Dampchill

As I have mentioned, I have a friend who just moved to Chicago, my hometown.  Given the really awful weather, she has taken to talking about the windchill.

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/os/windchill/index.shtml

The concept of windchill is that a person loses heat at a faster rate in windy cold weather than in calm cold weather.  When I was Captain of Patrols in 6th grade, I was in charge of passing out windchill charts to the patrols so they could dress properly while standing on a street corner for 20 minutes making sure kids crossed safely.  Having stood on many a corner myself in the middle of the winter, I understand how cold and windy is worse than cold and calm.  The wind finds ways to push the cold air underneath your pant legs, down the back of your neck and up your sleeves.

What about Seattle?  It doesn't get cold enough to here for us to measure on the windchill chart.  I think we need a dampchill chart, though, that measures the humidity, cloud cover and temperature.  Forty degrees and drizzle is miserable compared to forty and sunny.  Like the wind, dampness finds its way inside your clothes and chills the bones.

Here is my chart:

Dampchill Chart

Temp (F)	Clear and Sunny	Cloudy and Dry	Almost Drizzle	Drizzle	Rain	Snow
45	Regular clothes, sunglasses	Regular clothes	Fleece/Wool	Fleece/Wool	Gore-Tex*
40	Fleece/Wool, sunglasses	Fleece/Wool	Fleece/Wool, hat & gloves	Gore-Tex*, hat & gloves	Gore-Tex*, hat & gloves
35	Fleece/Wool, sunglasses	Fleece/Wool	Gore-Tex*, hat & gloves	Gore-Tex*, hat & gloves	Gore-Tex*, hat, gloves & scarf
32	Fleece/Wool, sunglasses, hat and gloves	Fleece/Wool, hat and gloves	Gore-Tex*, hat & gloves	Gore-Tex*, hat, gloves & scarf	Gore-Tex*, hat, gloves & scarf	Gore-Tex*, hat, gloves & scarf

* Fleece or wool layered underneath