There are some things I just do not understand about our otherwise excellent people at the Met Office. One is why they don't give the wind-chill factor here as they do in the US, Canada, and Australia.
It provides a much more accurate sense of what it really feels like on cold winter days than does giving a forecast for the expected air temperature. Wind chill is always lower than air temperature and, when you add the wind and dampness of air in Ireland, it is even lower again. You could say that wind chill is "felt temperature". It is a term used to describe the rate of heat loss on the human body resulting from the effects of low temperature and wind. As winds increase, heat is carried away from the body at a faster rate. As the air temperature falls, the chilling effect of any wind increases.
The North American formula for arriving at the wind-chill factor is designed mainly on the basis that it is expected to be applied at low temperatures, when humidity levels are low, and also for much colder temperatures.
The Australian formula includes humidity.
We will not go into the formulas employed here. They are too complex for this little space and my small brain. Suffice to say such formulas exist and there appears to be little reason why they are not applied on this windy, damp isle.
The second thing I find beyond all understanding where our otherwise excellent people at the Met Office are concerned, has to do with the sea area forecast.
For those who did not do Geography at school, or for whom it was not the most compelling subject, phrases such as "coasts from Erris Head to Malin Head" or from "Carnsore Point to Roche's Point" could just as easily refer to Timbuktu.
Why not identify each place by county, as in Erris Head, Co Mayo, to Malin Head, Co Donegal, or Carnsore Point, Co Wexford, to Roches's Point, Co Cork? Well?
Metereology, the science of dealing with the atmosphere, is derived from the French météorologie and directly from Greek meterología, itself from meteron, meaning something aloft, plus -logy, indicating a body of knowledge.
inaword@irishtimes.com
