The science of wind chill

If you made your way out the door anytime earlier today, you might have had your breath taken away by the cold winds. Strong wind gusts up to 30 mph and cool highs into the mid-30s lead to lower wind chills earlier today. You might be asking yourself, "What is wind chill and why does it matter?"

Wind chill is the feels like temperature felt due to both the wind and temperature taken into mind. On a calm day, your body heat stays near your skin allow for you to regulate warmer temperatures more efficiently. On days where wind gusts are high, this heat is then blown away from your skin leading to more effective cooling of your body temperature.

To determine they wind chill, you can do a long algebraic equation, or you can use a a chart such as the one provided above by the National Weather Service. The colors represent the potential frostbite times with prolonged exposure. The lower the wind chill, the more dangerous it can be.

Wind gusts are thankfully calming throughout the overnight hours into Tuesday morning, but the actual air temperatures is also falling. This means the actual air temperature will mimic the wind chill very closely. Wind chills Tuesday morning look to fall into the mid to upper teens throughout the first couple of hours of daylight.