So Your Temperate Home is Suddenly an Arctic Hellscape
As -10F hits areaâs of the US whoâve never seen such temperatures in living memory, I wanted to give some tips from a Minnesotan whoâs lived with these temps as a part of my life for 37 years.
1) Donât Get Cocky. People used to these temps may laugh at our southern neighbors freaking out about the cold because yes, some parts of the US get such temps regularly every year. These people are being ignorant assholes. Our houses are mandated to have insulation that few of your homes will have. We pretty much all have huge puffy coats, and have well established winter weather gear drives for homeless and poor folks every year. We have expensive, well equipped infrastructure for cope with these temps and with large amounts of snow. You donât. When it comes down to it, Minnesotans know to respect the cold temps- itâs just that a lot of the ways that do it are so commonplace as to be invisible to those who already have these habits.
2) Donât go out wet. Dry your hair or stay inside. You will loose a lot of heat if youâre wet. Same for sweat, and wet diapers. And clothes with snow on them are now WET CLOTHES. Change into dry clothes as soon as possible.
3) If you have a shitty car battery or a car that sometimes struggles to start, then try not to use it. Youâre unlikely to get the kind of temps where itâs impossible to start an engine (Iâve only experienced those temps a few times. Once my eyelashes froze shut and I almost froze to death in my own back yard. Donât be like young me. Respect the cold.) If your car doesnât start, you could be stranded somewhere, and realistically your areaâs emergency services may be pretty overrun.Â
4) Very cold air doesnât hold moisture well. Plan for extra hydration for people, pets, and plants. Even if your staying in- most home heaters pull cold air from outside, then dry it out even MORE in the process of heating it. Dehydration is a thing. Even if your homeâs heater has a humidifier attached to it (if youâre not sure, then it probably doesnât.) itâs a good idea to drink extra water. Right now I have a few pots of water just left out by heaters to evaporate as much as possible. My mom used to just heat huge camping pots on the stove all day in cold temps. Remember, dry nasal passages really muck up your bodies ability to fight airborne illness. This is not a great time for that.
5) Help out homeless folks in your area in any way you can. These temps can and do kill. And since we have more evictions than any society can conscionably defend this year, we have high numbers of homeless people. Which means area supports for unhoused folks are often underfunded and over-taxed.Â
6) Let your faucets drip. I know nobody likes to waste water but if your pipes freeze they will literally explode. Your home will flood. My motherâs kitchen got completely destroyed and it traumatized my childhood dog. Justa bit of moving warm water will safeguard you from that.
7) Do. Not. Burn. Propane. Indoors.Â
8) Plan for potential power outages. Ice on the lines can cause this and again, your infrastructure isnât prepped for this. Unplug anything in your home youâre not using to do your part to help prevent rolling blackouts.
9) Driving on ice is a SKILL. Your roads may be filled with people who do not have that skill. Please please, stay off the roads if you can- even if you have this skill these roads will not be prepped and will, again, be full of people who donât know how to do this because it just hasnât come up that much in their life.
Stay safe and stay kind, folks!Â
