alt Hacker NewsThe "feels like" metric is more closely tied to human stress and safety than raw temperature.
In cold weather (wind chill), wind strips away the thin warm layer of air next to your skin, so you lose heat faster. Hence, "feels colder".
In hot weather (heat index), humidity slows sweat evaporation, so your body can't cool itself as effectively. Hence, "feels hotter".
So it's a lot more useful for decision-making (like what to wear, weather it is safe to run/hike, how much water you need, etc.) than the plain temperature.
Replies
khalic • yesterday at 6:15 PM
thx for the perspective!
Just to add further color: I’m a teacher, and at my school, we use the “feels like” temperature to decide whether to send kids outside for recess. Without that metric, we’d need to either ignore the wind chill, create our own formula, or leave it up to the judgement of the individual teacher running recess that day. Much better to have a number.