STATE COLLEGE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 21, 2000--Do you know what the current Wind Chill is outside? Actually, it doesn't matter. For years scientists have said that the Wind Chill and even the Apparent Temperature used to determine heat do not accurately reflect the true temperature. But now, after 20 years of research, a new formula has been developed that tells you exactly what the temperature feels like.

AccuWeather has introduced The RealFeel Temperature(TM), the first ever temperature index that takes into account multiple factors in determining what the temperature outside feels like. The result is a more accurate temperature reading that can be used year-round to help people better prepare for the weather. The RealFeel Temperature is available for free by logging on to www.accuweather.com.

``The RealFeel Temperature is a dramatic improvement over current indices and will finally give people an accurate measure of the temperature and how it will affect them,'' said AccuWeather founder and President Dr. Joel N. Myers.

Unlike current weather indices, The RealFeel Temperature takes into account the effects of multiple parameters, including ambient temperature, wind speed, solar intensity, humidity, precipitation intensity/type, elevation and atmospheric pressure. Wind Chill only takes into account two variables - temperature and wind speed, while the Apparent Temperature measures only temperature and humidity.

Because The RealFeel Temperature is more accurate, people will be better prepared to face the weather, and be better informed on how to dress, what activities to avoid, and even help prevent weather-related conditions such as frostbite or heat exhaustion. It's an invaluable tool for people of all ages, but especially for the elderly, children, pregnant women, and people who have medical conditions that could be exacerbated or affected by the weather.

The Wind Chill is dramatically inaccurate when winds are nearly calm. For example, if the temperature is 10 degrees Fahrenheit with calm winds, the Wind Chill would be 55, while The RealFeel Temperature is a more accurate 18 under average conditions for other parameters. If the wind speed was 40 miles an hour, the wind chill drops to 7 degrees colder than The RealFeel Temperature.

Developed based upon 20 years of research by Dr. Myers and AccuWeather expert Senior Meteorologists Elliot Abrams, Dr. Joseph Sobel, Michael Steinberg, and Evan Myers, The RealFeel Temperature is available exclusively from AccuWeather and can be accessed for free at www.accuweather.com.

AccuWeather, Inc. is the world's leading commercial weather service and has grown for 37 consecutive years since its founding in 1962. AccuWeather serves more than 10,000 clients worldwide in media, government, business and industry with a wide variety of forecast, data, graphic, and consulting services. Accuweather.com provides content to 700 internet sites and to consumers worldwide. AccuWeather.com had 2.5 million unique visitors in January, 2000.

Other AccuWeather innovations include AccuWeather Fax(TM) used by hotels and car rental agencies to provide local weather forecasts to their customers, FirstWarn(TM), a video crawl system that allows television stations to automatically notify the public the instant an official warning is issued, the WeatherPager(TM) system, which automatically transmits National Weather Service warnings and bulletins directly to pagers and Neighborhood NEXRAD(TM), a street-level storm-tracker Doppler radar display system.