John Wheeler: The original wind chill formula was developed by the US military

FARGO — You hear it all the time. What’s the wind chill? Can you imagine going through a winter without this numerical fixation? Actually, the Wind Chill Index came into weather reporting vogue during the early 1970s. Prior to that, we could only add the term “windy” to our temperatures.

The original wind chill formula was developed by the U.S. military during the 1950s for Arctic maneuvers in Alaska.



Their science was hastily done and the values it gave were ridiculously low. During the 1980s, many meteorologists began to argue for a new index based on more accurate experimentation. After extensive testing, the improved Wind Chill Index we use today was adopted by the National Weather Service in 2001.

So if you recall weather reports from the past with 80 to 100 below wind chills, you should know that the weather was probably not as cold as the numbers suggest..