Wind Chill Calculator
Find out how cold it actually feels using the official wind chill formula. Enter the air temperature and wind speed to see the "feels like" temperature and frostbite risk.
Conditions
Wind Chill Formula (NWS/Environment Canada)
Metric Formula (°C, km/h)
Where T = air temperature in °C, V = wind speed in km/h
Valid for T ≤ 10°C and V ≥ 4.8 km/h
Imperial Formula (°F, mph)
Where T = air temperature in °F, V = wind speed in mph
Valid for T ≤ 50°F and V ≥ 3 mph
Worked Example
Wind Chill = 13.12 + 0.6215(-5) − 11.37(30^0.16) + 0.3965(-5)(30^0.16)
Wind Chill ≈ -13.0°C
Common Conditions
Frequently Asked Questions
Wind Chill Calculator - Know How Cold It Actually Feels
Wind chill explains why a 0°C day with a strong wind can feel far more brutal than a calmer -5°C day. It measures the combined cooling effect of air temperature and wind speed on exposed human skin, giving a more realistic sense of cold exposure than air temperature alone - which is exactly why weather forecasts report a "feels like" temperature alongside the actual reading.
Why Wind Makes Cold Feel Colder
Your body constantly warms a thin layer of air right next to your skin, which acts as a bit of natural insulation. Wind disrupts and sweeps away that warm layer, forcing your body to expend more energy heating a fresh layer of cold air continuously. The stronger the wind, the faster this heat loss happens - which is why wind chill drops sharply as wind speed increases, even without any change in the actual air temperature.
Wind Chill Only Applies to Living Things
A common misconception is that wind chill affects how cold objects get - it doesn't. A car, a water pipe, or a thermometer left outside will only ever cool down to the actual air temperature, never to the wind chill temperature, because wind chill specifically describes the rate of heat loss from a living body maintaining its own internal warmth. This is an important distinction for anything related to protecting equipment or infrastructure from cold weather.
Frostbite Risk and Wind Chill
Wind chill temperature is directly tied to how quickly exposed skin can develop frostbite. As a general guideline, frostbite risk becomes significant within 30 minutes around a wind chill of -28°C (-18°F), drops to about 10 minutes around -40°C, and can occur in under 2 minutes at extreme wind chills below -60°C. These are general public safety guidelines - actual risk depends on factors like clothing, physical activity, and individual circulation.
The Standard Wind Chill Formula's Limitations
- Only valid for cold, windy conditions: The formula used by the US National Weather Service and Environment Canada only applies at temperatures of 10°C (50°F) or below, and wind speeds of 4.8 km/h (3 mph) or higher.
- Doesn't account for sunshine or humidity: Direct sunlight can make cold weather feel warmer than the calculated wind chill suggests, and the formula doesn't factor in humidity the way summer heat index calculations do.
- Individual variation exists: Body size, clothing insulation, and physical activity level all affect how a person actually experiences a given wind chill temperature.
The Summer Counterpart: Heat Index
Just as wind chill captures how much colder cold weather feels with wind, the Heat Index Calculator captures how much hotter warm weather feels with high humidity, since humid air slows the evaporation of sweat, your body's main cooling mechanism.
How this calculator works, and where the numbers come from
The Wind Chill Calculator applies the standard formula for this calculation to the values you enter and updates the result as you type. The calculation itself happens in your browser, and the page explains the method so you can check any result by hand.
Please note: Results are provided for general information and are calculated from the values you enter.