Whenever I tell friends from other parts of Europe that I am feeling cold, the reaction is the same: a dismissive head shake. Living on an island in the Mediterranean that boasts very mild winter temperatures, the assumption is that I cannot possibly feel cold while they are experiencing snow, rain or minus degrees. But is that the whole story?

Thinking back to the summer months, there is another important element to our subjective perception of temperature – humidity. This can make a hot day feel even hotter, because it interferes with the evaporation of sweat, our body’s natural cooling mechanism. In the winter months, however, we do not sweat as much and the effect of humidity is different altogether.

To keep warm inside our jackets and coats, our bodies heat up the trapped layer of air that forms underneath the clothing. In more humid climates, this layer contains additional water molecules. It takes more of the body’s heat energy to warm up these water molecules than it takes to warm air molecules, a characteristic known as the higher specific heat capacity of water. We know from experience that putting on wet clothes is unpleasant, and the humidity in Malta has a similar effect in winter, albeit not as extreme.

The effect of humidity extends to inside temperatures as well. The majority of our buildings in Malta are made from poorly insulated limestone or concrete, meaning that a lot of moisture is retained in the walls. This needs to be heated up just like the water molecules trapped inside clothing, so make sure to get an efficient heater or dehumidifier to combat the cold at home!

In this way, humidity changes our subjective experience of temperature, making the summer feel unbearably hot while the winter feels cold despite relatively mild temperatures. Now you can present the facts when someone asks why you’re shivering in Malta!