NEED TO KNOW: What Is Wind Chill and How Is It Calculated?

It's a fact of life in the part of the world we live in.

Bitterly cold weather.

Things are bad enough when you wake up to actual temperature readings of -15 to -20, but things really get dangerous when the wind kicks up and the wind chills kick in.

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South Dakota Winter Safety: Frostbite: What Is It and What To Do

National Weather Service

So what are wind chills?

According to Wikipedia:

It is determined by iterating a model of skin temperature under various wind speeds and temperatures using standard engineering correlations of wind speed and heat transfer rate. Heat transfer was calculated for a bare face in wind, facing the wind, while walking into it at 1.4 meters per second (5.0 km/h; 3.1 mph).

The model corrects the officially measured wind speed to the wind speed at face height, assuming the person is in an open field.

And now the most important question: how are they calculated?

Time to brush up on your math...

According to this National Weather Service:

That certainly clears it up, doesn't it?

If you're looking for an easier way, just try the handy Wind Chill Calculator on the NWS website. All you do is put in the temp and wind speed and the calculator does all of the figuring.

LOOK: Biggest snowfalls recorded in South Dakota history

Stacker compiled a list of the biggest 1-day snowfalls in South Dakota using data from the National Centers for Environmental Information.

Gallery Credit: Stacker

Detour Dining: Off-the-Beaten-Path Restaurants You Must Try in South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa

Beyond the well-traveled tourist paths, there’s a whole different world of food exploration throughout South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota. From tiny restaurants in historic towns serving up generations-old recipes to small town dive bars that not only have cheap, cold beer, but unique and unexpected homemade dishes.

We’ve created an exploration of off-the-beaten path restaurants nestled in the charming landscapes of the tri-state area. Take a detour from the ordinary and discover the extraordinary flavors as you travel the roads not-so-often traveled.

Gallery Credit: Karla Brown / Townsquare Media

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The Coldest Temperatures in Sioux Falls History

When a polar vortex rolls through Sioux Falls, it can get even the heartiest dreaming of indoor fires, baking, and hot chocolate.

Mr. Bendo is tough enough but for the love of Pete, someone put a scarf on the Statue of David!

All this icy chatter had us wondering about the coldest days ever recorded in Sioux Falls. Here is the historical data from the National Weather Service with the coldest temps ever recorded in Sioux Falls since record-keeping began in 1893.

Gallery Credit: Danny V