Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
I understand, but why assign a number to it that no one understands? A lot of people watch the weather report and think the numbers reported are the temperature, when they are really the wind chill factor. This creates a lot of misinformation. Also, with respect to the human body, isn't the rate of body temperature change more dependent on how much clothing you are wearing, or whether you are in the sun or in the shade?
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I'm sure some do it to make the temp's more 'dramatic,' but there is also a legitimate reason for doing so.
That being it warns folks to dress for a much colder ambient temp...so they can minimize heat loss.
Shade/sun doesn't make all that much of a difference (given that there isn't much 'heat' in the sun at this time of the year anyway), but dressing with wind resistant clothing, covering all exposed skin or even staying out of the wind entirely if possible...makes a big difference.
I've worked in some seriously extreme cold and one older guy I knew would wear his rain bibs/coat...when the wind was blowing.
Yeah, it looked a little silly, but he knew that was the best way to eliminate the wind...from sucking heat from his body.
Remember, the chart (which has actually been tweaked over the years) was developed simply to provide a
'rough equivalency'...in regards to heat loss.