«Les vents que chassent, à travers une échancrure de la Cordillère des Andes, les hautes pressions du Pacifique, s'étranglent et s'accelèrent dans un étroit couloir de cent kilomètres de front, en direction de l'Atlantique, et raclent tout sur leur passage».
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry «Un sens à la vie» (1956)
Abstract
The wind cooling effect determines wind chill equivalent-temperatures, which may be rather different to actual temperature. In a windy region such as Patagonia, this difference may reach a magnitude and persistence to become an important bioclimatic element. This paper quantifies the wind cooling effect in Patagonia by the presentation of equivalent isotherms as an adaptation of the usual isotherm maps to the regional bioclimatic environment. It is concluded that due to seasonal variations in wind speed, the annual equivalent temperature range is smaller than the actual temperature range, thus increasing oceanic features, from a thermal viewpoint, of the Patagonian climate.
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Coronato, F.R. Wind chill factor applied to Patagonian climatology. Int J Biometeorol 37, 1–6 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01212759
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01212759