Extreme wind chills are getting warmer across nearly all of North America, thanks to rising temperatures and weaker winds, according to Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
The findings, published in the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, build on a 2016 student honors project and use 40 years of hourly data from 133 stations across the U.S. and Canada. The biggest warming spikes were found in Alaska and northern Canada.
The research shows wind chill extremes—once dangerously cold—have warmed by over 13°C in some regions. While air temperatures were the main driver, slower wind speeds also played a role.
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