Why Don't Weathermen Skip the 'Actual' Temperature Just Give Us the 'Feels Like'-Temperature?

@mythociate (21438)
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
November 15, 2014 2:40pm CST
You can see on Accuweather's hour-by-hour how they give you the "temperature" and then the 'feels like'-temperature (which they actually CALL "RealFeel"). Why do they give us BOTH numbers? Aren't the weathermen supposed to deal with 'extra data' like that and -then just give us the 'RealFeel' numbers?
Get the Oklahoma City hour-by-hour weather forecast including temperature, RealFeel and chance of precipitation for Oklahoma City, OK 73132 from AccuWeather.com
4 people like this
3 responses
@topffer (42156)
• France
16 Nov 14
It is a new fashion worldwide. The "real feel" temperature is supposed to measure the heat flow, and is always under the real temperature. The "real feel" temperature creates only a psychological confusion on the reference. If the real feel temperature is 30°F, Kasey will dress according to her memories of the days where the temperature was 30°F. Doing this, she is confusing the temperature and the real feel temperature, because when the temperature is 30°F, the real feel temperature is always under 30°F... Formulas to calculate the real feel temperature are mostly empirical (and ugly) and have no scientific value. The notion of real feel temperature makes me think at what Flaubert was writing about the air in his Dictionary of Received Ideas, two centuries ago : "Invariably, the weather front is in contradiction to ambient temperature : if the latter is warm, the former is cold, and vice versa." Don't bother about the "real feel" and look only at the real thing .
1 person likes this
@mythociate (21438)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
18 Nov 14
So are humans getting more-&-more hot-natured, making it FEEL like the world is freezing around us---while in reality the world is getting hotter? What's real?
@topffer (42156)
• France
22 Nov 14
@mythociate It is what I call the aircon syndrome : we have more trouble with heat and cold temperatures than our parents, because we are more and more living with air conditioning indoors.
1 person likes this
@mythociate (21438)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
22 Nov 14
@topffer So would you suggest that people camp-out more-often?
@flyinghi (130)
• Canada
17 Nov 14
Sometimes this can bother me too. But then I realize that the "feels like temp." is actually giving me the heads up that there is a wind chill factor and if I don't dress appropriately I may freeze when going outdoors.
@mythociate (21438)
• Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
18 Nov 14
But why even [i[tell[/i] us the actual temperature?
• United States
15 Nov 14
the temperature is accurate number they give u of the degrees outside. But the real feel temperature is what it feels like to an actual person. it also tells you how to dress for that weather
@topffer (42156)
• France
16 Nov 14
If the temperature is 36° F, and the real feel temperature 30°F, water does not freeze, so why would I feel differently than water ?
1 person likes this