Practical Cold Weather advice.

With a new blast of cold coming I wanted to give this thread a bump and thank all the kind folks who added to this thread.

I do want to add one more thing I never should have forgotten...
ASPCA Cold weather tips for your Pets

Please bring your pets indoors when the temps plummet...

Best advice of all....if below zero....DO NOT GO OUTSIDE!!!

What the hell is so damn important? Unless your job requires it, of course. (and then, well read all of the above!)

It drives me nuts when watching hollywood movies about people in arctic conditions, and everyone is supposedly "freezing", and they aren't wearing hats, or scarves, the top part of their heavy jackets are wide open, with the fake snow blowing in....

In all fairness, Hollywood movies require actors to be seen. Kind of hard to "act" if we can't see their faces/expressions, etc. People paying to see Tom Cruise aren't going to like seeing him wrapped up like a burrito...

Gazrok

It drives me nuts when watching hollywood movies about people in arctic conditions, and everyone is supposedly "freezing", and they aren't wearing hats, or scarves, the top part of their heavy jackets are wide open, with the fake snow blowing in....

In all fairness, Hollywood movies require actors to be seen. Kind of hard to "act" if we can't see their faces/expressions, etc. People paying to see Tom Cruise aren't going to like seeing him wrapped up like a burrito...

Laughing my head off here at the " Burrito" thing..........LOL

Thanks for the laugh just got in from shoveling the snow once again.

Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by HardCorps


Yes mom, I will wear my little jacket, my hat and mittens when I go outside.......

Sheesh.

Capt Obvious.

reply to post by HardCorps

Here in the Rockies, when temps fall below zero we follow a buddy system... every few minutes we check each other out for signs of frostbite

Really?

So every few minutes you take of your gloves to check for frostbite? Seems counterproductive.

Alpaca wool is AWESOME! It's some of, if not the warmest wool out there!

Here's a few things I can think of...

-your defroster turns on your A/C compressor. If you don't need to use it, don't. You'll stretch your gas a little farther

-those self jump starter battery packs have saved my behind a few times. They usually have them at Costco

-keep a tow strap in your car

-COTTON KILLS ... Do not wear anything cotton for insulation purposes. Cotton is nice to wick moisture, but once its wet its useless, and can actually cause hypothermia

-a couple of candles in your home can increase the temp by a few degrees

-you can hang a blanket in front of your door for extra insulation, towels can be used as draft guards

-plug your car in below 20F. If you don't have a head bolt heater, think about getting one and an outdoor timer

-don't bother cranking the heat up right off the bat. Your car needs time for the engine to warm up anyway.

-down in a great insulator until it gets wet. If you are wearing a down vest or jacket -- try and not get it soaked.

-goretex is great stuff

-Sorrel boots are awesome

-Columbia makes an affordable 3-in-one jacket system (shell and zip in liner). North Face also makes them too, but they can be almost 2-3 times as much.

-do not "brush" snow off you, shake it. When you brush it, you melt it and make it soak into your clothing faster. If you shake it, it'll just fall off.

-If your hands are really cold, put them in your armpits or crotch

-If your hands still continue to get cold, swing them around in a circle like a windmill. This will force more warm blood into your fingertips.

-As long as you can still feel your hands/feet you're not doing to badly. It's time to really worry about frostbite when you go "numb".

-Keep moving. Keeping the blood going is going to keep you warm. I used to have to dress twice as warm on Boy Scout camp outs because of all the standing around.

-Frostbite is pretty permanent. A bad incident of frostbite can haunt you the rest of your life. As a smoker, one of my hands gets colder than the other from having the window cracked in the winter.

-don't eat snow. Eating snow takes energy/heat away from your body, more than enough to make it not worthwhile. If you can, use a camp stove. If you have SOME liquid water in a bottle, add snow to that and shake it up

-old "Bunny Boots" are probably some of the warmest you can buy -- if you can find them. I know Army surplus stores sometimes will have them. I haven't been able to tell if the white ones are warmer than the black ones.

-LAYERS! I typically will wear some polypropylene/smart wool long underwear, then a fleece and gortex shell. If it's colder, I'll add a down vest under the shell. The same goes for hands and feet. Several layers of socks inside boots that fit will go a long way. You don't want your boots to tight, it'll restrict blood flow and they'll be cold.

-The more you talk, the more heat your loosing. Try to cover your face and breathe through your nose. There used to be a product called the "Head Sock". I don't know if they still make them, but I swear by mine. You can basically cover your entire face/neck.

