Water & Traveling in Winter
We're traveling from Los Angeles to the East coast and thinking about going through St Louis and other areas where the temps will drop to freezing or below. At what temperatures do I need to be conce...
Forum Discussion
johnsonbert wrote:
It is important to remember that while going down the road in near-freezing temps or lower, that there is a windchill factor that can affect areas not heated or exposed to the elements while driving.
Hmmmm...can you explain how that happens? Windchill factor is only applicable to living bodies. Wind will add to the heat loss due to convection, but the temperature of the object WILL NOT be lower than ambient. For us humans, it will feel colder because we're losing heat at a faster rate AS IF it were colder. But, in effect, the actual temperature IS NOT any lower than ambient.
The effect you noticed while travelling isn't due to "windchill" as we call it. It's due to additional convective heat loss. In other words, you can travel all day and night at 33 degrees at any rate of speed or in any kind of wind, and the water still will not freeze. :)
As to the original poster's temperature range, you should have no worries.
You'll have to be concerned when the day time highs are near or below freezing and/or the night time temps dip down to the low 20's or high teens. If the daytime highs are in the 40's and you only have a few hours during the evening in the high 20's, you should be fine.
~Rick
