If you’ve been on the social media site X recently, you may have come across a striking viral claim about one of our local landmarks.
At just before 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 27, Washington Post meteorologist and weather writer Ben Noll tweeted that Southern California was experiencing the highest humidity in the US, surpassing even Florida. But that wasn’t all: Noll noted that the humidity at the Salton Sea had reached a “particularly stifling 81 degrees.”
That tweet, which has been viewed over 1.4 million times, came just a couple days after Noll tweeted that the most humid place in the US in the coming days was expected to be the Salton Sea.
Southern California currently has the highest humidity in the U.S., even surpassing Florida. The dew point
over the Salton Sea reached a stifling 81°F, while Los Angeles hit 73°F, comparable to the Amazon rainforest and quite possibly its highest value on record. pic.twitter.com/PCDbv2cBPI
— Ben Noll (@BenNollWeather) August 28, 2026
It’s the kind of statement that surely had many Californians doing double takes, particularly for desert dwellers for whom the phrase “it’s a dry heat” has become one of our life’s defining mantras.
So, was the Salton Sea really the most humid place in the US, even above Florida? Here’s what we found.
Unofficial measurement shows Salton Sea was more humid than Florida
The Desert Sun spoke to Gabriel Lojero, a National Weather Service meteorologist based at the Phoenix office whose service area extends to the Salton Sea.
Lojero said a weather station near the Salton Sea recorded an unofficial dew point measurement of 81 degrees Thursday, which would make the Salton Sea the most humid location in the nation on that day. The National Weather service says dew point is the best measure for humidity because it measures how much water is in the air and is not impacted by temperature the way relative humidity temperatures are.
However, Lojero said that statement should be caveated with a disclaimer that the station at the Salton Sea is an unofficial station rather than one maintained by the service, which means the agency cannot vouch for the reliability of its measurements.
What can be said, however, is that a dew point of 81 degrees would be higher than the peak recorded dew points in Florida’s major cities, including Tampa (which peaked at 79.3 degrees Thursday) and Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville (which all saw a max dew point of 75.9 degrees).
It also surpassed the peak dew point for the day of 79 degrees in Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is often said to be the most humid city in the nation.
But while it might sound shocking to hear that the typically dry California desert could ever be more humid than Florida and Louisiana, Lojero said such dew points are typical for the area around this time of year, thanks to monsoonal conditions bringing in hot, wet air from the Gulf of California.
What's particularly unusual are the dew points in the low 70s that have been recorded in Los Angeles and other locations closer to the coast, which are among the highest dew points ever measured for those areas. Lojero said those dew points are the result of ocean temperatures that are much higher than normal.
How humid was it in the Coachella Valley?
Although not as humid as the Salton Sea, the Coachella Valley has also seen high dew points recently. The dew point peaked at 63 degrees in Palm Springs Thursday afternoon and reached 75 degrees in Thermal, although an apparent malfunction means that dew point data is not available for a large swath of the day.
Sam Zuber, a NWS meteorologist in San Diego, said it has been “really humid,” the past week in the Coachella Valley. But she said it is not possible to compare the current spate of humidity to past ones because her office does not keep long-term records on humidity the way it does on temperature.
However, she said recent record-setting high overnight low temperatures that have been seen across the region, including in Palm Springs, are indicative of abnormal humidity because it can’t get as cold at night as it otherwise would when it’s so humid.
She said high humidity also keeps temperatures from getting as hot during the day, which happened on Thursday when the high of 106 degrees fell short of the forecasted one of 110.
Of course, the humidity also makes the temperature feel higher in the skin than it really is. That was the case Friday afternoon when the heat index reached 117 degrees compared to an actual temperature of 112 degrees.
Zuber, however, said there is relief from both the humidity and recent high temperatures on the horizon with highs expected to drop to around 100 degrees in Palm Springs through the early part of next week, which would be below average. It will be a little hotter to the east, however, with highs of around 105 degrees expected in Thermal.
However, both Zuber and Lujero said monsoonal conditions and elevated humidity remain likely through the early part of September.
Paul Albani-Burgio covers growth, development and business in the Coachella Valley. Email him at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Was the Salton Sea really the most humid place in the US on Thursday?
