A Question About Wind Chill

I received the following e-mail from a CBS 6 viewer a couple of days ago addressing wind chill, and who or what is affected by it. Read the message first, and then continue reading for my explanation below.

Zach,

While over at a friends farm Monday it was cold and windy. We got in his golf cart to go look at something and the gas engine stumbled and stammered at first and my friend blamed it on the wind and cold. I tried to explain the wind didn’t make the engine any colder but he wouldn’t hear of such a foolish thing. It might be worthwhile if you or Carrie try to explain the difference between wind chill and ambient temp while this dip has everyone's attention!

Thanks,

Mike

A lot of people will tell you that wind chill does not affect inanimate objects, while others will tell you wind chill affects everything, both living and otherwise. The answer is actually not that cut and dry. The simplest way to put it, is to say that wind chill affects all objects that are emitting heat, causing them to cool to the ambient air temperature faster. So in the example above, the cold could be a reason for the engine to struggle, but not the wind. In the same way, if a lake is 33 degrees and the wind is calm, the lake will not freeze if the wind increases to 20 mph and the wind chill drops into the teens. The wind chill will be sensed by humans and other objects warmer than the surrounding air temperature, but the temperature of the water will not cool lower than the air temp and freeze. Wind chill accelerates the cooling process of objects, and if those objects are already at the ambient air temperature, they won't get any colder regardless of how low the wind chill drops. -Zach

A Few Snow Flurries Possible Tonight

The best location will be across the northern half of Virginia as a shortwave trough (indicated by the red and orange colors in the graphic above) moves through the region. Models have not handled the precipitation with this feature very well and there is currently a lot more on radar (shown below) than expected. The air mass is still extremely dry, and the mountains will hurt a little as well, but a few flurries will still be possible north of Richmond. Nothing to write home about, but it's the only shot we have to see a flake or two before temps in the 60s return to the area. -Zach

Coldest morning of this Winter Wednesday morning

Wednesday morning's low temperatures were the coldest of this Winter season thus far, and will likely remain the coldest for the near-future. Here are a selection of low temperatures reported this morning in central Virginia:

As bitterly cold as it was this morning, it still wasn't close to record cold low temperatures for today's date. The record low for Richmond International Airport for January 4th is -1 degree from 1918. The average low temperature is 28 degrees, which means we were about ten degrees colder-than-average across all of central Virginia.

The upper-level trough that has been in our region for the past couple of days providing this cold weather, dry air, and blustery winds will begin moving away from us today. By tomorrow, morning lows will remain in the mid to upper 20s with afternoon highs back to average in the upper 40s and low 50s.

Our next blast of cold air may arrive mid-month, but as of right now, there's still no strong signal for our first significant winter precipitation event in the next couple of weeks. The system that will bring rain to Virginia this Sunday should exit to our northeast before it pulls in cold air deep enough to change the rain over to snow.

Stay with CBS 6, we'll keep you ahead of the storm!
--Carrie
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