Wind chill and snakes... Any effect?

[ChrisRezendes]

I live right on the beach, and in the winter time, one of the things I really hate is the sea breeze. It can make a cold day much colder, much more uncomfortable, and much less bearable. Conversely, in the summer time, I much enjoy the sea breeze, as it can often cool a 100 degree day down to 90 (in terms of feeling, not actual measurement). It has always been my understanding that the reason the wind chills you down is because it pushes your body heat away from you. Naturally, some winds are already cold before they get to you, and some winds are warm, but I find that even warm winds can make a person shiver. So, what I ask is, excluding blatantly cold winds, could wind cool down a snake? Obviously it can't really push off a snake's body heat, because it has none. Does anybody know?
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[eddie]

Going from a science standpoint, here goes!

Although reptiles do not have their own metabolically produced body heat, they do have a temperature whether alive or dead.
If their temperature is at what they have attained from their enclosure )boa around 85 F) and it is taken to a windy area that has an ambient air temperature of lower than (the previously mentioned 85F) then the breeze will take some of their 'heat' away with it albeit not as quickly as a mammals temperature due to the reptiles inability to sweat.
On the 100F day mentioned in your post, even with a breeze, a reptile can easily become warmed up by the ambient air temperature and collecting the heat from the sun. If the reptile is not designed for that high of a temperature, then it may become over heated easily and becoming stressed, dehydrated (if in the high temperature for too long) and have a slight shock to the imuno system if it is ill. (sometimes happens without being detected immediately)

The reptiles inability to sweat means it can lose some of its' attained temperature if the ambient air outside is lower than what the animals temperature is, faster than a mammal due to not making its' own heat.

The reason that a 100 degree day with a slight breeze tends to cool you off a bit, is due to the evaporation of sweat, naturally occuring in humans.
The sweat evaporates, which slightly cools the skin it was on.

Here's a thought to get you thinking a little bit.

Air conditioners do NOT cool the air. They merely remove the heat from it.
How?
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[telefrag]

nicely put sir.
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[Ed_r]

An Air conditioner provides a COLD coil for the hot humid air to pass over. The cold coils forces the humidty in the air to instantly condense (condensation) on the coils. Removing the water from the air. the water is what holds the heat in the air, if you remove the water the air cools. In a nutshell. Wind chill work in the opposite way. With an air conditioner, hot air is passed over a cold coil. Wind chill, is cool air being passed over a hot/warm body.
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[ChrisRezendes]

Very well done, thanks bunches! [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]
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