this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2025
113 points (97.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

35667 readers
1985 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] kubok@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I have a pet theory on air humidity and flu or cold. Apparently the scientific consensus is that cold and flu are more prevalent in drier air. However, I see an uptick in both when the temperature is low, but the humidity is 90+%. It is purely anecdotal, but there you go.

[–] dharmacurious@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago

You might actually both be saying the same thing here. Caveat being that I have no idea what the science says about cold/flu, but when talking about humidity when the air is colder it is drier. 90% humidity at 35F is not the same as 90% at 85F. As the air cools it is able to hold less moisture. So your observation that there's an uptick during colder weather at a higher relative humidity could be the same as saying it's more likely in drier air, because the air is drier when it's cold, even when the relative humidity shows the same percentage.

[–] scripty@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 day ago

In addition to what the other commenter said, when the outside is cold and 95% humid, the inside of a building would be warm and far drier. So the inside humidity % is much lower than 95%. Maybe this contributes to the issue?

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 1 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

colder air tends to be drier, because theres little to no evaporation, plus you also stop sweating which is another factor. atopic dermatitis is pretty bad during late winter and when it ends. cold temperature also constricts your bronchial tubes slightly too, if you allergies, or ashtmatic its worst, so that induces coughing more. warm temperature would cause your lungs/tubes to dilate so to allow more air in. also the fact that allergies, cold/flu and even covid causes your lung to produce thick sputum which triggers the cough response.

normal sputum from allergie sis clear. while infections is thick and white, or yellow midly brown, sometimes tinge of blood. alot of green means it could be bacterial pneumonia.