What is the difference between wind chill and the actual temperature? What to know about staying warm in the extreme cold.

In this cold snap, the wind chill can make the already frigid temperatures feel even more unbearable and extremely dangerous.

The wind breaks up the heat our bodies naturally radiate, making us lose heat quickly. In Houston, It rarely gets cold and windy enough for our body temperature to fall to 95 degrees, that’s when hypothermia sets in. But a handful of days it is cold enough in Houston to mess with our plans.

Wind chill increases your risk of developing frostbite or hypothermia. Frostbite is the death of tissue in your extremities – fingers, toes, nose, earlobes – that happens when those body parts are exposed to freezing temperatures for a period of time.

As of 7 a.m. the National Weather Service of New Orleans and Baton Rouge forecast the following lows and wind chills: In Shreveport, the low is forecast at 27 degrees. Lake Charles’ low is forecast at 29 degrees. Monday going into Tuesday saw 40-degree drops from Sunday highs in New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

Wind chill, feels like, and heat index, are all ways to measure how the conditions outside affect our bodies. The wind chill is the calculated temperature our bodies would lose heat if the air temperature was at that value.