It’s cold! And it is cold early in the year. All kinds of predictions have floated around from sources such as the Farmers’ Almanac to NOAA’s theories. No one seems to have predicted that it would get this cold, this quick, this winter. All this cold is fun and games until you get stuck, or get caught out in it. At that point, you are in trouble. Take a few precautions, plan ahead. With the knowledge in this article you can turn a potentially dangerous situation into just a pain in the posterior.
Cold exposure can kill you. Be aware of the warning signs so you can take appropriate action. The dangers from cold exposure progresses through these stages:
- Mild Cold Exposure – Shivering, numbness in extremities, sluggish responses, increased heart rate
- Moderate – Cold exposure leading to altered level of consciousness, possibly incontinent, no longer shivering, slower heart rate.
- Severe cold exposure – unconsciousness, heart slows and may become irregular, rigid muscles, no response to light in the pupil of the eye – eventually death
If you find have cold exposure enough to be shivering for a period of time, the best thing you can do of course is to warm up. But do it slowly. You can learn more about these steps in one of our CPR/AED/1st Aid classes of course.
Follow these steps:
- Change out of those wet clothes and put on dry clothes.
- Wrap yourself in blankets and allow your own body heat to increase slowly.
- Do NOT get into a hot shower, it will stop you from shivering and can make your condition worse.
- You can heat up a ziplock of water and cradle it to your abdomen to get some heat to the core of your body.
Having a winter emergency box in your car is easy, cheap and can really make a situation like last year’s “Clusterflake” in Atlanta much easier to ride out. Be prepared for cold exposure. It’s easy to put the following items in your car and then forget about them for the winter:
- Gatorade – It will freeze, but not as easily as water, and it has a few nutrients in it.
- Snacks – a can of mixed nuts provides protein and nutrition while keeping your blood sugar from spiking and crashing, making you more miserable than you already are.
- Emergency Blanket – Little guy that folds up to the size of a deck of cards. Not cozy, but holds in the heat!
- Fleece roll up blanket – put that over you first, then the emergency blanket. Good to have both, in case others are in the car.
- LED Flashlight – LED flashlights last way longer, and are brighter.
- Candles and a lighter – a candle can increase the temp in your car, just a little bit. OF COURSE keep your window cracked open – that will let out condensation as well.
- Fluorescent flag for the top of your car – you can use an orange vest found in any hunting department