WInd Chills = What It Really Feels Like!

You've heard the term many times before.  "Today's high will be 10°F with a Wind Chill of -5°F to -15°F."  Wind Chill.  Some of you may already know what it means.  Others may not have the faintest idea (even though the title of this posting should give you an indication).  Let's turn to the dictionary.

Wind Chill:  a still-air temperature that would have the same cooling effect on exposed human skin as a given combination of temperature and wind speed.

In other words, the wind chill is the temperature the air actually feels to your exposed skin when you factor in the current temperature and wind speed!  When wind chills get below -15°F, you will want to limit your time out doors to a maximum of 30 minutes or risk frost bite.  As the wind chill gets lower, so does the time you can spend outdoors remaining frostbite free.

So how do we calculate wind chill?  It's actually a very simple formula!

Wind Chill = 35.74 + 0.6215T – 35.75V^0.16 + 0.4275TV^0.16

where V is in the wind speed in statute miles per hour, and T is the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

This is very handy to meteorologist, but everyone else typically does not want to sit down and try to figure out the wind chill from this formula.  Luckily, the NWS has created a handy little chart for quick reference!



It even gives you the frostbite times for the different wind chills - which is really handy!  Well everyone, I need to get going, but try to stay warm this winter and let's hope to stay away from the wind chills in the bottom right of that chart!