Thursday, January 15, 2009

Wind Chills

Wind chills: Before we talk about today's weather I want to blog about wind chills. I hear people get really excited about wind chill temperatures and how cold it is. I want to remind you that wind chill is a value or perceived temperature. The formula has been changed recently because the old formula was based on water and not on exposed skin. Just for fun here is old and new the formula.

Wind chill temperature = 35.74 + 0.6215T - 35.75V (**0.16) + 0.4275TV(**0.16)

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

Note: In the formula, ** means the following term is an exponent (i.e. 10**(0.5 ) means 10 to the 0.5 power, or the square root of V), - means to subtract, + means to add. A letter next to a number means to multiply that quantity represented by the letter by the number. The standard rules of algebra apply.

For reference, the old wind chill formula was:

T(wc) = 0.0817(3.71V**0.5 + 5.81 -0.25V)(T - 91.4) + 91.4

Source for both formulas: The National Weather Service

By the way wind chill only applies to people and animals not objects.


1 comment:

Bob G. said...

Greg:
Now THAT is why I like your blog...
I get to LEARN stuff.

And I now ponder the reasons WHY I should have paid more attention in Algebra 2 class...LOL.

That is interesting to know they changed up on that. I didn't know that.

Quick question:
Does the HEAT INDEX work in a similar mathematic fashion for summer, and if not, why not?

Keep up the GREAT work!

Bob