Who knew plants were such heavy breathers? It's not just the sun making us sweat, our lawn and plants could be too. It's a process called evapotranspiration.

Evapotranspiration is the combined process of water evaporating from the Earth's surface and transpiring from plants into the atmosphere. It plays a crucial role in the water cycle, especially during warm seasons when sunlight, heat, and plant activity are at their peak. Essentially, it’s how moisture returns to the air, through both direct evaporation from soil, water bodies, and surfaces, and through plant transpiration, where water absorbed by roots is released as vapor through tiny pores in leaves.

Have you ever heard of corn sweat? This is when the corn crop is releasing moisture in the atmosphere via transpiration and causes the already hot temperatures to feel even hotter, because transpiration is causing an increase in humidity.

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The evapotranspiration process is especially important in agricultural and forested regions, where vast amounts of water cycle through vegetation daily. In summer, evapotranspiration rates are highest due to increased solar radiation, longer days, and actively growing plants. When the temperature is higher, the evapotranspiration rate also increases. It not only helps regulate local temperatures and humidity but also affects water availability. In drought conditions, evapotranspiration can lead to rapid soil moisture loss, worsening dry spells and increasing plant stress.

Jennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.