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Could you please tell me about the real feel temperature. I understand how it can feel colder than the posted temperature. (wind-chill ect) What I don't understand is how it can feel warmer than the posted temperature. Please help. Lamont P.
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Please help me understand how to compute the wind chill factor in a given day/temperature; for instance if the temperature is 37 degrees and the wind is blowing 10 miles per hour, how can I figure what the actual temperature is/feels like?
Thank you,
Bob H
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The cold winter weather has you guys thinking about some of the numbers you see when you're watching or listening to the weather. Good stuff. Anyway, here's the deal: The real feel temperatures we use have to do with the moisture on your skin!
The two common ones we hear are "Wind Chill" and "Heat Index". When you step out of a hot shower you start getting cold pretty fast! The moisture on your skin is evaporating off of your body, evaporation is a cooling process. The wind chill and heat index equations take the effect of moisture into them.
The wind chill is based on how fast heat is lost on exposed skin from the wind and the cold. The wind increases and draws heat from the body, so the wind makes it feel colder.
In the summer with the heat index when the air has more moisture in it, your body can't evaporate sweat as readily. This means you can't cool off very fast and it makes it feel warmer outside. In places with low humidity levels like SLC we don't see the heat index as much as a city like St. Louis.
There are charts to use for both and if you want to look at the equations, the links are at the right. You can try to use some of your handy math skills and calculate a value on your own for fun...well that's how we like to have fun in the weather center!
Answered by KSL Meteorologist Dina Freedman.
