It’s April 21 and winter is supposed to be finished here in the Toronto area. However, I went for a walk and it’s still cold out! A combination of cold & wind. Let’s calculate the wind chill in Excel.

How Cold?

I had to wear my winter coat and toque! The temperature was 2C (36F) but it was also windy. The wind chill “feels like” temperature was -4C (25F). Not really cold for me but it’s almost May! It was up to 12C (54 F) about 10 days ago.

Markham Ontario is in the southern part of Canada. Today the “feels like” wind chill figure was colder than Ottawa, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Edmonton and even Yellowknife!

Excel Wind Chill Formula

Wind Chill Temperature = 35.74 + 0.6215×T – 35.75×V^0.16 + 0.4275×T×V^0.16

This formula is from calculator.net It’s the standard wind chill formula for the United States & Canada.

How does it work?

T is the air temperature. V is the wind speed in mph. Wind chill “feels like” formula in column F is:

=35.74 + 0.6215*D2 – 35.75*E2^0.16 + 0.4275*D2*E2^0.16

Cell D2 is the temperature in Fahrenheit. Cell E2 is the wind mph (miles per hour). In columns G and H I converted the values to Celsius using Excel’s handy CONVERT function.

Excel File

Download my Excel file to see the formula in action.

Validate Excel formula?

I used theweathernetwork to get the temperature, wind mph, and feels like temperature. I also used the calculator and a double look chart from calculator.net (I recreated this in my Excel file).

Calculating Wind Chill

Measuring the wind isn’t an exact science. The formula varies per region. From calculator.net:

The perception of lower temperatures caused by wind led to the development of many different formulas that attempt to qualitatively predict the effect of wind on this perceived temperature. Because wind chill temperature is not an exact science, weather services in different countries use standards relevant to their particular region and thus its estimates may differ from those provided by local weather services in other regions.

There’s also an interesting pdf here from journals.ametsoc.org

Snow?

We’ve had various snow flurries over the past week but most of it melts before it hits the ground. It’s winter’s last stand (at least in the extreme south of Canada).

About 10 days ago it was up to 11 C (52 F). Oh well…it’s back and forth but it will get warmer soon 🙂

Hyperlink

In Excel I’ve created a dynamic hyperlink to TheWeatherNetwork. Enter your State or Province and then your City. Click the link to see your current weather. It’s probably easier to use google but dynamic hyperlinks are fun! Note that it may not work if you have a state/province or city with spaces. Works great for single words:

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/last-24-hours/ontario/markham

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/weather/texas/houston

Here’s an amazing Excel hyperlink resource from contextures.com (Deb lives on the other side on Toronto!).

How Cold Is Cold?

It’s relative. If you are from a warm climate you’ll think that 10C (50F) is horribly cold. After a long winter that’s a nice day for me but it would be horribly cold in July (my summer) when it should be between 18C and 32C most days. If you are from the north part of Canada you’ll think that I’m a wimp as the winter’s are much colder and last longer!

Heat Index / Humidex

Last year in July it was so hot & humid one day that I wrote a post about the Heat Index / Humidex.

About Me

My name is Kevin Lehrbass. I live in Markham Ontario Canada.

Growing up I was more comfortable using Fahrenheit rather than Celsius. Now after living in the Toronto area for 20 years I’ve converted over to Celsius for cold temperatures but for some strange reason it’s still a bit easier to think in Fahrenheit for warm temperatures.