Wind chill chart is useful for showing how it really feels when wind blows. It combines the cooling effect of wind with the temperature. Although body will never cool more than the real air temperature wind helps it lose heat more quickly.
The chart points the effective cold for various wind speeds and temperatures.
How to Use a Wind Chill Chart
The National Weather Service uses modern science, technology and computer models to create precise and easy formulas. That counts the risks of winter gales and frostbite. NOAA chart shows air temperatures and wind speeds in miles per hour according to the scales.
In their intersection stands the “felt temperature“, or wind chill factor.
You can use the chart for checking risk of frostbite. For instance, in 15°F and 30 mph wind speed the wind chill reaches -5°F. Such a drop matters a lot during camping or long stays outside in winter.
Wind removes the warm air beside the skin and substitutes it with cold. That expands the difference between body and air on the surface. The more strongly it blows, the less time the skin needs to cool.
Against common opinion, wind chill does not make things colder than the air itself. They only reach the air temperature.
The charts consider actually measured and counted values about wind changes in heat loss. For right use choose the apt temperature reading and wind speed for the place where folks are exposed. Wind chill measures security against hypothermia and frostbite, that depends on air contact with bare skin and heat loss speed.
Wind chill charts exist in Fahrenheit and Celsius. For Celsius are two different versions, that do not match, so it is value to know that. The drop can be surprisingly big when temperature falls.
For instance, in 50 degrees and 150 mph wind the cold falls to 35 degrees.
Humidity and air pressure also affects the wind chill indication. Wet mist overnight strengthens the cooling. Calculator estimates the wind chill from temperature and wind speed, together with time until frostbite.
Because of that, you who plan camping in cold weather, take a copy of the National Weather Service chart, it is a good notion.
