The Steadman Wind Chill: An Improvement over Present Scales

Abstract

Because of shortcomings in the current wind chill formulation, which did not consider the metabolic heat generation of the human body, a new formula is proposed for operational implementation. This formula, referred to as the Steadman wind chill, is based on peer-reviewed research including a heat generation and exchange model of an appropriately dressed person for a range of low temperatures and wind speeds. The Steadman wind chill produces more realistic wind chill equivalents than the current NWS formulation. It is easy to determine from tables (calculated by application of a quadratic fit in both U.S. and metric units) with values accurate to within 1°C.