![]() ![]() ![]() He wrote, “I set up an experiment to try to measure the rate in time it took a small cylinder of water to freeze. Here there is striking contrast between relatively tolerable days of calm, subzero weather, and windy days that are warmer although sensibly much more unpleasant.”īuilding off his unpublished 1939 dissertation, Siple devised an experiment to define human comfort in different frigid conditions. As they wrote in the resultant study, published in 1945, “Perhaps there is no place on earth where one is so acutely aware of need for a suitable scale to express sensible temperatures as the polar regions. (Ian Joughin via AP)Īlso at Little America III was Charles Passel (1915-2002), a sedimentary paleontologist with a surprising amount of free time on his hands. This January 2010 photo provided by Ian Joughin shows crevasses near the Pine Island Glacier grounding line, near its western margin in Antarctica. Across six trips due south, he spent 10 summers and four winters in the Antarctic. His research there captured the attention of the Army, prompting a lengthy partnership with the American military and, in 1956, the inaugural scientific leadership of the Amundsen-Scott Station. He was an occasional helmsman and amateur taxidermist, still chronologically a youth when Byrd described him as “a man among men.”Īfter accompanying Byrd’s Second Antarctic Expedition, Siple earned a doctorate in geography and climatology, then returned to Antarctica as leader of the Little America III research station from 1939 to 1941. Siple scraped barnacles, loaded coal, scrubbed decks, and hunted penguins. There may not now be a law preventing polar expeditions from drafting Boy Scouts, but perhaps there should be. He was still a teenager when selected from more than 800,000 other Boy Scouts to accompany Byrd’s First Antarctic Expedition of 1928-30. More than perhaps any American in history, outside your average Utqiaġvik resident, Siple knew about extreme cold. Wind blows snow from the slopes of Matanuska Peak on Wednesday, Jan. Yet, Siple was the experienced innovator. In a 2021 journal article, researchers Harvey Lankford and Leslie Fox noted 89 studies and experiments along similar lines published and conducted between 19. Paul Siple (1908-1968) coined the term “wind chill” in an unpublished 1939 dissertation that included the first formula for a wind chill index. In this way, the current understanding of wind chill, with charts and factors, is a surprisingly modern concept, only entering the public space a couple of generations ago. The concept is simple and present throughout documented history, but the calculations are a bit more complicated. What did the great author know of the cold combined with wind, of the wind chill factor beyond mere low temperatures?ĭuring Admiral Richard Byrd’s 1933 to 1935 second expedition seeking the South Pole, a participant noted, “the real agony of the cold comes from the wind,” as “like a knife drawn across the face.” At some level, everyone understands wind chill, how exposed skin loses heat more rapidly on a windy, cold day than on a still one. In “Travels with Charley: In Search of America,” John Steinbeck wrote, “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” While true, Steinbeck lacked experience in a place like Alaska, let alone the Antarctic. Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story. Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. Insight into the reasoning behind the current onshore and marine forecasts.A wind chill chart from the National Weather Service. ![]()
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