Jim Carraway, age 14, of Library, Pa., for his question:
HOW DO THEY FIGURE THE WIND CHILL FACTOR?
We don't have to remind anyone how cold and severe our winter was this year. It is one that will long be remembered by all those in the Middle West and East. Snow stacked up on the ground and temperatures went skidding downward. They'll most likely be talking about the winter of '77 deep into the next century.
Those who live where it gets nippy know that temperature of the air is not always a reliable indicator of how cold a person will feel outdoors. Other weather elements, such as wind speed, humidity and sunshine, also exert an influence.
Dr. Paul A. Siple, in experiments conducted at Little America in the Antarctic in 1941, came up with a definition to that elusive characteristic of weather known as "coldness. " The term he came up with was "wind chill," and it was used to describe the relative discomfort resulting from combinations of wind and temperature.
A wind chill index is now used to give a report on this extra dimension of coldness. On the chart, called a wind chill equivalent temperature table, we discover that a temperature outside of 20 degrees Fahrenheit, together with a wind blowing 10 miles per hour, has a wind chill factor of 3 degrees Fahrenheit. An outdoor temperature of zero degrees Fahrenheit combined with a wind of 35, miles per hour gives a wind chill factor reading of 52 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
Dr. Siple was one of the leaders who went to Antarctica in November, 1939, with Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd. The expedition had four airplanes, two Army tanks and a 55 foot long snow cruiser equipped with four pneumatic tired 10 foot wheels. Dr. Siple was in charge of a base at the Bay of Whales where he did scientific research. The expedition ended in the summer of 1941, when World War II was dawning.
One of the coldest temperatures on record was charted in Siberia where the mercury dropped to an almost unbelievable 95 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. It has been even a bit colder than that in Antarctica.
We don't have any indication if the wind was blowing in Siberia when the minus 59 degrees was recorded, but if it were, the man recording the wind chill factor would almost certainly have been holding a frozen pencil.
Just to warm you up a bit, now that spring is only a few days away, you might be interested to know the hottest temperature on record. Here the record goes to Libya where a sizzling temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded.