The thermometer at nearby Okęcie airport is currently reading -17C, the temperatura odczuwalna is -22C. Now here's a useful concept missing in English* ('wind chill' only explains part of the reason why it can feel colder than what the thermometer indicates). Wind chill suggests that moving air is the culprit. But humidity is also an important factor. Standing on the balcony after a sauna, dressed in towel and sheepskin slippers, I find it more comfortable on a night when it's -15C outside, still air, cloudless sky and low humidity than when it's +3C, damp and windy.
So - how should one translate temperatura odczuwalna properly into English? Literally, it's 'perceptible temperature' - the temperature as perceived by the human body. Any improvements on that, linguists?
Anyway, here we are in late February, a month before equinox, and we're experiencing the coldest cold that we've had all winter. The last few days have been cloudless and sunny, with the barometer staying over 1000 hPa since last Friday. The 84-hour COAMPS forecast at new.meteo.pl suggests that the daytime high will reach a balmy -6C by Thursday afternoon before plunging to -16C in the small hours of Friday. And March will be just four days away...
Meanwhile, in London it's +6C and rainy. I know where I'd rather be! Clear blue skies, and never mind the cold! (Having said that, some really warm gloves would come in hand).
*Another one is the word polot, which PWN Oxford gives as 'inventiveness' or 'panache'. The right idea cloud, along there with 'verve', but not quite there. Characteristics of polot - a mix of imagination, creativity, drive and flair. There's no single word in English of Celtic or Anglo-Saxon derivation that captures the idea - merely loan words.
This time two years ago:
UWAGA SOPLE!
This time three years ago:
Ul. Poloneza in the mud
AccuWeather use the term "RealFeel" instead of windchill, which is catchy.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'm with Paddy - I was about to say 'feels like . . . '
ReplyDeleteHmmm... An intricate concept. I have to say wind speed accounts for how a human body feels temperature. Air humidity in turn influences (adversely) the way human body reacts to temperature. I have been writing a "winter diary" (to be published on PES in mid-March) and I use 'wind chill', just because whenever it feels colder than what the termometer reads, it's because of the accursed wind.
ReplyDelete'perceptable' or 'perceptible'?
It was -18C on 1 December 2010, so this morning was not the coldest over the whole winter. And according to all forecasts the record won't be broken. And come to think of it - in late February it is quite cold. But what if the same mass of air had come over in mid-January. Temperatures would have been a few degrees lower, Warsaw could see ghastly -23 degrees again, as in January 2010.
Faced with a choice I'd opt for gloomy, rainy +6C, without hesitation. I got used to the cold and no longer mind it. Plus the thought that this is quite probably the last gasp of winter is very uplifting.
'Polot' has a more than a little tinge of 'fancy' about it that's for sure hence I think 'Vision' pretty well hits the mark.
ReplyDeleteAs for cold perception 'realfeel' is pretty snazzy but one could use 'perceived temperature' - any takers?. Also I read today that air temp drops approx 0.65 deg with every 100m rise in elevation and can't resist wondering (please don't throw a wobbly) what the real feel was for the Tu-154M as it hit 100% humidity over Smolensk whilst travelling at 280 kmph with the ground temp at the time around +1 or +2 deg C.
I much prefer crisp, cold Poland to soggy, damp London.
ReplyDeletePaddy if Poland is crisp then I never want to spend a winter in London. You need to spend a winter in Edmonton - now that is skin-splitting dry cold!
ReplyDeleteKolin when I think of London at this time of year all I can think of is the damp in the corner of ill-fitting windows, pools of dank water on pavements and the smell of other people's wet clothing. I wouldn't recommend wintering there!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the invitation to Edmonton! As long as you now I can't work my passage, I'll be glad to come.
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ReplyDelete@ Bartek - perceptible - quite right - amended, thanks, I owe you a proof-reading of a post in return :)
ReplyDelete@ Adthelad - Perceptible vs. Perceivable - seems they're perfect-match synonyms (able to be perceived/capable of being perceived). Smolensk - off-topic until 4/10.