coldest windchills

Whats the coldest windchills you’ve ever experienced. Mine was in Dubuque one night. The wind was 37 miles an hour and the temperature was 32 below. A rare and strong deep artic coldfront moved down like a frieght train down through the mississippi. Its was so cold that the limbs were falling everwhere because they were’nt limber but frozen solid. The windchill that night on the radio was at 103 below zero. I got up the next morning and went to my car to go to work. I opened the door and luckily the handle didn’t fall off. I knew it was going to be cold sitting on the seat even with longjohns on so i put my hand on the vinyl seat and my hand went right through the vinyl. I got in slowly and put my hand on the vinyl dash and it went through there too. To me disbelief the car started. I started driving it and heard a thump, thump , thump, i thought what the heck is that. i finially figured it out, the flat spot on the tired from sitting on the concrete was making this sound. It finially loosened up in about a block and a half. It was cold that night.

70 below was the coldest windchill that comes to mind. I remember that because a fishing buddy of mine was down in Texas for some meetings and flew back to Rochester that late Friday afternoon. When he got on the plane in Texas it was 70 degrees above and when he got off the plane it was 70 degrees windchill below. What a difference. BRRRRRRRRRRR !!! Thanks, Bill

When my son was much younger I took him and my father to see Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. It was January in the Windy City and it was windy! We were standing Outside waiting for the bus to the stadium and it was 70-some below windchill. Brrrrrrrrrrrrr. Luckily I was able to find a store front for my son to hide out for a while.

Winter of ’92 or ’93…………I had to load, travel, and unload the band truck (F700 with 22′ box) and the actual air temp was in the sub-30’s somewhere and all the adviseries were for “0” exposure and frost bite within 30 seconds if any skin was exposed. The exact windchill isn’t known but there were areas reporting between 105 and 130 degrees below 0!!! I guess the variance was obstructed winds and free winds.
Anyway, I was out in it for about 3 hours………..dressed like that Randy kid in Christmas Story and working my tail off to stay warm. I remember my breath freezing almost instantly on exhale and it hurt my lungs to breathe in!

Never before did a hot cocoa taste SOOOO good!!!

Having grown up in central SD, we have our share of wind…..Everyday!! I can remember hearing temps in the 90 – 100 below arena. I can remember my folks being so “mean” and not letting me go out those Friday/Saturday nights. Now I understand the seriousness of the situation.

Didn’t they change how the wind chill is measured last year?? The formula doesn’t work out as cold as it was in the past??

I remeber back in my youth, we took a family vacation to Hawaii. I remeber getting on the plane in Honolulu, and the temp was 80 degrees. When we got off the plane in MSP, we had a temp of 80 degrees below windchill. That’s a 160 degree difference in 8 hours. YIPES! Of course we did the Minnesota thing and didn’t wear our winter jackets to the airport. Thank God that when my Uncle Dick picked us up, he had the heat cranked in the Suburban.
Steve

Don’t know the WC Factor but one day last winter it was 29 below on Devils Lake. It was so cold and windy I couldn’t fish out of pick-up door for more than 2 minutes. There was just enough time before the hole froze-over to see if there was anything down below. Once I found fish I set up the Otter and attached it to the hitch so It wouldn’t blow away. It was too cold to move more than a few times. I stayed at my last spot for 4 hours. When it was time to leave I had a drift around the truck and shelter bumper high. I idled the truck for about an hour to warm it and put the shack away and all the gear. I backed up over where the shelter was attached and gunned it to get through the drift luckily getting out. The temp still read 29 below on the vehicle readout. What is the WC factor for 29 below and 25 MPH winds?

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What is the WC factor for 29 below and 25 MPH winds?

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-86.7 degrees F

Now I like to fish, but I think you should have stayed home.

Hey Wade, can you tell us how to caculate the winds chills, i’ve always been curious about how to do it. Do you use a chart or a math formula. It would be nice to know how, thanks Wade!

I know liquid nitrogen, the stuff that makes rubber balls like glass in a few seconds is around 335 below. 135 wind chills is about one third the temp of liquid nitrogen. Wonder how cold it gets in a place like barrow or around hudson bay area.

Dan, the easiest way is to access a chart or program on the web. Here’s one below with the program & chart.

Calculate Windchill Factor

Thanks Wade, I just went to the site and its got the temps for about 102 below which will serve the purpose for most winters around here. Evidently the guys who developed this formula were from somewhere else and probably thought who the heck could live in an area where the temps get lower than that, guess they don’t know about the guys in the upper midwest lol

Mossydan
I didn’t think you guys even got cold enough weather for snow way down south in Iowa. LOL

Gator Hunter

Forgive me boys but first of all wind chill is a measure of how a naked body would feel, (give up heat) at a given temperature in a given wind speed. To try to put it in perspective, an inanimate object, say a rock or an engine block is out in -25* cold and the wind is blowing 50 mph. the temperature of the block is -25*. But a man standing out naked in that stuff feels like it is -67*! Make any sense? Guys I used to work with would LOL picking on me about this one. Do the research on wind chill, it’s true. The new wind chill chart is HERE.

WINTER OF 1986-87, WALKED BACK TO MITCHELL HALL AT ST. CLOUD STATE FROM A FRIENDS HOUSE. IT WAS ABOUT A 2 MILE WALK AT 1AM IN THE MORNING. HAD A JACKET ON WITH NO HAT OR GLOVES IN TENNIS SHOES. POLISHED OFF A 12 PACK OF MALT LIQUOR BULL BEFORE DEPARTING. GOT A LITTLE LOST ON THE WAY SO I FIGURED IT TOOK OVER AN HOUR TO GET HOME. NEXT MORNING THE NEWS SAID IT WAS 58 DEGREES BELOW ZERO, NOT COUNTING THE WIND CHILL. I KNEW IT WAS A DARN COLD WALK/RUN.

January, 1979. I spent the night in my car in a snow drift. Winds were 30 to 40 mph, temp was -25. At the time I remember the radio saying wind chill was dropping below -80. According to one chart, that would be peak of -98. The other chart puts it at -67. I know I was very thankful I filled my gas tank earlier that day and my heater worked. Was coming home from working second shift and the wind litterally blew me off the road on an icy patch. Never saw another vehicle until 7:00 the next morning. Tried to walk to a nearby farmhouse, but their St. Bernard did not like me, so I left!!!

I graduated from highschool in ’79///damed if I remember what happened back then ??

Hey Dave,
I believed at the time it might be my last night alive, so it stuck in my mind. My car was not very dependable, but kept starting and running every time I needed it that night. If it had failed, I had to chose between freezing and confronting a very aggressive, large dog to get to any help. I learned not to be caught on the road without at least basic survival kit for extreme cold. I will be supplying my Jeep and wifes van with these essentials in the next week or two. Good idea for everyone to consider. Ya never know when circumstance and mother nature may conspire to put you in a dangerous situation!
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