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I've been using the Heat Index/Wind Chill Tables from the People's Almanac. With this, with 5F and 30MPH, I also come up with -40F windchill.
More scary is the Heat Index. 100F with 80% humidity = 144F! Yikes! And how many times has it reached near 100 on the East Coast in summertime, with sky-high humidity!!
Living in the desert, where people underestimate how cold it can get here, I always shave off 8 degrees from the temp, whether there's wind or no wind! When you buy plants at a nursery here in either Phoenix or Las Vegas, it will say: Protect your plants if it falls below 40F. So! It freezes at a different temp here, particularly if the sky is free of clouds.
There were a number of mornings, when I lived in Phoenix, and it never got to 32F, and when I turned the garden hose on, ice chunks would come out!
So my People's Almanac Index's are now obsolete!
As for the high humidity and heat in the eastern half of the country...bear in mind that to heat an airmass you need some drying or less moisture in the air. Thus having 100F with an RH of 80pct would be very very unlikely. That is why meteorologists use dew points, esp in the summer, to determine how moist an airmass is. You will often see on very warm days....staring out at 70/68 (temp/dew pt) and then as the airmass heats and water droplets evaporate some the temp rise and dew pts fall some...and to get very hot say 100F the airmass would need to dry out, in all but the most humid of places such as coastal locations or very very warm bodies of water such as the Red Sea or Persian Gulf.
I think since I have been working in Grand Forks North Dakota....-55F or so is the lowest I have seen.... Wind chill warnings are issued for our area for wind chills colder than -40F....and that happens only a couple of times. I think last year was in the -50sF and public schools even in the city was cancelled due to the cold. Very rare for that to happen....if not the first time since I have been here since 1998.
I believe there's another factor at work in determining discomfort, but I can't put my finger on it. I lived in Minnesota for 43 years, and when I'd go to the East Coast in the depth of winter, I would always wish I were back in Minnesota experiencing Minnesota cold and the same temperature! It always seemed so much colder, due to the dampness, being near the ocean? It was so much more penetrating!
I've experienced that along the Southern California coast as well, in winter. I was staying in Tijuana, one night in January (no heat in the rooms down there!), and it was so cold, I had to put all my clothes under the blankets, just to go to the bathroom! Proximity to the ocean? Damp cold?
And this dry cold of the desert!! Next week, I fish out my longer underwear which I always wear right through January or early February!
Over the years, I've seen some cold fronts sweep down into Florida, all the way down to Miami, even with snow flurries in the air around Miami! I can only imagine, late at night, with the wind blowing, how painful that could be with the wind chill!
Over the years, I've seen some cold fronts sweep down into Florida, all the way down to Miami, even with snow flurries in the air around Miami! I can only imagine, late at night, with the wind blowing, how painful that could be with the wind chill!
The last time and only time we had snow it was back in 1977. The NWS reviewed the supposed snow of 2010 and later said that it was in fact only a little bit of partially melted sleet mixed in with allot of cold drizzle. as for the painful part yes very much so, especially when temps were in the 80s leading up to the cold snap.
There aren't readily accessible heat index records for most of Australia, I suspect the record index in Perth would probably be close to the actual record temperature of 46.2C, given most heat waves are accompanied with relatively dry air and breezy conditions.
I believe there's another factor at work in determining discomfort, but I can't put my finger on it. I lived in Minnesota for 43 years, and when I'd go to the East Coast in the depth of winter, I would always wish I were back in Minnesota experiencing Minnesota cold and the same temperature! It always seemed so much colder, due to the dampness, being near the ocean? It was so much more penetrating!
I've experienced that along the Southern California coast as well, in winter. I was staying in Tijuana, one night in January (no heat in the rooms down there!), and it was so cold, I had to put all my clothes under the blankets, just to go to the bathroom! Proximity to the ocean? Damp cold?
And this dry cold of the desert!! Next week, I fish out my longer underwear which I always wear right through January or early February!
Coastal areas are generally warmer at night and cooler during the day.
Higher humidity slows the rate of cooling from the body, whatever the temperature is.
Coastal areas are generally warmer at night and cooler during the day.
Higher humidity slows the rate of cooling from the body, whatever the temperature is.
Wrong. eg. Bismarck, ND, is both warmer in the day AND the night than Seattle. Same goes for Wenatchee, WA, (far inland) vs. Seattle, WA (near the coast).
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