The drive from Columbus OH to Chicago is really boring so my mind latched onto the outside temp display on my 09 TCH. Where, I wondered, is the sensor for this indicator? It has to be out of the wind, but not near any part of the car that could affect its reading. So. Where is this sensor, anyway?
BTW, I averaged 38 mpg on the trip and I was moving with the traffic the entire drive, which means that I was sitting at 75 mph most of the way. I had expected my mileage to drop down into the lover 30's, so I'm really pleased. And I have less than 5K on the car.

 

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Whether the sensor is exposed to wind or not is irrelevant the temp would read the same either way.

However usually if it were exposed to wind there is also a chance that it would be exposed to sunlight which most likely would affect the readings especially when stopped.

 

I'm pretty sure that exposure to weather would make a difference in the sensor's response. Rain plus wind would result in condensation effect, no? That would give an inaccurately lower temp reading.

 

For some unknown reason/logic most of these are located in the "breeze" just in front of the condensor/radiator "stack" where they can be affected by radiant heating and wind/humidity effects.

 

The effect of humidity would be so negligible it would likely be undetectable on the scale of the readout and as stated before wind would not affect the readout.

 

In fact it would, sort of, in a limited but good way. Any wind would help the sensor be exposed to the true air temp more quickly thus replacing false readings shortly after startup caused by sitting in the sun, or from sitting in a protected garage. But once this happens, the issue of wind speed becomes moot.

Many people confuse "wind chill" with actual air temp. Very simply put, if the air is 35F then the temp of an unheated object exposed to the air will also move towards 35F regardless of wind chill. If the wind chill is 25F, the object's temp will just move more quickly towards the 35F temp then if there was no wind chill, not actually go to 25F.

A basic thermometer never measures wind chill.

 

Well put thank you.

 

But what about the downwind, low pressure side, of a cylindrical object in a strong breeze of moisture laden air...??

Such as, say, a space shuttle solid fuel rocket booster...?

 

In that case you just reverse the polarity of the warp core to generate an inversion field.