How High Humidity Can Affect Your Health—and When It Gets Dangerous

Extreme heat can contribute to heat exhaustion, heat stroke, heat cramps, and death, but the temperature only tells part of the story. Humidity can make heat waves even more dangerous because it impairs your body’s ability to cool down.

How Does Humidity Affect Your Body?

The human body tries to get rid of excess heat and cool off by sweating, which is an “internal air conditioning system,” according to Vishnu Laalitha Surapaneni, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.

However, this process is much slower in humid environments. When we don’t sweat fast enough, we can’t release heat, and our internal body temperature may rise to unsafe levels.