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countries, and in 2001 a team of U.S. and Canadian scientists cobbled together a new wind chill index. Data were collected by the research agency of the Canadian Department of National Defence, which added to human knowledge by "volunteering" soldiers for a stint in a refrigerated wind tunnel, where they were exposed to a variety of temperatures and wind speeds. These hardy soldiers were, at least, dressed in winter clothing, but had their faces, the most vulnerable part of the human body to extreme cold, exposed directly to the air. The volunteers also walked on treadmills and were tested with both dry and wet faces.

The new index, now in use by both U.S. and Canadian weather offices, is expressed in temperature like units. The base comparison is to the way the skin would feel on a calm day. If the outside temperature is - 10° Celsius, and the wind chill is listed at -20, it means that your face will feel as cold as it would on a calm day when the temperature is —200 Celsius. Or you can do it the other way: If the temperature is — 10° Celsius and the wind speed is 30 kilometers an hour, the chart will tell you the wind chill is —20 (see Appendix 12). The wind chill, for the technically minded, is expressed in watts per square meter.21

Weather, wind, and storm projections first went truly public in Britain. The British Met Office began issuing forecasts to the public through the press in 1879. Its efforts were warmly greeted. Said the London Standard, "It may safely be conjectured that, unless the authorities of this most completely conducted department had already verified their forecasts within the not extravagant limits of time which are now mentioned, they would not assume this new responsibility."22 This was somewhat overstating the case, as users were soon ruefully to understand. But the forecasts were useful enough that they have never been discontinued. And then, on January 11, 1954, the weather took to television, when George Cowling presented the first "in vision" weather forecast on BBC TV He used an easel and "treatment to walls and background" that cost the Beeb £50.23

Well-coiffed weather people have been with us ever since.

Almost every television newscast in almost every country now contains a synopsis of the current and predicted weather. Many countries now have channels specifically set aside for weather news. Despite the cynicism with which these were initially greeted—after all, a weather channel demands drama to sustain its ratings, and drama means storms and probably exaggerated warnings about bigger, better, more frequent, and more violent storms at that—millions of people have come to rely utterly on their programing to plan travel and other activities. Even cynics, among whom I count myself, click their way to the weather channels when a major storm is thought to be imminent. In dozens of countries the national weather services uses commercial television and radio to disseminate their message; jointly, the weather industry has devised sophisticated but accessible computer graphics to mimic atmospheric weather conditions, and millions of people with only a modicum of scientific learning can now talk knowledgeably about isobars and frontal systems and follow the news about jet streams as eagerly as they follow whether Tiger Woods has won yet another golf tourney.

For those industries where weather is critical, commercial weather advisory services have sprung up. For example, a company called Compu-Weather in 1975 launched what it called "forensic weather services" in support of the insurance, legal, and engineering professions. Its idea was to give careful analysis of what the weather had been at what was guardedly called "the client's point of loss," and it offered same-day service for busy litigators. It would also offer, for a fee, expert witnesses who could be expected to deflect property and liability claims. As an adjunct, it would also provide "24/7 weather decision assistance" for film and TV studios, "to deliver safe and efficient on-location weather shoots." Will Tom Hanks need an umbrella