wrote:

Greetings from Co Durham (Trimdon, 130m asl).

We spend a week most years XC Skiing in Arctic Lapland. Not
Jack London stuff, a civilised package tour but it means
I've been out regularly in really cold weather, -30 this year.

Meto keeps giving us "feels like" temps with wind chill. Well
it doesn't. Leaving aside somewhat better clothing (actually
not hugely better) it stikes me that the current wind chill
figures are just plain wrong. Yesterday in Tesco's car park*
felt a heap worse than wandering about at -15 in still air.

Who calculates these figures? On what basis? Comfort wise
they just feel wrong.

I've also spent a considerable amount of time in the frozen north, and
agree with your perceived cold observations. AFAIK, no wind chill
calculation formulas take account of air humidity. In inland arctic
areas, typical air humidity levels can be 30-50% on cold winter days,
whereas the last couple of days[1] I looked up and saw online figures[2]
for midland locations between 90-100% RH.

In a draft of cold air saturated with H2O, I'd guess that water droplets
may form, and on contact with naked skin draw heat to evaporate.

Even if you spent some time outdoors in your Tesco car park, you
probably wont suffer from dried out skin (lips) - which is very common
in the dry and cold air of the arctic. Thats why the Nivea skin
moisturiser range is commonly available and much used there.

[1] after feeling very cold in a Morrisons (!) car park
[2] http://weather.noaa.gov/weather/GB_cc.html

--
ts // scrap vehicle to send e-mail