Physical activity, such as walking or skiing, increases our metabolism - which generates more body heat. In addition, we can also gain heat by increasing our metabolism or soaking up the sun. Your body type also determines how quickly you lose heat: people with a tall, slim build become cold much faster than those who are shorter and heavier. Wet clothing and footwear lose their insulating properties, resulting in body heat loss nearly equal to that of exposed skin. Good quality clothing with high insulating properties traps air, creating a thicker boundary layer around the body which keeps in the heat. How much heat you lose depends not only on the cooling effects of the cold and the wind chill, but on other factors as well. Wind chill can play a major role in such health hazards because it speeds up the rate at which your body loses heat. Each year in Canada, more than 80 people die from over-exposure to the cold, and many more suffer injuries resulting from hypothermia and frostbite. Living in a cold country can be hazardous to your health. Studies show that when your skin is wet, it loses heat much faster than when it is dry. Wind also makes you feel colder by evaporating any moisture on your skin - a process that draws more heat away from your body. If each layer keeps getting blown away, our skin temperature will drop and we will feel colder. It takes energy for our bodies to warm up a new layer. ![]() When the wind blows, it takes this protective layer away, exposing our skin to the outside air. On a calm day, our bodies insulate us somewhat from the outside temperature by warming up a thin layer of air close to our skin, known as the boundary layer. We call the cooling sensation that is caused by the combined effect of temperature and wind, the wind chill. On cold and blustery winter days, listen for the wind chill index in your local weather forecast.Īnyone who has ever waited at a bus stop or taken a walk on a blustery winter day knows that you feel colder when the wind blows. As well as making informed decisions based on accurate wind chill information, such as whether it is safe for children to play outdoors. This includes dressing warmly to avoid frostbite and hypothermia. The wind chill index allows Canadians to learn the best ways to avoid injuries from the cold. For example, if the wind chill is -20 while the outside temperature is only -10✬, it means that your face will feel as cold as if it was a calm day (no wind) with a temperature of -20✬. By equating the outdoor conditions to an equivalent temperature with no wind, the index represents the degree of "chill" that your skin senses. The index is displayed in temperature-like units, the format preferred by most Canadians. As a result, the wind chill observations and forecasts that you hear are now much more representative of what you actually feel. This assists in the understanding of how the body loses heat when exposed to cold. It uses research from human volunteers and advanced computer technology combined with recent medical advances. PDF version - 882 KB Canada's wind chill indexĬanada's wind chill index is accurate, easy to understand and reflects the needs of Canadians.
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