Why do we sweat more when it's humid

[Bertramdriver]

It can be 35c in greece and I sweat a bit but feel comfortable. I come back to Blighty it's 16c and 97% humidity and the sweats pouring off me, making me feel cold and clammy. Now counting the days till I'm back on the boat (although 35c which it is at the moment is a bit extreme)

 

[nimbusgb]

Less humid in Greece so the sweat evaporates. Humid here so the sweat cant evaporate and accumulates instead.

 

[Bertramdriver]

Less humid in Greece so the sweat evaporates. Humid here so the sweat cant evaporate and accumulates instead.

That makes me feel much better

 

[nimbusgb]

That makes me feel much better

Yeuch!

Sarky bugger!

 

[Adrian]

Heard something recently about this.
I don't think we sweat any less when the air is dry its just that when the humidity is high it doesn't evaporate off the skin making it seem like we sweat more.

 

[SamanthaTabs]

Precisely as Adrian says. The higher the humidity the longer water takes to evaporate. The best example I can give is stepping off a plane in Kenya, genuinely felt like standing under a warm water vaporiser!

 

[hartcjhart]

worry when you stop sweating

 

[maby]

Heard something recently about this.
I don't think we sweat any less when the air is dry its just that when the humidity is high it doesn't evaporate off the skin making it seem like we sweat more.

It may be that we do sweat slightly less in dry conditions - after all, we do it in order to cool down and it is not so effective in humid conditions - hence you might sweat more in an effort to compensate for the lack of cooling effect.

 

[Glyka]

You don't sweat less. Yesterday for example, I had to drink more than 3 lt. of liquid (water, coffee, beer) and I only had a pee when I returned home at 21:30. That makes more than 2.5 lt. of sweat
Athens, 32% humidity.