You know how sometimes you’ll open up a weather app and it’ll say that it’s 80°F, feels like 92°F, or when it’s super cold it’ll say 10°F, feels like -2°F?
How do they determine what a certain temperature feels like? Is it based on humidity, wind, or pressure? I figured that ‘feels like’ would be more subjective, which is why I’m always confused when it says that.
In: 4
It is a combination of the actual (dry-bulb) temperature, humidity, and wind.
As a rule, for low actual temperatures, wind is what matters most, known as wind-chill. The basis for this calculation is looking at how fast a bottle of water froze at differing wind speeds, though it has since been refined. The calculation is designed to account for how wind will strip away the thin layer of warm air around a warm object, such as a human.
For high actual temperatures, humidity matters most, and can be measured as a wet-bulb temperature. That is, they wrap the bulb of the thermometer in a wet cloth and wait for it to stabilize in temperature. This process basically accounts for sweat production and how humidity reduces how sweat evaporates.
As both are based on actual physical features, the “feels like” temperature is purely objective.
Naturally, there will be some variation between people: different people sweat differently or have differing set body temperatures, and both will vary from day to day. For cold weather, slight movements will also strip that layer away, though clothing will help preserve that layer.
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