The Wind Chill

 

   The autumn equinox is upon us and we are losing about three minutes of daylight per day. There is less daylight and there will be lower temperatures. Soon, as we watch the 6 o'clock news in the dark, we will be warned about the "Wind Chill." It is much worse than the temperature, which is why we are being warned. Invitations to local outings will be accompanied by reminders to wear mittens and appropriate footwear. I suppose such warnings are issued not because we are stupid, but because the inviters want to be spared a law suit should we be bitten by the frost, or because we might have forgotten about the Wind Chill.

   Meteorologists have largely abandoned the thermometer and the temperature in favour of the expression "It's going to feel like....!!!" . As in other realms of our experience, I suppose,  feeling is more important than thinking.  The season of the Humidex has passed and there was rarely a pleasant summer day that was not described as "Horrific" because of it. Winter is bad enough, but it will be made much worse by the Wind Chill. I guess it could be even worse if there was also some kind of a "Light Index" and we warned that on the dreary day to come the weather person will say that "Tomorrow afternoon at 1, it is going to feel like midnight." 

   I may be a contrarian, but I am not alone on this issue. Back in March, the veteran science journalist, Tom Spears,  had this to say about both the "Wind Chill" and the "Humidex." The source: "The Weather: Opinion: Why Are We Inflating Our Weather Forecasts? The Scam That is the Wind Chill." Toronto Star, March 7, 2021.

On the Wind Chill:

"We have a problem with our weather.
It’s being reshaped by an inflationary force that is pushing out hard data — and replacing it with squishy approximations of “how cold it feels.”
This problem is a simple thing we hear about all the time: wind chill....But the wind chill still made the day feel colder than the actual temperature. At least, that’s the official story.

But why does every winter day have to be described as colder than it really is? Listen to the radio and count how often the announcer says: “ … but it’s going to feel like …” Increasingly I’m even hearing wind chill given more prominence than the actual temperature. I hear neighbours and people in shops talking about the terrible cold, -20 or -25 C, when the temperature is -15 C or so.

The effect of this is inflation. No matter what the temperature is, we keep telling ourselves it feels colder. And the deck is stacked to promote cold. First, the wind chill calculation doesn’t consider any warming influences, such as the sun that warms your face at this time of year. Touch a brick wall that faces the sun and you’ll feel this effect. Also, wind is generally measured high above the ground and with no trees or buildings nearby, often at airports. Down at ground level in my neighbourhood (or yours) the wind is less strong.

On the Humidex:

Now with spring coming, we turn to another way to make ourselves miserable and distort the weather all at once. We have the humidex. Again, it’s an approximation of how we feel, and yes, humidity makes heat worse, but this factor needs an overhaul.

Here’s an example. On one day in a recent summer, I found Detroit and next-door Windsor with temperatures near 28 C. The Weather Network gave Detroit a “feels like” reading of 30.5. But in Windsor, Environment Canada had a humidex of 38.

The humidex occasionally shows figures in the 50s in southern Canada, which is nearly equal to the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth. Toronto regularly gets humidex readings in the 40s, which is like summer in Arizona or south Texas, places where air sears the lungs and you can’t touch a steering wheel without running the air conditioning for several minutes beforehand.

Besides, what does it mean to say that we’re experiencing the equivalent of 35 degrees without humidity? When do we experience zero humidity in this country? It’s an illusory comparison, and continuing reinterpreting the temperature teaches us to misread the weather, with potentially dangerous results.

   Additional support is found in a fine work about old age, by an author who, like me agrees with the old concept about old age (see my OATS series where it is generally argued that 70 is not the new 50.) About the wind chill he notes on p.54: 

The wise old do not just instruct youth; they also buttonhole them to tell them tales of how much better it was back then or, if not better, then nobler and harder, when people were not spoiled by material success and indulgent parents. I really did walk through deep snow to school and there were no snow days off for excessive wind chill. That index was not kept. Once it was kept, people as far south as Nashville could claim to have endured zero degrees Fahrenheit when it was thirty-three on a mildly winter day. Wind chill is yet another instance of grade inflation penetrating into every nook and cranny of our lives.

From Losing It, by William Ian Miller. 

For more see: SO LONG SUMMER.