Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Humidity change after prolonged downpour

Here in Scotland we do not suffer from wide humidity swings. However over the last week the rainfall has been very heavy. How much does rainfall affect humidity as applied to piano tuning?

Is it wise not to tune during days of lashing rain?

Ian

The only important thing is the indoor relative humidity where the piano is. Wood takes on moisture from the air about five times as fast as it releases humidity to the air. So a sudden increase in RH is worse than a sudden decrease in RH.

The wool in the action takes on humidity even quicker than the wood.

I remember late last summer, after a heavy rainstorm, feeling claustrophobic and deciding to turn off the AC and open the windows. A couple of hours later, my hygrometer had zoomed way up and I noticed, next day, the piano was badly out of tune. Fortunately, a few days later, it had returned pretty much to where it had been.

I don't know if Scotland is so different from London. And here we have very noticeable humidity changes.