clo and windchill

[Mark Verber]

I was thinking about wind chill on my bike ride home today. I found myself thinking that (1) my sense of windchill is great than the classic tables seems to indicated — I feel more cooled. (2) even when I am wearing windproof shelll and am sealed up tight, it seems like the wind blowing has a chilling effect.

The wikipedia article on windchill indicates that there is something of a controversy about windchill, especially how to factor in clothing, and how to factor in moisture. Anyone know if this is a minor or a major dispute? The most interesting looking article references by wikipedia is behind a paywall. :-(

So my questions here are:

1) Any recommended science papers about windchill
2) Do you find the classic US weather service table to match you senses in the real world? For me, the answer is no. Wind seems to effect me more than the table would suggestion. Thought it could be that I have been a bit damp which I think increases the impact of wind chill. [Actually I typically enjoy the effects of windchill since I tend to run hot.]
3) Is my sense that wind is chilling even when wearing a hard shell because my shell isn't fully sealed so there is air flow, or just blocking the wind with a thin piece of cloth not fully remove the impact of windchill?

–Mark

[James holden]

hey mark

i was actually reading up on the same thing at the furtech blog …http://furtech.typepad.com

my experience is that humidity in yr shell plays a big part in how warmth is perceived especially if there's wind … the more moisture you have the more the heat loss to the wind IME … IMO it pays to ventilate before you start sweating …. afterwards you may just get cold

im sure richard will chime in ….

[Author]

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