Color temperature is a physical quantity — the color of light emitted by a heated black body, expressed in Kelvin. Rough reference points: candlelight around 1900K, an incandescent bulb around 2700K, midday sun around 5500–6500K, an overcast sky around 7000–8000K — real fixtures and environments vary, so treat these as approximate.
The confusing part is which direction "warm" points. Reds and oranges — what design calls warm colors — actually sit at the low (cooler) end of the Kelvin scale. Blues — what design calls cool colors — sit at the high (hotter) end. Perceptual warm/cool and physical color temperature map in opposite directions.
The demo below converts Kelvin to RGB using the approximation Tanner Helland published — it is not a precise lookup against real spectral data, just a visually plausible approximation. The white-balance slider in any photo editor is this exact concept applied to color correction.
When to use
Use it when light color needs to be handled numerically — white balance, lighting design. Remember the direction is reversed from the perceptual warm/cool language.