LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Corn is a crop deeply embedded into Nebraska’s identity. Now, it will likely make incoming high temperatures feel even hotter through a process called “corn sweat.”
The official name for that process being “evapotranspiration”, occurring when water evaporates from plants like corn and soybeans during the reproductive stage and combines with other water molecules in the air. More moisture in the air meaning things outside feel even muggier than usual.
“During the daytime hours it’s just emitting a lot of water vapor, adding moisture to the lower boundary layers and leaving us with higher humidity than we would otherwise have in this region,” Eric Hunt, an extension educator with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s school of natural resources, said. “In English that means it can get very, very humid at the surface and make us miserable.”…