AccuWeather.com Introduces AccuWeather Indoor Humidity for Better Health, Safety and Comfort

Published May 21, 2020 1:03 PM EDT

AccuWeather Global Weather Center, May 21, 2020 – AccuWeather today announced its latest innovation for better health, safety and comfort – AccuWeather Indoor Humidity, current and forecast conditions, inside homes and buildings. Available immediately on accuweather.com, the patent-pending indoor humidity algorithm was developed exclusively by AccuWeather expert meteorologists and scientists to estimate the amount of dryness and humidity inside a home or building and to predict future inside humidity conditions.

AccuWeather launched this product today with people’s health and comfort in mind. This important new product has been under development by AccuWeather for several years. AccuWeather prioritized its launch to answer the call of health experts who are linking the potential spread of COVID-19 to the amount of heat and moisture in the air.

According to a study published last month in the Annual Review of Virology, indoor humidity may play a surprising role and concludes, “The precise relationship between temperature, humidity, and COVID-19 will become more evident as the Northern Hemisphere reaches the summer months.”

In addition, AccuWeather’s Indoor Humidity provides critical information to help minimize the harmful effects on people from several diseases and conditions.

“People do not normally think of very dry air or high humidity accompanied by hot temperatures as extreme weather, yet these conditions represent real threats to our health and welfare,” said Dr. Joel N. Myers, AccuWeather Founder and CEO. “Each year more people die in the US due to extreme heat and humidity on average than they do from hurricanes, lightning and tornadoes combined.”

Revolutionizing how people can adjust to their environment based on indoor humidity conditions, current and forecast conditions on AccuWeather.com, (and soon in AccuWeather’s apps), are accompanied by 11 distinct appropriate descriptions ranging from ‘dangerously dry’ to ‘ideal’ to ‘dangerously humid.’

High humidity combined with very hot temperatures can be dangerous and have an adverse effect on the human body especially in buildings that lack air conditioning. Because the air feels hotter than the temperature when the humidity is high and there is little cooling from airflow, such extreme conditions can contribute to feelings of low energy and lethargy. In addition, over-heating as a result of a body’s inability to effectively let out heat, can negatively impact a person’s health in conditions of heat and high humidity.

Said Myers, “That’s why we introduced the patented AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature and AccuWeather RealFeel Shade™, Temperature to help people have a better understanding of how the air feels for greater safety and comfort. Now we offer this new unique tool to help our users make changes to prepare for humidity levels indoors for the benefit of their health and comfort. We are pleased to bring this new product to our offerings to provide an added level of control of health and value to our users.”

The indoor humidity details are also valuable in wintertime when dry inside air can cause also serious health risks.

Very dry indoor conditions, for example, normally found during the coldest months of the year, especially in northern climates, hasten the spread of viruses, because people’s nasal passages may lack moisture needed to trap viruses before they enter the body. During these months, indoor air is typically drier due to heating in homes and buildings that do not have a humidifier that adds moisture to the air.

Indoor Humidity is the latest weather and health advancement from AccuWeather, which holds more than 150 unique patents and has more than 250 pending patent applications globally; it represents another step forward in the company’s weather and health leadership and will contribute to the improved health of people in the U.S and globally.

Other recent health innovations from AccuWeather

In April, AccuWeather announced air quality forecasts on accuweather.com as a result of its exclusive partnership with Paris-based Plume Labs and the integration of its superior air quality data four days ahead of any other source. Each year, an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths globally are linked to ambient air pollution, mainly from heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and acute respiratory infections in children. Some experts put the global fatality toll due to bad air as high as 20 million. AccuWeather’s air quality forecast enables people to make better choices on days with poor air quality to limit their exposure.
AccuWeather’s COVID-19 Tracker Map on accuweather.com uses data from University of Virginia that indicates the number of cases, mortality rates, number of recoveries as well as the geographic spread of the virus throughout the world. The mapping tool also provides relevant content and the latest news surrounding developments with COVID-19, especially those related to the role of weather and its impact on the pandemic.
The Allergy Indicator page on AccuWeather’s digital properties provides a more in-depth view of increased allergy levels in a specific area with easy-to-read maps to identify geographical areas of vulnerability. AccuWeather expanded its Allergy section right on the app’s home screen to include impact levels of the five top allergens – tree pollen, grass pollen, ragweed pollen, mold, and dust and dander.
In a research partnership with the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia, cutting-edge flu forecasting technology is now delivered to app users, helping to increase flu knowledge and awareness throughout the United States. The 2019 and 2020 flu season alone has been more active than normal, according to the Institute. With increased awareness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that there have been 1.5 million more doses of flu vaccine administered this year compared with last year.
The AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature Guide helps people maximize their health, safety and comfort when outdoors. This one-of-a-kind and important reference tool enables individuals and families to assess how the weather conditions impact their bodies and activities. Multiple patents ensure that the AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature is the only index that considers temperature plus more than one additional variable. In fact, it uses more than a dozen atmospheric factors, including humidity, to provide the only accurate measure of how current or forecasted weather conditions “feel.”
AccuWeather’s RealFeel Shade™ indicator, an exclusive innovation, was added to AccuWeather’s digital-based products to help users determine what the air will feel like in the shade, which is extremely helpful when planning outdoor activities because the variance of just a few degrees can feel significantly different.

With it, users can determine the difference between how it will feel on the sunny or shady side of the street. On a cool day, users out walking their dogs may opt for the sunny side of the street because it might feel 10 degrees warmer there. On a hot, humid and muggy summer day, it might feel 10 degrees hotter on the sunny side, potentially making it unhealthy or even dangerous for some people to be on the sunny side as opposed to the shady side.

The addition of a UV Index to forecasting information on AccuWeather platforms gives users a clearer understanding of how powerful the sun’s rays will be, helping with planning for outdoor activities and mitigating overexposure to the sun; the dangers of which have been related to heat stroke, dehydration, and even skin cancer.

About AccuWeather, Inc. and accuweather.com — AccuWeather, recognized and documented as the most accurate source of weather forecasts and warnings in the world, has saved tens of thousands of lives, prevented hundreds of thousands of injuries and tens of billions of dollars in property damage. With global headquarters in State College, PA and other offices around the world, AccuWeather serves more than 1.5 billion people daily to help them plan their lives and get more out of their day through digital media properties, such as accuweather.com and mobile, as well as radio, television, newspapers, and the 24/7 AccuWeather Network channel. Additionally, AccuWeather produces and distributes news, weather content, and video for more than 180,000 third-party websites. Among AccuWeather’s many innovative and award-winning features available free to the public are MinuteCast^® Minute by Minute™ forecasts with Superior Accuracy™. Furthermore, AccuWeather serves more than half of Fortune 500 companies and thousands of businesses globally. Dr. Joel N. Myers, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, established AccuWeather in 1962 and is considered the “father of modern commercial meteorology.” Dr. Myers, a leading creative thinker and visionary, has been named “the most accurate man in weather” by The New York Times and one of the top entrepreneurs in American history by Entrepreneur’s Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs.

AccuWeather, RealFeel, RealFeel Shade, WinterCast, and MinuteCast are all registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature, AccuWeatherIQ, AccuWeather RealImpact, AccuWeather RI, AccuWeather MinuteCast, AccuWeather Network, Minute by Minute and Superior Accuracy are all trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All other trademarks, product names and logos are the property of their respective owners.

The AccuWeather app for Android phone and tablet users is free at the Google Play store. The AccuWeather iOS app is free at www.AppStore.com. Visit accuweather.com for additional information.

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