Why can water evaporate at temperatures below its boiling point?

Water evaporates below its boiling point because individual molecules within a liquid possess varying amounts of kinetic energy. Even when the bulk temperature of the water is below the boiling point, some molecules at the surface may attain sufficient kinetic energy to overcome the intermolecular forces holding them in the liquid state and eject themselves into the atmosphere as vapour.1

This process is driven by the vapour pressure of the liquid, which represents the tendency of a substance to transition into a gaseous state. While the boiling point is the specific temperature at which the vapour pressure equals the surrounding atmospheric pressure, evaporation occurs continuously at lower temperatures as molecules escape the surface. The rate of this transition is influenced by factors such as temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and solar radiation.2314