humidity

In 1902, Cornell-trained engineer Willis Carrier set out to reduce high humidity that was causing magazine pages to curl at a New York printing plant.

The area experiences heavy rainfall, strong monsoons, and high humidity, all of which rapidly erode rock.

However the same could be said of summer matches in the oppressive heat and humidity of Florida and Texas.

"We can now begin to reconstruct the humidity and climate conditions of environments going back to when dinosaurs roamed the Earth," he said.

But a week later, powerful Santa Ana winds arrived, and coupled with single-digit humidity, they turned the landscape into bone-dry tinder ready to burn.