Stray Info

About the Wind Chill Factor
Below zero in the northern winter, you better pay close attention to the wind chill factor. The straight thermometer temperature is important, but the true measure of cold is wind chill because it measures the impact of wind and temperature on human flesh.

In DBZ there is constant mention of the factor. It was written on a chalk board by the front door at most pipeline camps. You would always look at it in winter just before heading out into it. Printed charts of the wind and temperature factor were everywhere. Those charts reflected the index that was developed in the 1940s by the Antarctic explorers Siple and Passel. In 2001, the National Weather Service began using more fine tuned formula.

Wind chill factors below zero for a given wind speed are colder with the old formula than the new one. The old formula was in use during the Pipeline construction and those were the numbers chalked on the board. So, I used those numbers throughout.

A curiosity of the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales is that there is one temperature where they are equal and that’s minus forty degrees.