I know there's more...

-Sorrel boots are awesome

reply to post by MystikMushroom


Excellent information is to be found in your post, we cannot agree more than with the Sorrel Boots they are so good and worth every penny.

Regards, Iwinder

reply to post by HardCorps


S/F. OP. For A VIT= very important thread. S for many individual posts with excellent tips.

I have never been so cold. In my life. ( I do like cheese with my whine, lol ) Brrrrr.

Any practical advice for infant/young children?

We have not left the house. Since Saturday morning. How do you guys cope?

Much obliged. I am losing it.

Gazrok
Best advice of all....if below zero....DO NOT GO OUTSIDE!!!

What the hell is so damn important? Unless your job requires it, of course. (and then, well read all of the above!)

Oh easy peasy for you to say, mister southern man if I read correctly somewhere around here.

I'll send you tickets to fly into O'Hare or Midway for a record hell-frozen over experience. . Oh wait, can't do that. Given that most all flights have been cancelled or delayed.

All in jest, lol.

Stay inside. You got that one right too. .

So how cold did it get where y'all live?

I get the feeling that people are overreacting here.

We're not even below zero yet---temp said 14, wind chill said 6 when I had to go outside for the mail and to get a couple of wheelbarrows of wood to the porch from the woodpile. My sweet patootie usually does that but with his breathing problems, he's not allowed outdoors when the temps are this low. I caught a time when the wind had died down and was was done in about 10 minutes but I could already feel the cold seeping in at the places where the layers of clothing met.
Even the cats don't stay out longer than it takes to "do business" in this kind of weather.....and we haven't even hit zero yet this time around. What really gets to me is their accusing looks---they know we control the inside weather so why aren't we doing something about the outside?
Keep layering and keep safe!

So temperatures are above or around freezing and people feel that a guy telling them to wear a hat is vital survival information?

I know don't let the door hit me on the way out but I am still amazed at the randomness and generic obviousness here on ATS.

ProdigalSonofa
So how cold did it get where y'all live?

I get the feeling that people are overreacting here.

I am in Indiana, US and the temperature is currently -3 F and -15 F with wind chill. .

It is getting worse: www.nbcchicago.com...

reply to post by watchesfromwall


OK, that's pretty cold actually.

I advise wearing a hat and putting your kids in your armpits. Make sure your house has 4 walls.

reply to post by ProdigalSonofa


Having grown up in IL, gone through bootcamp in Great Lakes and back to be an instructor , you would be surprised at how many people have never seen temps at or below freezing. Getting dressing tips from people who live up north, in the mountains, work in it all day etc...is extreamly helpfull, and surviving in it is best done by preparation.

reply to post by swimmer15


I am kinda surprised, -15F for instance is pretty cold but it never stopped me from going outside.

I guess if it's abnormal for your location it can be quite a hassle.

reply to post by ProdigalSonofa


I am same way, rarely will i let the weather stop me. But hassle hell, just like the heat, its relentless and unforgiving.

reply to post by watchesfromwall

Any practical advice for infant/young children?

As a parent I can say, my girls can be a lot tougher than I am at times.
They will and have run out of the house to play in the snow barefoot and only wearing their PJ's.

So I guess the big tip there is, now more than ever you really gotta watch the little ones.
not that's anything new...

There was this one time when my girl's were so fed up with being stuck in the house they begged me to let them walk out to the mailbox with me... No harm in that, right? As soon as they got out the door the girls ran for the nearest snow-dune.
Sure enough my youngest went BLOOP straight down and while this drift was only like 4 foot tall, it was taller than she was and if her big sis wasn't standing, laughing and pointing at the hole I never would have known where she was.

As for babies---Another life lesion learned by making mistakes with my oldest---Cover their little ears.
Our first years as parents the wife and I went though one long miserable winter with our little girl getting ear infection after ear infection!

It was my mother in law who told us she was getting them because we weren't coving her ears--- I thought no way, that can't possibly be the problem? but we tried pulling her little knit caps down over her ears and ya know, she stopped having ear infections.

Did you see the pictures from 285 in Atlanta? If you have ever been there it's the most clogged interstate in the world 24/7. Add 2 inches of snow-school kids forced to stay on the buses over night-pitiful. The only freeway in the world that backs up at 3 am on a summer evening for no reason whatsoever. Why couldn't they have got those kids home?

By the way I'll take my 30 year old GI field jacket w/ felt liner-made right here in Ohio, USA over any of that cheap/overpriced Chinese 'high tech' outer were any day.