Cold is still gripping everyone as winter continues, with that chill getting even frostier with the help of the wind that's picking up.

Most people know about wind chill, which is a figure given out in the winter months during forecasts alongside the regular temperature.

But not many might know just how that's determined by meteorologists and environmental agencies and what wind chill really is.

Meteorologist with Environment Canada Janelle Gergely explains the methodology they use for those measurements.

"In Canada, wind chill is measured using the temperature outside and the speed of our wind, so those are the two things that go into the formula and the calculations. There are some countries that take humidity into consideration, but ours is pretty straightforward. That wind chill is what it feels like outside."

The reason it feels like temperatures drop due to wind is that it's taking away an important part of keeping the body warm.

"It's always going to feel like it's colder when there's wind present because it evaporates the moisture that's on your skin. It draws the heat away from your body," said Gergely, "So that's why when it's -10 and there's wind present, it's always going to feel colder than that number."

The wind chill is also a criteria for weather warnings and is often what pushes colder temperatures into that warning range.

"For our extreme cold warnings, we have two criteria, one is what the sustained air temperature is and the other is what the wind chill is," said Gergely, "So whichever is reached then we'll put out a warning. So even if the sustained temperature isn't -40, but the wind chill is making it feel like -40, there will be an extreme cold warning out."