More of this Feature • Risk Factors of Heat Illness • Heat Index • Heat Factors to Consider • How to Feel Cooler • Signs of Heat Illness • Fahrenheit and Celsius

Temperature: Actual air temperature (You’ll want to learn both reporting systems, Fahrenheit and Celsius. *)

Radiant heating: The increase in heating due to direct sunlight. Heat is transferred from the surface of one object to the surface of another with no actual physical contact.

Convective heating: The increase in heating due to wind above a certain temperature. Wind chills below freezing, and wind heats above about 72 degrees. Think of how convection ovens speed up the cooking process. Don’t be a "turkey cooking" faster, and wondering why the wind on a hot day isn’t cooling you. It "cooks" you.

Conductive heating: The increase in heat from contact. This would be the added heat transferred from hot pavement or macadam through your shoes to your hot feet.

Heat reducing, or heat-loss processes are the reverse of the above. What determines whether you’re going to be heated up or cooled down is the temperature gradient, or the temperature differences between you and your environmental heating/cooling mechanisms. Add to these the processes of evaporation mentioned above, which is our main heat-loss mechanism when the temperature rises.

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