Wind chills: What are they and how are they measured?

Florida differs from northern parts of the country, but we still feel the chill!

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When you think of the wind, you may think of air cooling down based on a breeze, leading to a change in temperature.

In the northern parts of the country, wind chills can dip to the point of leading to frost bite. But here in Florida, that’s not the case.

Related: Wind chill to the bone, then teeth chattering 20s Wednesday

We get cold, but not bitterly cold as in wind chills in the negatives!

Typically for Floridians — as we witnessed today and will again tomorrow — we will see wind chills cooling temperatures down a few degrees from where the actual temperature lies.

But the question remains: How does that happen?

In simple terms, the colder the air temperatures are, combined with higher wind speeds, the more it’s going to affect how your skin feels when you’re outside.

That’s why I encourage you to pull out the parka during this sunny Florida this week!

For example, this morning in Jacksonville we dipped down to 30 degrees at one point, but our wind chill was around 24 degrees because sustained winds were around 12 mph and gusts were a little higher.

Keep reading to understand how this all comes together to make us feel colder!

Typically the way wind chills are measured, according to the National Weather Service, is when the air temperature is 50 degrees or below, and the wind speeds are 3mph or higher.

A key tip to remember is that when wind speeds get faster they remove heat from our bodies at a faster rate. This overall makes our skin temperature colder and eventually the temperature inside of our bodies colder.

The Weather Service created the chart below to help measure wind chill.

The Weather Service wind chill chart (The Weather Service)

For topics you want to learn more about, feel free to email me at kgarner@wjxt.com.


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