My Two Cents...
Joe Baltich
Wind Chill is what the actual temperature feels like when the wind blows on exposed skin. If it's +10 degrees F out and the wind is hitting your exposed face at 20 mph, it feels really cold and can freeze that area in much less time than if the wind was not blowing. So, that means that if you were dropped naked in the above-described conditions, you would have problem. NO KIDDING! For the rest of us who wear something to break the wind (thusly called a windbreaker) and layered clothing, wind chill doesn't mean a whole lot. Actually, while it is true that wind chill can freeze your nose off, real thermometer temperature can freeze you solid despite your warm clothing especially if you get wet. Even wet clothes, in fact frozen clothes make a pretty good wind breaker which makes wind chill kind of minor in the scope of things. Wind chill doesn't make my car's tires remain flat on the bottoms needing about a mile's worth of rolling down the highway to round out again. Your tongue sticks to metal sign posts MUCH quicker and harder in -25 degree F than in +10 degree temps with "wind chill". When I was a kid, we didn't have every ratings-seeking-TV-station trying to scare the populace to death by warning us about the dreaded wind chill factor. We just thought it was a darn cold wind outside and wore a face mask.
Nowadays, it appears to me that the media feels the need to hype up the weather so metro area anchors way down in southern MN have something to talk and marvel about. Afterall, talking about everyday weather can be rather mundane especially when you are in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, unless you write it like this:
NEWSFLASH: Three gang related murders occured tonight on Soandso St. and the wind chill tonight will be a flesh-freezing, bone-chilling, potentially-skin-graft-requiring, 15 below zero. Better stay inside and worry. It's really, really dangerous out there folks! Make sure you only travel if it's necessary. Tune in for more details at 5.
The rest of us simply dress appropriately, gripe about the cold wind, and try not to run around naked in the winter especially at real temperatures of -25 to -40 degrees F. Don't have many gang problems up here. It's too cold.