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WetbulbTemperatureandDewpointTemperaturefromAir

TemperatureandRelativeHumidity

Note:Thiscalculationisverycomplexandrequiresknowledgeofalgebra.

Fromtheuser,anairtemperature (T ) ,arelativehumidity (rh) ,andastationpressure


(P sta) aregiven.TheairtemperaturemustbeconvertedtounitsofdegreesCelsius
(C),andthestationpressuremustbeconvertedtounitsofmillibars (mb) or
hectoPascals (hP a) .

Toseehowtoconverttemperaturesandpressures,seethelinksbelow:

TemperatureConversion

PressureConversion

Thesaturatedvaporpressure (es) canbecalculatedusingtheformulafromthelink


below:

VaporPressureCalculation

Next,theequationforcalculatingrelativehumidity:

rh ees 100

Nowwecansolveforthedewpointtemperature:

rh
237.3ln( es611
)

T d 7.5ln10ln( esrh )
611

ThedewpointtemperaturewillbeinunitsofdegreesCelsius(C).Toseehowto
converttemperatures,seethelinkabove.

Next,awetbulbtemperature (T w) mustbecalculated.Thebestwaytodothisisby
usingaSkewTdiagramwhichisusedbytheNationalWeatherServiceandother
meteorologistsfordeterminingthecurrentstateoftheatmosphere.AblankSkewT

diagramcanbefoundhereatthislink:

http://bretwhissel.net/skewt/skewthib.pdf

ForinformationonhowtoreadandunderstandaSkewTdiagram,seethelinkbelow:

http://www.theweatherprediction.com/thermo/

Forfindingthewetbulbtemperature,firstfindtheelevationofyourlocation.Next,at
theelevationofyourlocation,plottheairtemperature(indegreesCelsius)andthe
dewpointtemperatureonthechart.Taketheairtemperatureupthedryadiabatline
andthedewpointtemperatureupthesaturationmixingratiolineuntiltheymeet.Atthe
pointwheretheymeet,comebackdownthemoist(orwet)adiabattotheelevationof
youstation.Thiswillbethewetbulbtemperature.FortheWeatherCalculator,a
processoferrorcheckingisusedtogiveanapproximatewetbulbtemperatures.

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