🔍 Key Concepts

• Relationship between air temperature and how much water vapor the air can hold • Difference between dew point (actual moisture content) and relative humidity (how full the air is compared to its capacity) • What happens to capacity for moisture when air warms up while the actual amount of water vapor stays the same

💭 Think About

• Imagine a fixed amount of water vapor in a parcel of air: as you warm that air, does it become easier or harder to reach saturation? • If the air’s capacity to hold water increases but the actual water vapor stays constant, what happens to the percentage of fullness? • Does dew point change just because temperature changes, if you have not added or removed water vapor from that air mass?

✅ Before You Answer

• Be clear on the definition of dew point: it is tied to the actual water vapor content, not directly to air temperature • Recall that relative humidity is a ratio: (actual water vapor) ÷ (maximum possible at that temperature) × 100% • Think about which quantity changes with temperature alone: capacity to hold moisture, actual water vapor, or both?