Measuring climate change: It’s not just heat, it’s humidity

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

Scientists say measuring climate change by temperature alone doesn’t accurately reflect how bad global warming really is getting. A new study says humidity, not just heat, is also important to consider. So the study released Monday suggests using a different weather measurement that factors the moisture in air. That’s because moisture is especially connected to how bad weather extremes such as storms, floods and heat waves are getting in a warmer world. Scientists say moisture releases more energy into weather systems and using that as a factor means warming since 1980 is almost twice as great as relying just on the thermometer.