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I was just thinking about the prevalance of feeling cold due to windchills, as much of the annoyance of winter is that feeling of wind on my exposed face and skin, as much as the actual cold air. And windchills are ubiquitously quoted alongside real temps, from the media and personal experience when people talk about the weather in winter where I am.
It's almost taken for granted here, it seems, most of the time that you need to check the windchill as much as the real temp to get an idea of "how cold it is".
Are there locations (in North America or elsewhere if anyone knows) with a cold climate (say a continental climate like Toronto, Chicago etc. or colder) where the wind is calm enough or negligible enough that windchill could be not far from the real temperature or not a concern, in the same way that in a hot dry climate, the humidity index is not a concern or worth posting because it's assumed that the humidity index would just more or less match the real one?
My guess is that if you go to NW Canada (places like Whitehorse or Watson Lake) these areas are often not windy at all during the winter because they are located in valleys.
The interior of Alaska is also not very windy at all, and the coldest areas of Siberia (like Verkhoyansk or Oymyakon) the wind is negligable at best as well.
Most towns in the far north (interior Alaska and the Yukon are what I'm familiar with) sit in broad valleys that are protected from the wind. The small town I live in is unfortunately an exception, but places like Fairbanks, Whitehorse, and Dawson City are all very calm in winter, especially during the coldest weather. Of course the downside to that is that the cold air all sinks down to the valley bottoms, trapping pollutants and allowing temperatures below -50F, colder even than the arctic coast.
I'd heard Siberia often had little or no wind in winter as well, though I can't confirm that from any first-hand knowledge. We're not a continental climate of course but here we only hear wind chill values quoted a handful of times a year at best and never ever hear of humidex values.
My guess is that if you go to NW Canada (places like Whitehorse or Watson Lake) these areas are often not windy at all during the winter because they are located in valleys.
The interior of Alaska is also not very windy at all, and the coldest areas of Siberia (like Verkhoyansk or Oymyakon) the wind is negligable at best as well.
If you don't want to travel any farther than the "Lower 48", Washington State's upper Methow Valley northwest of Wenatchee is a place to investigate. My wife and I have gone skiing there on some of the best cross country trails in western North America.
Average January temperature in Winthrop is in the upper teens and both it and nearby Mazama have seen the thermometer dive to as low as -48 (-44.5). Because of the surrounding topography, wind is a non-factor. As many times as I have spent there I have yet to see a wind speed greater than 10 miles (16k) per hour.
According to folks who live there, a strong wind event is when gusts reach the 15 to 20 mile range and even those piddling wind speeds are generally observed in the spring rather than winter.
One thing I noticed moving up here to Denver, CO from Texas was the lack of wind. While it helps in winter, I kind of wished it was around in summer, but winters are bearable here.
My guess is that if you go to NW Canada (places like Whitehorse or Watson Lake) these areas are often not windy at all during the winter because they are located in valleys.
The interior of Alaska is also not very windy at all, and the coldest areas of Siberia (like Verkhoyansk or Oymyakon) the wind is negligable at best as well.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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I always figured the winds got fiercer the closer you got to the poles, or maybe this is an Antarctic rather than an Arctic thing? High mountains might help block the wind I guess.
Sheridan Wyoming is kind of nuetral. Seldom is the windchill more then a couple of degrees off the temp.
Sheridan is nesteled up against the Big Horn Mountains so they block a lot of wind. Storms come over the mountain and miss Sheridan and hit about 14 miles East of town. As a result, Sheridan will get 3 inches of snow, straight down, where as Clairmont will get 14 inches of snow blowing at 40 mph.
Remember, in Wyoming, the Snow doesn't melt. The wind just blows it around til it wears it out.
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