How Does the Cold Affect Throwing Distance?

An exploration of the factors that affect how far players throw in colder weather.

It is commonly observed that disc golf players do not throw as far in colder weather. Two factors are frequently mentioned: (1) increased air density increasing drag on the disc and (2) clothing and environmental factors adversely affecting throwing motion.

Air Density

Air gets about 2% denser for each 10°F drop in air temperature. That means that air at 20°F is about 10% denser than air at 70°F. Denser air results in more drag on the disc as it flies, which leads to faster loss of speed. On the other hand, denser air also results in more lift from air moving over the dome of the disc. However, maintaining speed longer is more important for distance that a little extra lift and, in any event, lift is speed dependent so that the increase in lift is lost as the disc slows down due to increased drag. According to ChatGPT, although the increase in lift will somewhat offset the increase in drag, the net result is that a disc will probably fly about 4-7% less far at 20°F than 70°F due to the increase in air density.

Clothing and Environmental Factors

It makes sense that wearing additional layers of clothing would impair your throwing motion and thus reduce the speed of the disc at release. To test this theory, I did three sets of five throws with the Tech Disc into a net in my basement: the first with just a tee shirt, the second with my usual clothing that I wear when it is 20-30°F (which consists of two layers of long-sleeve thermal tops (the second looser than the first), a fleece vest, and a fleece jacket), and the third with just my tee shirt again. Here were the average speeds of the throw sets:

1. With tee shirt - 44.8mph

2. With cold-weather layers - 45.4mph

3. With tee shirt - 46.8mph

From this limited sample, it appears that cold-weather clothing does not necessarily have a significant adverse effect on throwing mechanics or release speed. The key is probably to make sure that the cold weather clothing you wear restricts your arm motion as little as possible. Wearing heavy, restrictive clothing on the upper body (say a heavy sweater under a tight ski parka) would no doubt adversely affect throwing mechanics and release speed.

Other factors that have been mentioned as possibly adversely affecting throwing mechanics and release speed in cold weather are cold muscles, cold hands, and snowy or icy throwing surfaces. All of these seem reasonable, although the first is controllable by dressing properly and doing a warmup and the second is controllable by using a Hothands or other pocket warmer to keep your throwing hand warm.