"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
...
On Feb 22, 12:54 pm, Albert T Cone wrote:

Windchill is ********. By which I mean that it doesn't actually convey
any useful information;
If it is +1C and there is a 'windchill' of 5 degrees, there wont be a
frost, as if it were -4C. If you wear windproof clothing then it feels
exactly the same as +1C. Obviously, air movement and humidity do have
an effect on your perception of temperature, but then so do your own
movement (standing still vs walking/running/cycling), clothing, skin
moisture levels, etc. - how much colder it feels than dry still air is
entirely subjective.

Sorry, personal bete noire. I'll shut up now...

By the same token surface temperatures of Arctic ice in storms only
get that low because of being ice in the Arctic? I would have thought
that the wind effect did the chilling.

That's nowt to do with wind chill, or indeed the wind. The temperature is
that of the air. Air at a certain temperature can't cool below that
temperature - simple thermodynamics. The wind can make the cooling effect if
present work faster, but it won't change the equilibrium temperature.

The fact that the temperature just a few feet lower down remains
within 2 degrees of 0 Centigrade despite frequent sustained drops to
-37 above?

Insulation.

"Wind chill" refers to the cooling of warm bodies, ie people - stick
somebody in still air at 0 deg C and they'll require X amount of energy to
keep warm. Make the air moving and they'll require more, ie they'll require
Y amount of energy. If the air is still, they'd expend Y amount of energy at
several degrees below - the wind chill is the difference between the actual
air temperature and that lower temperature.

clive