This is the week of everything going into the greenhouse. Next weekend the temperature forecast has the "feels like" temperature below 0. That's an ouch for the tropical plants.
Isn't it interesting how "feels like" has become the dominant expression of the temperatures. It started out as the "wind chill index" way back in the 1930s and then published in the 1940s. It was in the late 1960s that chill values began to be incorporated into public winter forecasts. And then in 1965 "feels like" started to include the heat index so that there could be a summer discomfort number.
So here we are now, relying more on "feels like" to tell us what to expect of the weather experience. I am relieved that wind chill is not as widely used. It sounds mean and cruel and has a sense of the Antarctic. Which is where it was developed by explorers Paul Siple and Charles Passel who formulated the measurement. To get to the accurate numbers in 2001, they had volunteers walk on a treadmill in a cold wind tunnel with sensors attached to the outsides of their faces and the insides of their cheeks. Wind chill is now based on the wind speed at five feet in the air because of this measurement technique.
Here's another interpretation of wind chill:
The inventor of the wind chill factor died this week. He was 86 but felt more like he was 64.
Some colours are starting here - Sumacs are their pretty reds. Tree colour is just starting. Here's a motion blur image from a few years ago - up on the escarpment along the Bruce Trail where there are Maple forests to create this gorgeous yellow.
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