ELMIRA, N.Y. (WETM)- The wind chill is the effect of the cold wind on people and animals. It is the temperature based on the rate of heat lost from exposed skin which is caused by wind and cold air, to give you kind of an idea of how cold the air actually feels on your body.

Our bodies emit heat but when there’s not wind, we have that layer of heat stay around us and help keep us warm. When there is wind, the moving air breaks up the insulating warm layer; it helps speed up your heat loss and it makes it feel a lot colder.

There is a formula used to help calculate the wind chill temperature in degrees Fahrenheit and it uses the wind speed (V in mph) and temperature (T in degrees Fahrenheit).

Wind Chill (Degrees Farenheit) = 35.74 + 0.6215 × T – 35.75 × V ^0.16 + 0.4275 × T × V ^0.16

For our area wind chill advisories are issued for wind chills at or below -15 degrees Fahrenheit and wind chill warnings for widespread wind chills of -25 degrees Fahrenheit and lower