How to deal with EXTREME COLD?

[AviatorTom]

This weekend (3-4-5-Feb-2023), the Northeast US is experience extreme cold and record low temperatures.

New England’ in particular is extremely cold. The windchill at New Hampshire’s Mount Washington dipped to -106°F (-77°C) on Friday (3-Feb), the lowest ever recorded in the US. On Saturday (4-Feb), the chill factor could drop to -10°F (-23°C) in New York City, -33°F (-36°C) in Boston, and -60°F (-51°C) in Maine.

Have you ever experienced such cold, and how did (do) you deal with it?

In comparison, in the Southeast (where I live), temperatures are colder than normal, dropping below freezing overnight, but it's nothing like what New England is experiencing.

[Soteris]

First of all is just recognizing how well your local society is at dealing with cold. You can function "normally" in extreme climate if you are prepared for it but that goes beyond an individual level. It matters little if you have the correct winter tires on your car and the knowledge of how to drive on snow and ice if everyone else on the road is playing car curling and the government is unable to plow and salt/sand the roads.

As such you need to identify just how much over the extreme that your society is used to this will be to guide how far you yourself need to take your preparedness.

On the milder end, you should plan your trips and avoid going outside. Be it because its just a little cold and the roads freeze or otherwise, the biggest disruption and danger at this stage will be from society fucking things up so you dont want to be stuck outside in a car or whatever because some idiot can't drive. Its also good to stock up your car with blankets and provisions in case you actually do get stranded outside in the cold for a long period of time. A small heater would be luxury but not unwelcome if you can find someone that you can power independently from your car. Just be wary of the risk of fire.

Winter clothes and especially boots are also important. The first things that will get frost bite is usually your hands and feet and then work its way up and you need to be able to handle potentially slippery surfaces.

Going beyond a mild extreme by your society you start to become ever more isolated. Going outside becomes highly discouraged unless you are very prepared for it. Furthermore you need to start truly worry about losing power and water and plan accordingly with things like bottled water and alternative heat sources that does not rely on communal power. Flashlights and such is also very good to have.

The build and insulation quality of your house starts to become a problem. You might want to start stuffing clothes and such along windows and door frames to keep the worst of the draft out in the worst case scenario. Depending on how bad your situation is you might still live fairly normally but this is the part where things can go really bad really quickly.

Any worse and we start to get to the true extremes. At this point survival is itself is just a struggle. If your house can't keep warm then you need to start reducing the size of your habitable space. The smaller the room you try to keep warm the better your results, especially if its in the middle of your house and not exposed to an external wall. DO NOT LIGHT A FIRE UNLESS IT IS IN A PROPER FIRE PLACE. If your house started burning at this point you are essentially dead even if you escape your burning house.

Use whatever portable heat source you have, bring as much clothes and blankets as you can to both jam along any doorframes, or cold spots on the walls as possible. If you have a tent you should pitch the tent inside your room and stay inside the tent for even more insulation. You are going to stay inside this room and live there until things improve so plan accordingly with food, water and toilet needs.

Anything worse then this and quite frankly you can't survive this by yourself. You just need to flee beforehand.

[WindAtMyBack]

I don't pay attention to wind chill, so I don't know the coldest I've been in. I think without the wind chill I've been in is around -27F (-33C). With wind chill I'm sure I've been in considerably colder temperatures.

The way I deal with cold temperatures is to dress warm. When it gets much below zero I wear a scarf which helps a lot to keep the neck and face warm. I go for walks late at night, like 1:00-300AM. Sometimes I'll still go when it's well below zero. If there is no wind, walking a mile in -10 to -20 is not too bad. If there is any breeze at all, I always start my walk facing the wind. That way if it gets too cold and I turn around, I have my back to the wind on the return trip.

In the winter I wear thermals 24/7. Plus I layer. With all the other layers I will only wear a jacket down to zero or lower. I will not normally put on a full winter coat until it's well below zero and I plan on being out in it for a while.

Also, it's surprising how much a beard and long hair make a difference. I've shaved beards and cut longish hair in the winter, and it feels much colder, especially if there is a breeze.

I have slept outside in -22F (-30C). I wanted to test my cold weather sleeping bag, so I slept just outside the house on a night I knew was going to be cold. I wanted to test it close to home so I could run inside if the bag couldn't handle it. I was fine though. I didn't have a tent, and was wearing pants or shirt - only thermals. I probably would have been fine down to -30 or less. Much colder if I was in a tent and more fully dressed for cold.

By the way, -40 is the temperature that are the same in F and C.

[Amy10223]

Right before Christmas we had very cold weather in this area. It dipped down at one point into the below zero digits (-5 digs FAH). It also snowed and was icy everywhere, and being that there were tractors out there trying to clear the snow, I simply stayed home and did the best I could to keep the house warm. I had not prepared for the cold by insulating the house with those plastic sheets around windows, and I wish I had. So I was told by neighbors to roll up towels at the bottom of drafty windows and doors, and I did. I kept the temp at about 71 degrees. With that cold, I didn't go out at all and thankfully I had all I needed to stay home a few days. Some were not lucky because they had to work--but many attempted to go to work and had to come back home because roads were that bad. There was a 50 car pile up accident on the Ohio Turnpike that left 4 dead, and another accident closer to me where 2 died.

We are having the same type of weather again but not too bad. It's blustery and cold with temps around 34 degrees. I wish I had gone to Costa Rica with my sister who is there now.

[Pinkspark]

I'm from Wisconsin. Extreme cold is just part of life every winter. You dress for it and stay indoors when it's necessary.

[OlderAndWiser]

I have been in Maine in January when the temperature was -5° F. overnight. I was prepared for the cold temperature, has sevral layers of insulated clothing, including boots, and I stayed comfortable. But I also did not stay outside very long in that weather.

When it is summer and we have unseasonably warm temperatures, the global warming crowd starts chiming in about this weather "proves" global warming. So do these record cold temperatures "disprove" global warming?

[purplepoppy]

Wind chill is meaningless its estimated by timing wind speed by 0.7 and then subtracting that value from the air temperature. This nearly always gives scary impressive figures.
Another factor that comes into play is humidity levels, its why you can bear the heat/cold in one place and not another.

As for keeping warm, its a case of keeping the wind out. I've got a rompa suit I put on top of warm clothes and it seals everything, closing those troublesome gaps. Then I just put waterproofs on top.

[TrueConfection]

Without the wind chill factor, it was -7F this morning at my house. COLD!!! The coldest without the wind chill factor I ever dealt with was -29F. We got up to put wood on the fire 4 times overnight last night. I didn't deal with the -29 weather very well. I was single and cried a lot. I finally loaded up my little car and left the state.

[CrazyGirl2]

I live in Florida, so NO! To us, if we wake up and it’s below 60, our entire day is ruined! So how to deal with cold like that? Easy, move to Florida. (And as a bonus we’ll include this free, you get NO state income tax, and only 6% sales tax. So move now, operators are standing by.)

[Jaximus-Lion]

The coldest i have been experienced with is 33- Celsius, i was wearing shorts, working night shift. I was out in the open for about 4 hours, took a smoke too 😁. More than 33-? I think i could manage, for few days, a week max.

[exitseven]

I am staying indoors.