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    Winter weather

    Wind chill calculator: how cold it really feels

    Your weather right now

    Looking out of your window…

    Live from OpenWeatherMap.

    Wind chill is how cold it feels on bare skin when the wind strips heat away. The thermometer says one thing, your face says another, and the National Weather Service has a formula for the gap.

    Work out the wind chill

    Feels like 6°F

    At 20°F with a 15 mph wind, it feels like 6°F.

    Bitter. The kind of cold that makes your face file a complaint.

    Get roasted by your own forecastFree, no account, and you pick how rude I get.

    How the formula works

    The National Weather Service formula takes the air temperature in °F and the wind speed in mph at about face height. Wind chill = 35.74 + 0.6215T − 35.75V^0.16 + 0.4275TV^0.16, where T is the temperature and V is the wind speed.

    It only works at 50°F or colder with wind above 3 mph. Outside that, the air temperature is the number.

    Wind chill chart

    mph40°35°30°25°20°15°10°5°0°−5°−10°−15°−20°−25°
    5363125191371−5−11−16−22−28−34−40
    103427211593−4−10−16−22−28−35−41−47
    153225191360−7−13−19−26−32−39−45−51
    20302417114−2−9−15−22−29−35−42−48−55
    2529231693−4−11−17−24−31−37−44−51−58
    3028221581−5−12−19−26−33−39−46−53−60
    3528211470−7−14−21−27−34−41−48−55−62
    402720136−1−8−15−22−29−36−43−50−57−64
    452619125−2−9−16−23−30−37−44−51−58−65

    Feels-like temperatures in °F, from the same National Weather Service formula. Rows are wind speed in mph, columns are air temperature in °F.

    The National Weather Service chart also shows frostbite times for exposed skin. The NWS wind chill chart

    Questions people ask

    What is wind chill?
    Wind chill is how cold it feels on bare skin once the wind is taken into account. At 20°F with a 15 mph wind, it feels like 6°F.
    Is wind chill the same as the feels-like temperature?
    In the cold, mostly. Weather apps usually show wind chill as feels-like when it’s cold and the heat index when it’s hot and humid.
    What is the heat index?
    The heat index is the summer twin: how hot it feels once humidity is taken into account. The humid cities pages cover how sticky summer gets.
    Can wind chill freeze pipes above 32°F?
    No. Pipes and water can’t get colder than the air, so nothing freezes above 32°F however hard the wind blows. The wind only gets them down to the air temperature sooner.

    More cold and wind

    The app does the wind chill for you, with commentary.

    Or get it on Google Play.