With a continental polar air mass building into the Twin Tiers on Tuesday and Wednesday, you are likely to experience some cold wind chill temperatures. On Tuesday the high will be near 48 degrees. With gusty winds from the Northwest, it will easily feel like 40 degrees. But the colder temperatures get and the stronger winds are, the worse it feels. I'm sure you have all experienced some painful windchills at some time or another. Typically during the winter when it's already below freezing and you have 15-20 mph winds hitting your face. During situations like this, it is important to pay attention to the weather forecast and dress appropriately to prevent dangerous situations such as frostbtite.
The definition of wind chill temperature is the temperature that human skin feels due to heat loss caused by the combined effects of both cold and wind. With a wind chill, the amount of heat a surface loses increases as wind speed increases. The transfer of heat from a surface to air occurs by conduction. Simply, wind removes heated air and replaces it will cold air. The stronger the wind, the faster the heat is carried away by air. If you're outside exercising on a windy day you can sometimes feel the chill even more. That is because evaporation of sweat also increases as wind speed increases thus resulting in an additonal loss of heat.
Wind chill advisories and warnings can also be posted by the National Weather Service during winter months. Advisories are issues when the resulting cold can be dangerous for long exposure times, while a warning is issued when the cold temperatures are life threatening.
Bundle up this week!
For more information on wind chill and the National Weather Service Wind Chill Chart, head to this website: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/windchill/index.shtml
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