DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... What is wind chill?

I pretty much thought I understood “Wind Chill” . Something to the effect of the temperature we feel considering any wind.

They have charts. At 35 degrees F and a 15 mph wind, the wind chill is 25 degrees F.

Fine. A person will freeze to death much faster given the wind chill.

So if there’s a tray of water next to the person and the water is 35 degrees, will the water freeze?

Isn’t the water under the same influence as the person? Isn’t it’s temperature being “wicked away” at 25 degrees?

So does the water freeze?

The water CAN freeze depending upon conditions.

This is why you see signs along the highways that say "Bridge May Ice Before Road". The reason is that the wind is free to blow across the upper surface and below the road surface, drawing away energy that much more rapidly.

Can it lower the temp below the ambient air temp? Yes. It can freeze water on that bridge even if the ambient air temp is like 35F.

Think of this: the internal temp of your body is roughly 98.6 degrees, but if you purse your lips and blow on the back of your hand, it feels cool even though your external skin temp is lower than your internal body temp which your breath would be at when you start to blow.


Wind Chill itself is a combination of wind speed and relative humidity. A higher humidity on a chilly day with high winds can and will feel colder than the same speed wind with lower humidity on a colder day.

That's why when this morning when it was 40 degrees and windy, it was to-the-bone cold, but that same breeze in a low humidity 20-degree breeze wouldn't be too bad.

Additionally, higher temperature air can hold more moisture than colder air. Air that is saturated to the point of precipitation at 20 degrees will probably be a clear & dry day at 40 degrees, downright perfect at 70 degrees, and a desert-like dryness at 95 degrees.

Windchill is the reason I sometimes wear my work clothes, two hoodies, pajama pants, a full carhart rated to -120 degrees, a beard scarf, snow goggles, and a warm winter hat on my 500ft walk to work.

That's windchill. -35 to -50 degrees is lots of fun.

Do the people you work with have any interesting food Rocket? Can't remember if you're on the coast so if it's fish or is it more elk etc. based.

My huskies could handle it. Me, not so much. Cleveland is as cold as it gets for me.

If I remember, didn't they do a test years ago with 2 iron pumps, (one was in a tent) (one was out in the open)
The test was: If it was -10 degrees then the temp. would remain the same even if the wind was blowing hard on the iron outside, can't remember how the test went. I think the idea was that no matter what the wind was doing it can't lower the temp just by blowing. It might take it down to -10 faster but not below that. Anyone know?

Yup. If you look in the dog story thread, I said what my Husky was doing during a terribly cold, blowing, snowing night. Sleeping on TOP of the dog house.

I feel kind of bad for having huskies in georgia. In the summer they stay inside in the air conditioning. In the winter they stay outside (I have a doggy door). The day before yesterday Juliet was laying under a bush in the rain. Just because it was colder outside.

Luckily she will shed out that thick winter coat.

But yeah it kind of sucks for huskies in the south. Its too hot for them here.

Seal. Seal is the only thing I've tried here that I didn't like. It's a bit like liver, and also fishy. Not my kind of thing.

Tons of fish, and wild game (salmon, halibut, moose, musk ox, and lots of other fish I forget off the top of my head)

No bears out here. Sometimes wolves come around, but that's not often.

Thanks Nanook

Wind Chill does not effect inanimate objects. So, if it's 30 degrees, but the wind makes it feel like 12 degrees, you feel the 12 degrees, but your car doesn't.

Why isn't there something called a "sun-warmth-factor"?

I grew up in Alaska, I've seen it -70 below and around 75 mph winds...wind chill was like -140 I think in this village called shishmaref, AK. I think was like 12 or 13 at the time. I remember blinking and my eye lids freezing shut lol had to thaw them in-between my finger and thumb...good times good snow forts for sure

quote by Spawn:

"Wind Chill does not effect inanimate objects."

Good, Thanks Spawn. Now we're getting somewhere.

So how does the wind know something is an inanimate object?

If I stand perfectly motionless like a statue am I OK?

"Nothin' to see here Mr. Wind."

As a human you are constantly giving off heat. Every movement you make generates heat to warm the body as active muscles metabolize food faster than muscles at rest. In human beings, the average body temperature is 98.6° F. The human body has mechanisms for keeping itself at or near that temperature as any extreme derivation from the average (98.6) in either direction can harm the body. Some forms of temperature regulation in humans are:

Perspiring is a common method of keeping the human body cool as it offers an opportunity for wind to blow on moist tissue and cool it.
Shivering in cold weather is another mechanism of temperature regulation. This rapid movement activates muscles quickly and generates heat.
As described in the above mechanisms the uman body attempts to use its own movement and actions to receive benefit from the environment. What would happen if we moved alot when it was warm. We'd be warmer. And if we had much wind blowing on us in the cold we'd be colder (even without perspiring).

A phenomenon called the Wind Chill factor makes us feel colder in winter than the air temperature really is. This is due to the interaction of air temperature and wind on the human body that is already giving off heat. Both temperature and wind cause heat loss from body surfaces. A combination of cold and wind makes a body feel colder than the actual temperature.

You may hear it mentioned quite often on the news during the winter months. How do news weather persons know that when there is a 10mph wind with a temperature of 10 degrees F that the real temperature we feel is -9 degrees F?

http://mste.illinois.edu/dildine/wind_chill/

there ya go wind chill...

Fishy liver. Sounds delicious. :puke:

At my uncles we used to put a couple bails of hay at the end of the outdoor part of the kennel runs during the winter to keep the wind from blowing up them and causing drafts on the insdide parts. The Huskies , or his Newfoundland too, used to whine for us to let them out to the outdoor part and they would climb up and lay on top of the bails of hay.

I don't remember what seal taste like. But I remember it is very rich and oily. no bears must be up north. I remember eating muktuk and eskimo icecream...ummm yea....

The wind doesn't know anything, I guess I should have said wind chill only effects things that are alive. Plus, the only way to be perfectly motionless is to be dead, and then you wouldn't be effected by wind chill.

quote above by Spawn:

"...to be perfectly motionless is to be dead, and then you wouldn't be effected by wind chill."

Thanks again Spawn!

I think I'm getting close. So if I end up in Infernal Hell, I wont count on the wind chill to cool-off.

Your car thermometer measures the outside temp. It will register the same temp if you are standing or driving 70 MPH down the road.

The body on the other hand seeks to maintain a constant surface temp. Wind along with cold can chill the surface faster, thus the body seeks to warm that surface, thus using more energy to do so, which in turn can cool the core quicker, thus why animals can reach the point of hypothermia quicker as the temps drop and the wind picks up.

Whatever

I believe windchill becomes relatively nonexistent at -40 f.

Meaning a 30 mph wind at 20 f will feel like 4 degrees. Once you get below -40 f, windchill becomes irrelivant. Maybe I'll look for the chart.

Thanks Peen, that actually makes sense to me.

You mean like the Heat Index??

Paradoxical Undressing: 25%-to-50% of people who die from hypothermia take off their clothes just prior to freezing to death.

Yeppers, before people die from the cold, they feel really hot.