Winter Weather Awareness Week: What Does Wind Chill Really Mean?

During the winter months, you hear a lot about the “wind chill.” What does that really mean?

According to the National Weather Service, “Wind Chill is a term used to describe what the air temperature feels like to the human skin due to the combination of cold temperatures and winds blowing on exposed skin.”

Get our free mobile app

By knowing the wind chill you can have a gauge of how cold it will feel. The colder the wind chill index, the colder it will feel to you.

Also, “the colder the air temperature and the higher the wind speeds the colder it will feel on your skin if you're outside. So even if it remains the same temperature, but the wind speed increases it will actually feel colder to your skin,” said the National Weather Service.

Click here for the Wind Chill formula from the National Weather Service.

Click here for the Wind Chill Calculator from the National Weather Service.