wet bulb temperature

plural wet bulb temperatures · abbreviation WBT · alternative wet-bulb temperature

1. countableuncountableclimatologyThe temperature read by a thermometer covered in water-soaked (water at ambient temperature) cloth over which air is passed.

   Wet-bulb temperature (WBT) combines dry air temperature (as you’d see on a thermometer) with humidity – in essence, it is a measure of heat-stress conditions on humans.

   2022 July 31, Jocelyn Timperley, “Why you need to worry about the ‘wet-bulb temperature’”, in The Guardian

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   And a wet-bulb temperature of 35 will kill humans, even if unclothed and in the shade; the combination of heat and humidity prevents sweating from dissipating heat, and death by hyperthermia soon results.

   2020, Kim Stanley Robinson, The Ministry for the Future, Little, Brown Book Group, →ISBN

   Synonyms: WBT