On a recent cold morning the Springfield temperature was zero, but the “feels like” temperature, we were told, was 11 below. It was sunny with no wind, so if this is what 11 below feels like, maybe it’s not too bad. How do they even know? There used to be talk of a wind chill factor. It’s understandable that wind can make cold more miserable, but “feels like” apparently doesn’t need wind. Sometimes the storm team gets so excited over the “feels like” temperature they forget to tell us the real temperature. Have you noticed the “feels like” temperature is always colder than the thermometer temperature? Wouldn’t it be refreshing if when it’s really 11 below we were told it “feels like” only 5 below? To me it feels like somebody is exaggerating the misery index just to give us something more to complain about.– Fletcher Farrar, editor
This article appears in Taking health care to the streets.
