How to calculate the felt temperature?

How to calculate the felt temperature

Between the temperature displayed on your thermometer and how you feel when you step outside, there is sometimes a big difference. But did you know that there are tables that allow you to calculate this felt temperature?

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It is usually at heart of winter or the summer that we hear most about felt temperatures. At times when the temperatures recorded on the thermometers are the coldest or the hottest. Because it is then that the differences with the sensations of cold or heat that we have are the most painful.

Temperature felt: how to explain it?

First of all, remember that the feeling of cold or hot is not only due to the temperature it is. Rather, it is caused by heat flux exchanges. Thus, the more there is of difference between the outside temperature and that of your body, the more the heat flow will be important and the more the sensation of cold or hot will be great. A sensation all the same slightly regulated by a thin layer ofair who at the surface of your skin, plays an insulating role.

Temperature tables as a function of wind speed

But when in winter for example, the wind blows, this layer of air is expelled and your skin is directly exposed to the cold outside air. The heat flow increases and with it, your feeling of cold. It was from this observation that the idea of temperature felt. Or, to speak more precisely, wind chill index. And the formula that links the latter to the wind speed is somewhat complex.

So some offer tables which allow, starting from an estimate of the speed wind and temperature displayed on a thermometer, to get an idea of ​​the temperature felt. How to interpret these figures in principle without a unit of measurement? It’s actually quite simple. When the thermometer displays 0 ° C and the wind is blowing at 40 km.h-1, your skin feels cold as if the thermometer read -7 ° C without wind.

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