How does wet clothes dry in cold weather?

Question

How does wet clothes dry in cold weather?

Answer 1

the wind

Answer 2

My Italian flatmate was unfamiliar with drying methods in a cold wet climate and had never seen a dryer in someone's house before, she thought we had 2 washing machines!  She said "In Italy we have the sun".

You're not going to be able to dry your clothes outside unless it's very windy and obviously not raining.  Living in Ireland, it rains a lot, so for a good part of the year wet clothes are hung up inside the house to dry if there's no dryer. A clothes horse, or on radiators or if needs be on the backs of chairs and anywhere else you can hang things (years of experience living as a poor student).

Don't know if you were actually asking for practical advice or for more of a scientific explanation as to how they dry physically.  If it was the latter I'm no use to you :-)

Answer 3

Water evaporates out of them, no matter what the temperature is, as long as the humidity of the air is less than that of the clothes.