How humid has it been?

Happy Wednesday! If you have stepped outside so far today, you've probably noticed that it feels MUCH better and more comfortable than it has over the past few days. Temperatures are not much cooler today that they have been, but the humidity as dropped significantly, making it feel much better out.

Dew points as of 11:00 a.m. this morning (Mesonet)

Dew points throughout New England are in the low 60s and 50s in spots, which feels much more comfortable than the 70s that we have seen over the past few days.

How humid has it been so far this year? Here is a bit of analysis.

Daily min/max dew point for 2020 (IEM)

All of the red you see on the above plot are days when the dew point was greater than or equal to 70 °F at Bradley International Airport (BDL) in Windsor Locks, CT. I think 70 °F is a good threshold for determining how humid it has been - anything above 70 °F is truly oppressive. We have hit 70 °F for the dew point at BDL on 13 days so far this year.

Hours at or above 70 °F dewpoint at BDL (IEM)

Another interesting chart to look at is the one above. The upper chart in the image above shows the number of hours that the dew point has been >= 70 °F since 1949 at BDL, for each year. The yellow on the upper chart shows 2020. We still have not spent as many hours with the dewpoint >= 70 °F as last year, but I think that is definitely possible, looking at the data. The most humid year on record, 2018, looks like it'll be difficult to mach this year.

Over the next few days, we stay relatively muggy, though not quite as oppressive as it has been, as evidenced by this GIF.

GFS dew points through Friday (Tropical Tidbits)

I am also tracking Tropical Cyclone NINE (soon to become Isiasis) and will have an update on it later this week or weekend.