Posted on 12/05/2011 5:32:56 AM PST by WOBBLY BOB
You won't be hearing wind chill warnings in the Twin Cities this winter - but not because it won't get cold.
Several National Weather Service offices, including the office in Chanhassen, are replacing wind chill warnings with what they're calling "extreme cold" warnings.
"In large part, it's just a name change," said Todd Krause, warning coordination meteorologist for the weather service's Chanhassen office.
Krause said warnings used to be issued if the wind chill factor dropped to minus 35.
But if the temperature was minus 35 with no wind, no warning was issued.
The new extreme cold warning will be issued for dangerously low temperatures or wind chills.
"Once or twice every winter, you can get a time when the actual air temperature drops down to minus 35," Krause said.
(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...
Good to know when its’ minus 35 outside. Especially since nobody has outside thermometers up there!
I don’t know why they are messing with a perfectly descriptive term like wind chill. Wind chill applies at any temp below 60 or so degrees, not just super low temps.
Once experienced -40° as a kid. No wind chill, thank goodness, but the air was so cold you could feel your lungs chill with every breath. The snow underfoot became incredibly noisy when you walked over it, as the crystals did not melt under pressure.
And in the Summer they are going to replace the age old phrase “It’s not the heat it’s the humidity” with, It’s not the heat, it’s the sweltering and deadly tropical furnace”.
Government make work project, new name for everything.
I wonder why meteorologists are renaming common expressions? It comes across as either using euphemisms or political correctness. If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.
Last summer, there was great derision when some meteorologists decided to rename “dust storms”, “haboobs”, the Arabic word for “strong winds”, not dust storms, making the meteorologists sound like fools. The air was filled with “boob” jokes. “Ha! Boobs!”
I think the process began when they renamed the “tidal wave”, “tsunami”, which may be more technically correct, sort of, but still sounds like some kind of sushi or Japanese consumer product.
Though personally, I would be downright gleeful if they decided to call hurricanes by their German name, “der Wirbelsturm”, which just lends itself to hilarity.
We must be PC to the global warming kooks.
Was not aware of that! Here in Florida, we don't get extreme cold, per se, and when we're told that wind chills are in the teens/twenties, it usually means that cold air is blowing across the Gulf and ripping through any clothing on our bodies.
Dead still cold nights usually don't categorize under "wind chill" for our local meteorologists.
Even the term ‘wind chill’ has changed.
As a paperboy in the Twin Cities in the 70s, we had one winter day where the temperature was -32F with high winds. I still had papers to deliver. I wore as many layers of clothes as was possible. I was able to deliver papers for about five minutes before I had to go back in my dad’s car to warm up for five minutes, mainly because my eyeballs got so cold that it was getting hard to see. The news reported that it was a wind chill of -101F.
Apparantly, the wind chill scale was changed later on. Now you can’t get that kind of wind chill.
-35 without a wind is @#%#@% cold, but bearable. However, anything below zero, with a wind, gets rough quick.
Coldest that I ever saw (on the thermometer) it in Maine was -44. It was unpleasant, but not awful. The back side of Nor'easters, though, with -20 or -30 temps, and high winds, were dangerous to be out in.
And you're right about the snow squeaking when it got really cold. The wood steps on my house did the the same thing. And the tires of the cars used to square off, too.
I live in the south now, and don't miss it a bit. :-)
Yeah, I remember that. -100 used to be pretty routine in Maine. I remember my dad cursing because it was -120 with the wind chill, and he'd just called my grandfather in NC.....who had just come in from mowing his lawn.
They changed the windchill scale 20-ish years ago, I think. Not that it matters any. You don't want to be out in -60 degree cold, any more than you want to be out in -100 degree cold.
A prime example why most men in really cold climates shave their beards before winter sets in.
Wind chill applies at any temp below 60 or so degrees, not just super low temps.
Was not aware of that!
Warm globally, cool locally!
This article has no validity since it’s not printed in ALL CAPS!
Ah, the days of walking a mile to school in sub-zero weather and having my nostrils freeze. What great times. (smirk)
You still can, but you have to get it off a military chart. The worst I have seen was -146, according to the chart (-60 with a 40 MPH wind, Dec. 1983/Jan. 1984). Saturated salt water based drilling fluid blowing off the end of the shale shaker (I was working on a drill site) was freezing in mid-air in about 4 feet. I was getting splattered with it, but it just bounced off. I was very well dressed for the weather, but only good for about five minutes at a time out in it.
Oh no! Keep the beard! The ice buildup on the outside means you have a layer of warmer and static air next to your skin. It looks cold, but it is much warmer than bare skin!
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