By Barb Mayes Bousteads, Washington Post
During summer, the Midwest can experience some of the most oppressive humidity in the country. Fields in Iowa can be muggier than beaches in Miami. The culprit? Billions of stalks of corn.
Akin to a person breathing, plants exhale water into the atmosphere through a process called evapotranspiration. Some call it “corn sweat.”
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In the Midwest and northern Plains, corn and soybean crops draw moisture from the ground through their roots into their leaves, stems, and fruits. The water evaporates into the surrounding air through their leaves, joining forces with neighboring water molecules to humidify the air.
This extra humidity is making the heat wave centered over the middle of the Lower 48 states even more oppressive.
Densely planted across millions of acres, corn can bring a-maizing levels of humidity during the middle of summer. One acre of corn can release 4,000 gallons of water per day, enough to fill a residential swimming pool in less than a week.
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