If temperature is a measure of how fast particles move, why wind isn’t making the temperature higher?

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If I understand correctly, temperature is a measure of the kinetic energy of particles which corresponds to how fast they move. But if that’s the case, why is the air temperature in winds not higher, since it pushes particles faster?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

It does make materials warmer, but not enough to matter, and thanks to other properties can also make things cooler.

Temperature is about motion at a molecular/atomic scale. It’s about really tiny movements.

Wind is motion at a much larger scale than temperature. The motion of wind causes turbulence which results in a tiny amount of friction warming, but it has other effects. For humans it carries away the air around your body, allowing for more evaporation (which usually cools) and takes away whatever air your body has already warmed. Both of these drop your temperature around your skin.

Overall wind by itself has a negligible effect on temperature. If same-temperature air is moving through same-temperature air, the air remains at the same temperature. However, usually wind moves from high pressure to low pressure, and pressure differences are often due to temperature differences, so you get either colder air moving through or warmer air moving through, which is just replacing air with different temperature air.

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