What Do We Mean by Wind Chill?
What Do We Mean by Wind Chill? Just knowing the temperatures on a cold day may not be enough to determine how cold it really feels. The wind chill factor may be the most important measurement.
It is an estimate of how cold the wind makes a person feel in cold weather. People feel colder as wind speeds increase. For example, a temperature of 30 degrees Fahrenheit plus a wind of 10 mph makes people feel as cold as they do when the temperature is 16 degrees with no wind.
Wind chill temperatures can give a better idea of how cold it feels than a thermometer reading alone.
The first wind chill formulas and tables were developed by the United States military during World War II, and were made available by the National Weather Service by the 1970’s.
In 2001 the formulas were revised to reflect more accurate theories and testing than those done by the military.