- Jul 19, 2020

HATE THE HUMIDITY? BLAME THE CORN!

It was a hot and humid day on Saturday. Some of us started off with clouds and some rain, which likely prevented it from getting even hotter... but it was still very uncomfortable outside. The air you can wear, as they say!

Here's a look at the heat index values from Saturday afternoon --

The reason it felt so hot was due to the dew points (a measure of the moisture in the atmosphere)... they were in the 70s, even pushing 80 degrees in some spots! 70 degree dew points = uncomfortable. 80 degree dew points = miserable!

And the reason why the dew points were so high... well.. that can be blamed on the corn. I love corn, don't get me wrong. The corn fields are beautiful, sweet corn is delicious! But the expansive corn fields in the Midwest contributes to the humidity! Here's an explainer from Irene Crisolo on Twitter:

All of that heat and moisture has lead to instability and overnight into early Sunday morning there will likely be showers and thunderstorms in the Upper Midwest. Behind the rain, Sunday's temperatures won't be as hot and the humidity won't be as high either.

High temperatures Sunday:

Sunday afternoon dew points:

It will still be warm and muggy, just not as bad as Saturday. And that warm, muggy feeling will continue into next week. It will come with some chances for showers and thunderstorms, though. The next chance arrives Monday night into Tuesday

The pattern will likely remain active in the Upper Midwest through the week, it's just difficult to pinpoint exactly where the storms will set up each day right now. Additionally, the heat will likely remain through the end of the month.

Here's the outlook from July 24 to 29th from the Climate Prediction Center --