Your hair may have hard feelings about it, but humidity is about a lot more than just how good your hair looks on any given day. 

Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, and besides your hair, it affects both temperature and climate.  

You may have heard a meteorologist talk about the “relative humidity” during a weather report. Relative humidity represents the amount of water vapor in the air relative to what the air can hold. In general, the higher the relative humidity, the more likely you’ll see rain because the high percentage means the air is more saturated, or filled, with water vapor.  

High relative humidity also means we feel like it is much hotter than the actual temperature. That’s because humidity affects how quickly water evaporates, so sweat doesn’t work as well to cool your body in higher humidity.  

For more information and activities related to humidity, check out the North Carolina Climate Office.