You're listening to Shortwave.

From NPR.

Hey there, Shortwave producer Thomas Lu here.

Last week NPR climate reporter Lauren Summer talked to us about the effects of heat on

the human body and how officials are looking for more accurate ways to explain how heat

and humidity can combine to be really dangerous.

A few years ago, I reported an episode about how many weather experts say that a key measure

of humidity in the air is the dew point.

I spoke with our former host Maddie Sophia about that.

And later this week we'll bring you an episode in conjunction with our life kit colleagues

all about hydration.

Alright folks, stay cool and here's my chat with Maddie about relative humidity and why

some experts are telling us to skip those percentages and pay more attention to dew point temperature

for a better sense of how swampy it is outside.

Okay, Thomas Lu, Summer Hater.

Here's a scenario.

I wake up in the morning, I'm preparing to go on an afternoon bike ride on my hog around

the city, check my weather app for the forecast.

It's hot, you know, say about 85 but manageable and the humidity is like 57%.

Let's say.

Does that mean I'm still going to have like a nice bike ride or?

Well, maybe sort of, it's a little hard to tell with just humidity.

...