NAME

Temperature::Windchill - calculate effective temperature on exposed skin

SYNOPSIS

    use Temperature::Windchill qw/ windchill_us windchill_si /;

    # calculate windchill in American units (Fahrenheit/MPH)
    $wc_us = windchill_us($temp_in_F, $windspeed_in_MPH);

    # calculate windchill in International units (Celsius/KPH)
    $wc_si = windchill_si($temp_in_C, $windspeed_in_KPH);

DESCRIPTION

This module implements the standard US National Weather Service windchill temperature ("WCT") index formula, which replaced the 1945 Siple and Passel WCT formula in 2001.

From the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ("NOAA") website:

    The windchill temperature is how cold people and animals feel when outside. Windchill is based on the rate of heat loss from exposed skin caused by wind and cold. As the wind increases, it draws heat from the body, driving down skin temperature and eventually the internal body temperature. Therefore, the wind makes it feel much colder. If the temperature is 0 degrees Fahrenheit and the wind is blowing at 15 mph, the windchill is -19 degrees Fahrenheit. At this windchill temperature, exposed skin can freeze in 30 minutes.

    ... The current formula uses advances in science, technology, and computer modeling to provide a more accurate, understandable, and useful formula for calculating the dangers from winter winds and freezing temperatures. Wind Chill Temperature Comparison (Old vs. New) Clinical trials were conducted at the Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine in Toronto, Canada, and the trial results were used to improve the accuracy of the new formula and determine frostbite threshold values.

Limitations

  • WCT is only defined for temperatures above -50 F (-45.5 C) and below 50 F (10 C).

  • WCT is only defined for wind speeds above 3 MPH (4.8 KPH) and below 110 MPH (177 KPH).

  • WCT applies to living tissue at the height of five feet (152 cm), the typical height of an adult human face.

  • Bright sunshine may increase the windchill temperature by 10 to 18 F (5 to 10 C).

FUNCTIONS

Neither function provided by this module attempts to verify that either the temperature or the windspeed supplied by the user are within the valid input range. Caveat programmor.

windchill_us( $temperature, $windspeed )

Calculates the windchill in United States ("US") units, i.e. temperature in degrees Fahrenheit and windspeed in miles per hour.

Example:

    # what's the windchill at 10 F and 15 MPH?
    my $chill = windchill_us( 10, 15 );
    print "the windchill is: $chill F";

windchill_si( $temperature, $windspeed )

Calculates the windchill in International ("SI") units, i.e. temperature in degrees Celsius and windspeed in kilometers per hour.

Example:

    # what's the windchill at -5 C and 20 KPH?
    my $chill = windchill_si( -5, 20 );
    print "the windchill is: $chill C";

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

AUTHOR

John Trammell, <johntrammell at gmail.com>

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to bug-temperature-windchill at rt.cpan.org, or through the web interface at http://rt.cpan.org/NoAuth/ReportBug.html?Queue=Temperature-Windchill. I will be notified, and then you'll automatically be notified of progress on your bug as I make changes.

SUPPORT

You can find documentation for this module with the perldoc command.

    perldoc Temperature::Windchill

You can also look for information at:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank all the attendees of the Frozen Perl 2008 conference, who inspired me to write this module.

COPYRIGHT & LICENSE

Copyright 2008 John Trammell, all rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.