How are the fans at the Chiefs game not all hypothermic with windchills at -27?
In: Biology
Guaranteed there are lots of fans wishing they wore more socks and better footwear. The toes will always feel it.
The freezing point of alcohol is well below -27. They simply have more alcohol than blood in their alcohol system.
Layers. I’ve been to a -6° game before (not the same, I know, but similar) and was dressed accordingly. I was actually warm at points during the game and wanted to take off a jacket but knew that wasn’t the right move.
On the opposite end, I’ve been at 50° games in the shade and felt like I was freezing because I didn’t plan accordingly.
A whole bunch of reasons.
* They’re wearing clothes to protect them from much of the cold by keeping their body’s heat in and the wind out.
* The stadium itself protects them from most of the wind.
* They’re also packed with a bunch of other fans, which preserves body heat – some of the body heat that would have dissipated is instead warming fans around you (and you’re absorbing some of theirs.)
Picture heat as trying to escape your body. Wind makes it easier for it to escape because the air heated around you is constantly being blown away by the wind and replaced by new, colder air. Blocking the wind prevents that. Wearing heavy layers also makes it harder for the heat to escape. And, finally, having a bunch of fans packed around you effectively makes it harder for it to escape.
If they stayed out there *forever* this wouldn’t be enough and they would eventually freeze, but they’re not going to do that, and all the points above mean that they’re easily going to retain enough heat for the length of the game.
I attended a near-zero Packers game — with the usual Wisconsin wind chill. Young women in front of me wore parkas but shed them for A FEW SECONDS when they caught the attention of the cameraman.
So that’s the secret.
Clothes. How do they work?
There’s an old german saying “There is no bad weather, only a poor choice of clothes.”
Another corollary I’ve heard here stateside to defend living in cold climates is “I can always put on more clothes, I can only get so naked.
You can, in fact, dress appropriately for -30F weather. It’s a lot. But you can do it.
Lol my friend sent me some snapchat from there. He was bundled up and still frozen. They ended up leaving esrly
As a Canadian with harsh winters where windchills can be -45 for several days/weeks… this thread was entertaining.
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