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Old 05-05-2012, 04:29 PM
 
Location: Philadelphia, PA
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One thing i always notice in the spring is how important wind direction is. A 70 degree day with a Northeast wind can have a chilly, fall-like feel. But a 58 degree day with a wind out of the South can feel warm and be a very nice day.

Of course, people such as Patricius Maximus probably scoff at the notion of a 70 degree day being chilly. I know for some of you, it gets "chilly" when you can no longer feel your fingers and toes. But for the rest of us, wind direction probably has a noticeable effect on how cool or warm it feels when you have a moderate temperature day such as today.
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Old 05-05-2012, 05:07 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, Canada
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Wind speed is huge for me, but I can't say the direction does except in the sense of walking into it or away from it.

0C, perfectly calm, and sunny is much better than 5C, a stiff breeze, and heavy rain coming down.
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Old 05-05-2012, 05:19 PM
 
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CairoCanadian View Post
0C, perfectly calm, and sunny is much better than 5C, a stiff breeze, and heavy rain coming down.
Better than 10 C, I would say. And probably still better than 15 C with gale force winds and heavy rain.
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Old 05-05-2012, 05:40 PM
 
Location: Laurentia
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I agree that wind, sun, and other factors can be critical for the feel of a day more so than the temperature when the temperature is moderate. What qualifies as moderate varies. Some such as yourself experience that at 70F; for me it would be closer to 50F. I'd say wind direction is quite overrated when it comes to the feel of the air. A wind chill of 10 mph doesn't change based on the direction. Strong south winds in the arctic and subarctic can often produce colder wind chills and apparent temperatures than a calm day when the actual temperature was colder. The differing feels probably have more to do with the type of airflow that's coming in, cold versus warm flow. That's just a guess on my part, but direction seems to have no correlation, especially for me.
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Old 05-05-2012, 06:56 PM
 
Location: Golden, CO
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I think the OP was referring more to how weather is affected depending on which direction the wind was coming from.

Where I used to live in South Texas (McAllen) the wind came from the Southeast a majority of the time. Since that is where the Gulf of Mexico is, that wind direction would increase the humidity and temperature. Winds from the North or Northeast usually signified a cold front, if during summer just a little drier than that southeast wind. We'd rarely get winds from the west or south west, but because that was from the mountains of Mexico, it was usually the driest air and sometimes even hotter temps.

In Colorado, wind direction mostly affects how much moisture we get with upsloping winds or winds from the west (downslopping/Chinook) will make our hotter temps as air heats on the way down.
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Old 05-05-2012, 07:18 PM
 
Location: Iowa
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Wind direction is huge here because of the lake being south and east of me, plus the river to the west. This time of year, lake is cold so we can have decent temps on a calm day but if the wind picks, very immediate temp drop.

The other day it was in the 60's as a warm front went through for an hour or so, the wind switched, presto 52 instead of the 60s! A west wind is warmer for us in Spring, East, SE, or North, NE, not so much, but I love living on the bump out for the weather variance.
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Old 05-05-2012, 08:51 PM
 
Location: Melbourne AUS
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Being on the boundary of a warm desert and arctic ocean, wind direction in Melbourne is a critical factor in the weather. Northerlies are warm to hot, while the dreaded southerlies and Southwesterlies are cold. When the wind changes from the north to southwesterly in summer with a cold front, the temp usually drops to under 20C in minutes, regardless of how high it was before.

IN winter the difference is less extreme, although southerlies have a distinct skin-penetrating chill compared to the more mild feel accompanying northerlies.
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Old 05-05-2012, 08:55 PM
 
Location: Toronto
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I don't know if it's wind direction or whatever, but I've noticed that sometimes if I only wear a T-shirt and shorts, I can feel cool or even a bit chilly when it's cloudy and breezy on the one hand, and warm when it's sunny and often calm or with a slight breeze sometimes even at temperatures in the 60s F.
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Old 04-24-2015, 11:59 PM
 
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Agreed, i think wind chill must depend on wind direction as well
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