Feels Like? Feels Like???

Tweet

The great jazz musician and comedian Jethro Burns once said, "I didn't have to study American history. I was there." One of the benefits of being old is you can remember when things first started. I remember in the late 70s when they started using a new term in weather: humiture. It was the combination of the temperature and the humidity (hence, the name), telling people what it would really feel like when they stepped outside. This stood to reason: if you saw the temperature was only 73 degrees and went outside, only to get knocked back indoors by the high humidity, you'd want to know that was forthcoming. (And if that sounds like it's happened to me, it has. There's no explaining humidity in New Orleans, you simply have to experience it.) Later, the National Weather Service eschewed the term humiture in favor of the more scientific-sounding term heat index. I was good with that. Like wind chill, you knew where you were in the meteorological calendar. In recent years, however, I've noticed that more and more meteorologists are dumping the terms heat index and wind chill in favor of telling you the "feels like" temperature. Feels like????? The first time? Makin' love? A natural woman??? FEELS LIKE? These guys who spend their time telling you about cirrocumulus clouds and supercellular convection in a rotating updraft mesocyclone all of the sudden go monosyllabic on us with feels like? Oy. Here's a "feels like" song...featuring rain and one of my favorite singer/songwriters: