DAYTON — Good afternoon, everyone! Meteorologist Nick Dunn here on this Wednesday afternoon. It is nice to see a little bit of sunshine out there to brighten things up a little bit. However, it is still cold! Temperatures look to stay below freezing for a few more days. In fact, high temperatures are 15 to 20 degrees below where we typically are this time of year.
Our coldest nighttime low this season was 19 degrees on November 29th. I do expect us to get much colder than that by Friday morning. The forecast low is 11 degrees in Dayton, but a few single digit temperatures are possible north of I-70.
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The air temperature is what is used to factor in the forecast each day. However, we look at another important value! The wind chill temperature is something you will likely hear us talk about more and more. So, what exactly is it? Let’s dive in!
On a calm and cold morning, the air temperature and wind chill match. Our bodies lose heat through convection. When the wind is calm, a layer of heat remains to help keep us a little warmer. Still, even after prolonged exposure to cold temperatures on calm mornings you find yourself feeling cold!
On the flip side, if you add in some wind we find some changes. Wind takes that same layer of heat and breaks it up. This allows for our bodies to speed up the loss of heat and it feels much colder as a result.
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The biggest issue with the wind chill is to your exposed skin. When you have a wind chill near zero like we will have on Friday morning it takes less time to feel the effects of cold. Covering as much exposed skin as you can and adding extra layers of clothing without the feeling of it being too tight to you are important. These are likely not going to be the coldest wind chills or air temperatures we face this Winter, either.
So, while there can be a big spread in air temperatures and wind chills, meteorologists pay attention to the wind chill when we start getting to this level of cold a lot more!
