There’s the temp and then the “feels like” temp. If they are different, how does a thermometer read the real temp and not what it feels like, since it feels like the feels like temp?

Question

I know this title sounds crazy but I don’t know how to phrase my question better

In: 5716

Answer 1

I did a bit of resewrch into this for a school project that we were hosting outside in December, but it’s not a super in depth explanation.

“Feels like”, otherwise known as “wind chill” on windy days, is a reference to *how quickly* an object or your body loses heat. What the weatherpeople are specifically trying to say is “It’s X degrees outside, but you’re losing heat as if it was Y degrees.”

For example, let’s say it’s 32°F outside, and it takes 30 minutes for a bowl of water to freeze solid when left outside in the shade with no wind. Now let’s say the wind picks up, and the water now freezes in 15 minutes instead of 30. The wind chill, or what the air *feels like*, is lower than the actual temperature of 32°.