 per cent error to creep in,” Mr Reddy said
He said these were influenced by the western idea of temperature tolerance.
