Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormin Mormon[_10_]
Wind chill describes rate of heat loss of objects.
Doesn't matter if they are living or dead. Ask the
pilots in alaska, if wind chill is important when
they land a plane in cold weather. Wind chill has
a big effect on how long they can be there, before
the oil is too cold to allow the plane to restart.
In the case of water pipes, it has a big effect on
how fast they freeze. Which is the question of this
thread.
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You have it exactly.
Wind chill affects the RATE of heat loss, not the temperature an object will cool down to.
If you put an inanimate object, like a cinder block, outdoors then it will cool down to the ambient temperature. The stronger the wind, the higher the wind chill, and the faster that cinder block will cool down to the ambient temperature, which is the temperature without considering wind chill.
People experience heat loss from their skin as the sensation "cold". The more rapidly heat is lost from the skin, the colder it feels to us. So, an outdoor temperature of -20 deg. F. can "feel like" an outdoor temperature of -30 deg. F. if there is a wind. The wind accelerates heat loss from the skin, thereby making it "feel" colder to us.
However, long story short, an inanimate object will never cool down to a temperature below the ambient temperature because of the wind. Lack of any wind will just mean that it will take longer for that inanimate object to cool down to ambient temperatures.
And, wind chill works in the opposite direction as well. If you defrost your fridge and put the ice outside on a warm summer day to melt, the stronger the wind, the faster that ice will melt. The less wind there is, the longer it will take that ice to melt.