Met Mailbag is your chance to have a Weather Plus Meteorologist answer your weather question. Each Thursday, our NBC Weather Pulse Blog will publish the answers to questions you send us. This week's question was answered by NBC Weather Plus Meteorologist Jackie Meretsky.

Question: How is wind chill calculated?
Submitted by Miriam F., Baltimore, Md.

Answer: Hello Miriam and thanks for the very timely question about wind chill!

It's only November, but with winter just around the corner and holiday decorations sneaking into the stores already, wind chill will be an all-too-familiar weather term you will hear from meteorologists before you know it.

Growing up in Toronto, Ontario Canada, I am no stranger to wind chill. As a youth, I remember my mother saying "the wind chill will be -20" on numerous occasions and admittedly I didn't really know what she was talking about, but I knew it was going to be VERY cold.

So what exactly is wind chill? Wind chill is the temperature felt on exposed skin as a result of the combination of temperature and wind speed. In simpler terms, it is really just how cold it feels to exposed skin. In very cold climates like the Arctic, as well as places with very high winds like Mount Washington in New Hampshire, wind chill is a critical concept.

Calculating wind chill is an entirely different animal. It's a complicated formula so to see what the formula is, you can go here and check out this handy graphic from the National Weather Service.

The basic premise is that as the air temperature falls, the chilling effect of a wind increases. The first wind chill calculations in the United States were developed during World War two. The calculations have been modified over the years to reflect it's affect on humans as opposed to animals and inanimate objects. The official calculation used presently is determined by iterating a model of skin termperature under various temperatures and wind speeds. But to make things simple for you, you can use this handy wind chill calculator on our website!