CENTRAL FLORIDA, USA. – While the weather has been downright frigid in the Sunshine State, it’s been a hot topic for Central Floridians taking to social media to express their distaste for the cold snap -- for some.
It was this post on Facebook from News 6 Chief Meteorologist Candace Campos with a graphic of forecasted wind chill temperatures, that was shared more than two thousand times and prompted hundreds of comments.
“Looks like you screwed up again...” said James in one post.
Yamy posted, “I’m in Orlando, 7 a.m. And it never made it to 35 degrees... It’s 42 right now. I don’t know where that 27 degrees came from.”
James commented, “...overblown like usual.”
“You weather people are full of ****,” Daniel commented.
“I never thought that cold weather could get people so heated... But here we are,” said News 6 Chief Meteorologist Candace Campos.
Candace said some who commented on the post may have been confused. The graphic shows wind chill, not the actual forecasted temperatures.
“The science behind wind chill is we are warm-blooded individuals, so when we step outside in the cold, our bodies naturally try to keep us warm. If there’s no wind, the heat stays on our bodies. The problem is when you start factoring the wind it blows off all that heat your body generated. So your body is working double time to try to keep you nice and warm... That’s why your body feels like it’s colder,” said Candace. “I posted the graphic because on days where we have a significant wind chill, it could be dangerous for some folks who are outdoors for more than few hours.”
Yes, there is science behind the wind chill numbers.
“Some people think the windchill is something where we close our eyes and throw a dart at the wall and say ‘ehh, it’s going to feel like this.’ There is some science behind it. There’s an equation and chart,” said Candace.
Some people tried to clear up the confusion in the comments like Brooke who posted, “Geez people, she said that temperature is what it would FEEL like not what it actually is.”
Another topic in the comments of the wind chill post was about overnight temperatures.
Nancy posted, “It is 56 degrees at midnight... I do not believe it...” arguing the temperature did not match the lows forecasted for the day. Candace explains.
“The cold front barrels through, but the cold air lags a little bit... It takes awhile for the cold air to follow on the backside of the cold front,” said Candace. “When we talk about overnight lows some are thinking the coldest point of the night is midnight. Technically the coldest point of the day is usually is right before sunrise because that’s the point where we’ve had the most amount of nighttime and radiational cooling -- hence the overnight low.”
Another commenter, Robert, posted “Water doesn’t freeze at a “feel like” temperature... Your post is just hype and I don’t have to worry about my pipes busting.”
“Throughout my weather coverage recently I never said anything about protecting your pipes. Here in Florida, you’ve got to get some extremely low temperatures to worry about the pipes. So for the most part when the actual temperatures get to mid to lower 20s, that’s when the covering of the pipes is a concern, but most of the time in Florida, your pipes are fine,” said Candace.
The wind chill post also brought some mixed reaction like:
“Love the cold weather... You can always put more clothes to stay warm - but in the summer yeah can’t take them off.” said Lynda.
Jason posted, “Florida is trying to make me quit Florida.”
“No one cares! We are all from up north anyway,” Stefan wrote.
Julio commented in all bold “WE HAVE THE MOST BIPOLAR WEATHER IN THE COUNTRY.”
Pat posted, “Thanks for the warning. I’ll let my wife walk the dogs and I’ll stay in bed.”
Wow Pat, we hope you’re doing your fair share of walking the dogs while your wife gets to stay bundled up.
“At the end of the day, we have to deal with so much heat, storms and tropical things and we talk about the weather because that’s my job. It’s not something to get worked up about. Learn about the information, learn the difference between wind chill and actual temperatures. I hope I can continue to educate those interested in learning about the weather and provide important information to help our neighbors plan their day,” said Candace.
With another cold front on the way, this is a good time to download the News 6 Pinpoint Weather App to stay up-to-date on all the changing temperatures -- forecasted temperatures AND feels like -- in your area so you can plan your day. You can also enable notifications so you can get an alert for any frost advisories in your area. Just search W-K-M-G in your app store or click HERE.