IEM Daily Feature
Thursday, 07 October 2004

Struggle with dry air

Posted: 07 Oct 2004 08:28 AM


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8 AM relative humidity on 7 Oct 2004
The showers this morning are having a difficult time producing rain with all the dry air in the state. When the cloud water falls to the ground, it has to mostly saturate the air on its way down. This process converts the potential rain into water vapor and increases the humidity of the air. So on days like today, it takes a while for the atmosphere to saturate and produce rain at the surface where most of us live.