Wind is less cold

2000/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

Many times the temperature we read in the thermometer does not match the temperature that the body feels. In cold countries they take into account the cooling factor of the wind before leaving home, since the wind can transform the temperature from -15 °C to -35 °C. The body has a layer of hot air around the skin that helps us stay warm.

The wind removes this warm layer and attracts the heat of the skin by evaporating the water molecules we have in it. These two effects make us feel colder than the one indicated by the thermometer.

The wind cooling factor was established in the 1950s through measurements by American researchers in Antarctica

not. They measured the time needed for freezing the water filled cylinders at different temperatures and wind conditions, obtaining the equations to calculate the wind cooling factor. This factor measures the rate of heat loss on the skin and can become, if desired, a temperature scale. In cold countries two temperatures are predicted: the one that will mark the thermometer and the one that will feel the body. But there are experts who have been protesting for years that water-filled cylinders do not adequately indicate the cooling of the human body and that the measurements of the 1950s are obsolete.

The equations then add 10-15ºC in excess to the action of the wind, to brighten the sensational preachers and to the detriment of all.