On Tuesday, February 24, 2015 at 3:40:25 PM UTC-5, Mike Marlow wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote:
Having spent a year within 60 miles of the arctic circle on the end a
wide open peninsula with nothing except a couple of buildings to
block the wind, I can, without a doubt, state that wind chill is not
"media hype". It is not only very uncomfortable, but extremely
dangerous.
I disagree - in my opinion it is all media hype. We know that it is cold in
the winter and that when the wind blows, it's even worse. We really do not
need the hype of showing even lower temperatures, to know that it's cold out
there. I grew up long before the age of "wind chill factor". Guess what -
we knew it was cold out there and we either dressed for it, or took refuge
in the manners that you describe. We did not need a flunky weatherman to
tell us the exagerated version of how cold it was. Common sense and all
that.
--
-Mike-
You call it hype, I call it doing us a favor.
They can tell me it's 5 below with winds of 15MPH or they can tell me it's 5 below with a wind chill temperature of -26. I thank them for doing the math for me. The fact is, at 5 below with winds of 15MPH, it's going to feel like -26, not -5 or -40, so now I know to dress for -26, not -5 or -40.
Of course, we could use AccuWeather's RealFeel®:
"The AccuWeather RealFeel® ... uses multiple factors including the temperature, humidity, cloud cover, sun intensity, and wind to explain how hot (or cold) it feels outside."
With that many variables, I'd be willing to tag that as hype. :-)
I also tag terms like Snowmageddon, Snowpocalypse, and Snowzilla as hype.
We now know your opinion of "flunky weatherman", but we don't know your opinion of NOAA. They don't appear to consider wind chill temperatures as hype.. Are they "flunky" also?
From:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ddc/?n=windchill
"Frostbite Threshold: For the first time, the wind chill temperatures include specific threshold values that provide specific warning of time-to-frostbite at given levels of wind chill. For example, a temperature of 5 degrees Fahrenheit and a wind speed of 30 mph equal a wind chill of -19, which will produce frostbite in 30 minutes. The chart also shows how frostbite will occur sooner if the temperature is lower or the wind speed higher. Since it is the responsibility of the National Weather Service to help protect lives, this is an important service to the American people."