--- description: There's a whole slew of new winter vocabulary this season—polar vortex, the Arctic Oscillation, and #Chiberia, just to name a few—but there's also a familiar... title: What Wind Chill Temperatures Mean (Aside From the Fact That It’s Really Cold) image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7be707c4d50431d/698a996b09208f32df42400e/wind_chill_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) # What Wind Chill Temperatures Mean (Aside From the Fact That It's Really Cold) by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jan 7, 2014 4:28 PM CUT  DETROIT, MI - JANUARY 6: A woman covers her face from the cold as the area deals with record breaking freezing weather January 6, 2014 in Detroit, Michigan. Michigan and most of the Midwest received their first major snow storm of 2014 last week and subzero temperatures are expected most of this week with wind-chill driving temperatures down to 50-70 degrees below zero. A "polar vortex" weather pattern is bringing some of the coldest weather the U.S. has had in almost 20 years. (Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images) DETROIT, MI - JANUARY 6: A woman covers her face from the cold as the area deals with record breaking freezing weather January 6, 2014 in Detroit, Michigan. Michigan and most of the Midwest received their first major snow storm of 2014 last week and subzero temperatures are expected most of this week with wind-chill driving temperatures down to 50-70 degrees below zero. A "polar vortex" weather pattern is bringing some of the coldest weather the U.S. has had in almost 20 years. (Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images)Getty Images—2014 Getty Images by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) Jan 7, 2014 4:28 PM CUT There’s a whole slew of new winter vocabulary this season—polar vortex, the Arctic Oscillation, and [#Chiberia](https://twitter.com/search?q=%23ChiBeria&src=hash "undefined"), just to name a few—but there’s also a familiar term that is here to stay: wind chill. In the past few days, wind chill temperatures have hit as low as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the Midwest. But what exactly does “_Feels like_ \-50°F” mean when the air temperature is actually something higher? And how is that number determined? (Watch: [What You Need To Know About The Polar Vortex](http://nation.time.com/2014/01/06/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-polar-vortex/ "undefined")) Meteorologists at the National Weather Service use a complex formula that correlates air temperature and wind speed to calculate the effect of wind chill, based on what a hypothetical 5-foot-tall person would feel while walking at a steady pace in an open field at night. Some [argue](http://www.slate.com/articles/news%5Fand%5Fpolitics/recycled/2008/12/wind%5Fchill%5Fblows.html "undefined") wind chill is a meaningless number that is overhyped by the media. _Slate_ columnist Daniel Engber called it “the weatherman’s favorite alarmist statistic.” In 2001, the National Weather Service implemented a new wind chill index to more accurately represent the dangers of strong winds combined with low temperatures, so what formerly would have been a wind chill of minus 60 degrees is now said to be minus 38 degrees. Whatever your opinion of these calculations, wind chill is important in [determining the risk of frostbite](http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/windchill/index.shtml "undefined"): at minus 50 degrees, frostbite could occur in 10 minutes. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7161728/what-wind-chill-temperatures-mean-aside-from-the-fact-that-its-really-cold/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7161728/what-wind-chill-temperatures-mean-aside-from-the-fact-that-its-really-cold/"},"headline":"What Wind Chill Temperatures Mean (Aside From the Fact That It's Really Cold)","datePublished":"2014-01-07T16:28:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T06:11:48.956Z","description":"There's a whole slew of new winter vocabulary this season—polar vortex, the Arctic Oscillation, and #Chiberia, just to name a few—but there's also a familiar...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7161728/what-wind-chill-temperatures-mean-aside-from-the-fact-that-its-really-cold/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7be707c4d50431d/698a996b09208f32df42400e/wind_chill_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd7be707c4d50431d/698a996b09208f32df42400e/wind_chill_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Detroit Deals With Heavy Snow And Bitter Cold","caption":"Detroit Deals With Heavy Snow And Bitter Cold","creditText":"Getty Images—2014 Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7161728/what-wind-chill-temperatures-mean-aside-from-the-fact-that-its-really-cold/","name":"What Wind Chill Temperatures Mean (Aside From the Fact That It's Really Cold)"}}]}] ```