What’s the Word: It’s not the heat it’s the humidity
Considering how hot the weather has been, I thought I might look into some of the phrases and expressions that have to do with the heat. First let me say I’ve never really thought much about the global warming theories which keep getting media attention these days. But the fact is, the heat has been particularly extreme this summer, as most folks around the country know. It’s been all over the news.
And even though it’s certainly hotter here in the southeast than some places, think about those folks who live near the equator or in desert areas. Ouch!
Anyway, let’s see if I can come up with some well-known, and maybe some not so well-known, phrases that deal with hot weather.
For me, the first one that comes to mind is the old standby for when it’s so hot you’re about to melt into a puddle of sweaty goo, the sun is beaming down relentlessly, people are bemoaning the skyrocketing temperatures, and in the midst of all this someone will invariably say, “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity.”
That one drives me nuts, but I’ve always wondered if it has any basis in fact. So I did a little research, and turns out it actually does, to an extent. See, it has to do with sweat. Of course most of us know that sweating is a method our bodies use to cool us off. We sweat, the air evaporates the moisture, and that tends to cool us off. So when the air is full of moisture, in other words, high humidity, then perspiration will tend to cling to us without evaporating and we lose the benefit of this cooling effect.
So I don’t really have a problem with the “it’s the humidity” part of this statement. I always thought that probably made sense. The part of the statement that bothers me is the, “It’s not the heat” part.
I mean, come on, it is the heat. I think maybe we should change this one to something like, “This heat is awful, and the humidity is only making it worse.”
But I have to admit that doesn’t really have the same ring to it does it? “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” just kind of rolls off the tongue doesn’t it? Especially when that tongue is hanging out from the heat. So I guess we’re just stuck with that one.
Another phrase people use to describe the heat that has always bugged me is, “It’s hot enough to fry an egg on the sidewalk.” I always wondered if it really does get hot enough to fry that egg, but I never tried it myself. I’ve heard about people actually doing it, but I always thought it was probably just an urban legend kind of thing. So I decided to do a search on the Web to see if anyone had really tested this out.
Turns out there are a number of Web sites where people have tried this particular experiment, and oddly enough, most say it can work. One mom who home schools her two youngsters reported if the temperature on their sidewalk got to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, the heat reflected off the cement will cook an egg like a kitchen stove. And she said it works even better using a piece of aluminum foil, but to me, that’s kind of cheating. But at least that way you could probably eat the thing, though you’d definitely want to be sure to check for birds perched on the power lines overhead first.
This same Web site had compiled some amusing phrases that complete the statement “You know it’s hot outside when…”
There were several good ones, but my favorite was this:
“You know it’s hot outside when the farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying hard boiled eggs.”
Hmm, I wonder. Well, it might happen. After all, there is that egg on the sidewalk thing.
Charlie Johnson is news editor for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].