Humidity is a given during North Carolina summers. 2026 has been a different breed, though.
How we come up with the Muggy Meter
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We've been over it a few times, but the dew point is a better measure of how muggy the air feels as opposed to the relative humidity.
It's how we've come up with the 'Muggy Meter,' which we often show on air in the summer months.
When dew points are in the 70s, the air feels pretty thick. It's what we'd consider a "tropical" feel.
How often are we feeling tropical?
So far in 2026, there have been 84 days in the Triangle with a tropical feel.
That number means virtually nothing, though, unless you shine some perspective on it.
I visited the Iowa State Mesonet site to dive a little deeper.
Here, I found that the average number of tropical-feeling days through September is 75. That's a long-term average.
It's an average that's held steady over the past 25-50 years. Within the past decade, however, that number has jumped (partially due to the more limited sample size).
What makes this year stand out even more?
Let's get a little more perspiration perspective.
The most tropical days through September is 120. That was in 2018.
In fact, there are 17 other years in which we've had more tropical-feeling days than we have in 2026.
However, none of those years were as hot as what 2026 has been.
It's true what "they" say (whoever "they" is). "It's not just the heat. It's the humidity."
This one-two punch has led the National Weather Service in Raleigh to issue 31 total Heat Advisories in 2026. That's three-to-four times the annual average.
It's not just the heat during the day. We've had the most nights/mornings with lows above 70° on record, thanks to the often elevated dew points.
That's all the more reason why mornings like Wednesday and Thursday feel a lot more refreshing, even though their temperatures and humidity levels are closer to average for mid-September.