Seasonal Pet Peeve … Windchill

Canadian_Grizzly

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Every winter the forum is inundated with battery, fuel gelling, cold start issues and posters tell us its -?? Degrees but its even colder due to the windchill and now my car won’t start etc.

Windchill has NO effect on an inanimate object other than cooling it to the ambient temperature of the air. The only effect wind chill has on inanimate objects, such as car radiators and water pipes, is to shorten the amount of time for the object to cool. The inanimate object will not cool below the actual air temperature. For example, if the temperature outside is -5°F (-21°C) and the wind chill temperature is -31°F (-35°C), then your car's radiator temperature will be no lower than the air temperature of -5°F (-21°C).

There I’ve said it…and I feel much better.

Thanks and stay warm out there...
 
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Antsrcool

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hahahah ive always had this issue as well.......your car doesnt have a real feel temp gauge lol. If its 5 degrees its always 5 degrees no matter how much wind you put into it.......
 

roadhard1960

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Yesterday it was 30 and calm. Sunday it was 45-50 and windy. It felt darn cold Sunday to me but kind of nice yesterday. My car would not tell me if it felt cold though.
 

Variant TDI

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Canadian_Grizzly said:
The only effect wind chill has on inanimate objects, such as car radiators and water pipes, is to shorten the amount of time for the object to cool.
And it can shorten that time significantly.

So a car left sheltered from wind will take longer to lose the heat energy stored in it's mass, allowing more time before the fuel gels. It's battery will also not experience as significant a temperature shock.
 

Joe_Meehan

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Canadian_Grizzly said:
.. Windchill has NO effect on an inanimate object other than cooling it to the ambient temperature of the air. ...
It seems few people understand it. I might add:

Windchill effect does effect how fast an inanimate object may cool (or warm) to air temperature, but not to the same rate as it dose for animate objects.

Windchill numbers are only accurate for exposed human skin.
 

bogievw

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Oh pshaw! Next you'll tell me that my car has no feelings.
 

Scubanero

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Variant TDI said:
And it can shorten that time significantly.

So a car left sheltered from wind will take longer to lose the heat energy stored in it's mass, allowing more time before the fuel gels. It's battery will also not experience as significant a temperature shock.
But since the battery and fuel system are pretty well sheltered from the wind, it isn't really a factor.
 

Variant TDI

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Scubanero said:
But since the battery and fuel system are pretty well sheltered from the wind, it isn't really a factor.
You're right. Wind can't ever get into the engine compartment.

Mah bad.
 

daedalus

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This is far too technical a discussion for me. Apparently wind chill is also too complex for TV weather readers (they can't really be meteorologists, can they?).

In the old days we had wind chill and temperature humidity index. That was far too difficult for most to understand so now we have the "Real Feel". What the &^$$ is Real Feel.

Jeez - thanks - I feel better now
 

DoctorDawg

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Many thanks to the Griz for vocalizing one of my own pet peeves, too. For me, its right up there with grammatical misconstructions such as "me and him went to the store."

On a (tenuously) related note: my favorite human/temperature phenomenon is the "thermal neutral zone" (TNZ). Your TNZ (everyone has a slightly different value) is that air temperature at which your metabolic rate is at a minimum (in still air). It is measured by standing you butt-nekkid in a temperature controlled room, arms and legs spread slightly (to expose the maximum surface area to the air), and measuring your respiration as the air temperature in the room is slowly changed. At any temperature above your TNZ you perspire, which requires energy, so your oxygen consumption goes up. At any temperature below your TNZ your muscles try to generate heat by shivering (microscopically at first, increasing in intensity as you get colder), which requires energy, so your oxygen consumption goes up. Right at the TNZ you are neither perspiring nor shivering, so your oxygen consumption is at a minimum. Not coincidentally, your TNZ also tends to be the temperature at which you feel most comfortable (at least when yer butt-nekkid, spread-eagled, and being stared at by guys in white lab coats). My TNZ is at about 72*F...or at least it was, back when I was a kid and crazy enough to say "sure, I'll try that!"
 

Lug_Nut

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Mine was 82F. Derived by a much less clinical means. I found that setting the water bed thermostat at 82 produced a sensation of neither cooling, nor of heating. Sensory deprivation tank fluid temperatures are also chosen in this way.
 

whitedog

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Joe_Meehan said:
It seems few people understand it. I might add:

Windchill effect does effect how fast an inanimate object may cool (or warm) to air temperature, but not to the same rate as it dose for animate objects.

Windchill numbers are only accurate for exposed human skin.
Now that's new information to me. I guess since the skin will have some kind of moisture on it this would be true. But it probably goes beyond that. I may look into it sometime.:)
 

Ski in NC

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Wind chill gives a temperature equivalent to what it feels like standing outside buck naked in the winter with wind, compared to no wind.

Without daily wind chill numbers how would we know what that feels like??

It's THAT important!!

It has almost no meaning when wearing proper winter clothing.
 

lawallac

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Canadian_Grizzly said:
Windchill has NO effect on an inanimate object other than cooling it to the ambient temperature of the air. The only effect wind chill has on inanimate objects, such as car radiators and water pipes, is to shorten the amount of time for the object to cool.
So this has no effect on water alcohol washer fluid sprayed on the windshield of a moving car?
 

BrianCT

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USA
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lawallac said:
So this has no effect on water alcohol washer fluid sprayed on the windshield of a moving car?
Windchill affects things that are warmer than the air, and makes them cool faster than if the wind were not blowing, so in that respect it can affect inanimate objects.

My Pet Peeve is people who disagree with a statement and say or write, "I could care less."

The proper term is, "I could not care less."

By saying or typing the word NOT, you're actually saying there's little to no hope to care more.:D

Children?

Do not do this at home.

LOL

BrianCT
 

ymz

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BrianCT said:
My Pet Peeve is people who disagree with a statement and say or write, "I could care less."
I have a couple...

When did "off-of" become part of the common language???

Then there's the common mispronounciation of "nuclear" popularized by the current occupant of the Casa Blanca... When did "nukular" become fashionable???

Yuri.
 

SoTxBill

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its not the base, its the additives!!
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I dont know.. but when I drive faster in the summer, it gets hotter faster...

its a undisrepitable scientifical factoid..... so if there's heat soak, theres gotta be wind chill..

radiators do it every day.. airconditioners rely on it... cold-fronts wouldnt work with out it...

dinosaurs were masicrated by it..

(guess i'm gonna miss shrub)
 

notsofast

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Moseley VA
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Completely agree (about misuse of windchill, not lying spread eagle and naked to find out where i am most comfortable)- especially when i hear that water can freeze at 40 F because the windchill is below 32.
 
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