Vacationers (or any travel-planner)

 

1. Comfort Seekers During Summer

  Chapter 4 displays isoline charts — one chart for each month — and is an especially useful part of this book for the vacationer. Each of the twelve isoline charts overlay a map outline of the continental United States.

  Figure 4-6 for June illustrates one such chart. (Note: only the June chart  is contained within this Web page.

  The charts in Table 4 (in common with  the tables in Chapter 5) imply outdoors thermal comfort conditions in deep shade at midday for individuals dressed in light summer clothing sedentary activity.

  As explained in Chapter 4, about 95% of people are satisfied at about the "0" point in the scale.

On the bottom margin of each chart is listed the thermal comfort scale (PMVSHADE), which ranges from "-3" (cold), up to "0" (ideal), and then up to "+3" (hot).

  On the other hand, about 50% of people are still satisfied even at about the "-1.5" or "+1.5" part of the scale.

  In summary, by simply following the "0" isoline along the chart (that is, traveling through those cities and states delineated by the "0" isoline), all leisure stops along the way during midday correspond to an 'outdoors comfort paradise' environment.

2. Winter Snow-birds

  Isoline charts for the typically cold and/or snowy months, such as December through March (not shown on this Web page) display similar wavy lines meandering through cities and state,and most of these correspond to conditions of extreme cold, at midday in the shade, far beyond the "-3" range-validity limit.

(On the other hand, extremely low-latitude regions, such as the tip of Texas and of Florida - even during the winter months - can be relatively comfortable in the shade at midday.)

  Generally during the summer season, we become shade-seekers. During winter season, we become sun-seekers.

  Chapter 9 and Chapter 10 describe how to estimate conditions in full sun.

  As an example of winter sun conditions, consider Brownsville, TX, during January, with an estimated outdoors thermal comfort value in the sun of about "-0.5." (Brownsville is located at approximately the southernmost latitude of the United States.)

  In summary, for PMVSUN = "-0.5", approximately 90% of people will be satisfied, again with the following assumptions: