FARGO — Come on, admit it! When calling a relative in St. Louis, or when making a post on social media about how cold it is here, the wind chill number is used much more frequently than the actual air temperature. Although this is factual, it is undoubtedly an illustration of people in the public, and not just in the media, hyping the weather. The choice to lead with wind chill instead of the actual air temperature is obviously done because the wind chill is the more impressive number.
Wind chill is only useful when describing the effect of the full force of the wind on exposed skin. Unless the person in the cold is fully exposed to the wind in an unprotected area, and with bare skin, then the impact is something less than the wind chill. It is more honest, perhaps, to report the air temperature first and then mention the wind chill afterwards.
The Trust Project
