Cold, By Any Other Name, Is Still Cold

Who invented the “wind chill factor?” … that sadistic statistic that tells us what we already know – cold feels damn cold.

The temperature was 6 degrees Farenheit at my house last night. The wind was blowing at 15 mph, which made the wind chill factor -13 degrees. Do I really need to know that six degrees felt like -13?

Can you tell the difference between 6 degrees and -13 degrees? I can’t. Either one can lead to hypothermia in a matter of minutes. If run outside to get something out of my car and fail to wear my heavy coat, I might become a 6-foot tall ice cube.

By the way, according to a couple of websites, Charles Passel and Paul Siple “invented” the wind chill factor during an Antarctic expedition in the 1930 and the weather service started using the tables and charts in the 1970s.

For me, six degrees felt like seventy last night because I stayed inside. It’s a balmy 16 this morning, so I think I’ll go to work now – in my heated car.