Aren't you cold?

I use a bicycle for my commute, 32 kilometers, round trip. I ride whenever possible and I try not to let the weather influence that decision.

Almost every day, when I get to the office, I have to answer the same rhetorical question: "Aren't you cold?", immediately follwed by: "You are crazy".

In winter, the commute can get a little chilly. Most people now have learned to consider wind chill rather than actual temperature. Wind chill is an interesting phenomenon for cyclist, because when you move, you make your own wind chill. What is true for pedestrians, is not necessarily true for cyclists. What the weather report tells you about wind chill means very little when you create your own.

Fortunately, Environment Canada has a wind chill calculator. I need to add 22 km/h (my average cruising speed) to the wind, or subtract it, in case I go the other way. Today for example, the temperature is -8° C, the wind is west, 14 km/h. According to the calculator, that would give a windchill of -14. Well, yes, if you're waiting for the bus. But in a west wind, it means the wind speed I experience going to work is 8km/h, but coming back, it will be 36 km/h. The windchill for those is -12 and -18. But if I ride west slowly, at 8 km/hr, I have no winchill whatsoever. In other words, during my ride, I might experience none (-8°C feels like -8, to quite a bit (-8°C feels like -18)

It's a good thing that moving keeps you warm.

Home page - Wind Chill Program - [Meteorological Service of Canada - The Green Lane]

Posted by mduvekot at January 31, 2004 01:27 PM