Cana­di­ans are known for a few things. The way they talk, their love for hock­ey, maple syrup and their infa­mous win­ters.  This year, Cana­di­ans across the coun­try have been dealt a bit­ter­ly cold and unpleas­ant win­ter; one that hasn’t been seen in a while.  In the past, we’ve expe­ri­enced cold win­ters and treach­er­ous con­di­tions before, but none like we’re see­ing now.  Not only has this win­ter been cold, but we’ve even expe­ri­enced the treach­er­ous weath­er con­di­tions, from ice storms to snow bliz­zards to a mix of the two. With all of this, we can’t help but hope for sum­mer to be here quick­ly.  For­get about beat­ing the sum­mer heat, it’s time to focus on sur­viv­ing the bit­ter­ly cold win­ter and its after­math.

1. Bun­dle Up

Remem­ber when your par­ents used to tell you to dress warm­ly before you went out. Remind­ing you to put on lay­ers as you could always take them off but couldn’t put them on if you were cold. Well, that teach­ing becomes very impor­tant this win­ter sea­son. We’ve already expe­ri­enced what ‑41 degrees can feel like and it’s not very pleas­ant. This win­ter, make sure to bun­dle up warm­ly, even if it is for five min­utes.  That includes wear­ing your win­ter jack­et, hat, scarves, gloves and warm shoes.  It only takes for mere sec­onds to catch a cold or even worse, frost­bite. If you’re going to be out longer, then put on lay­ers.  Remem­ber, if you start to feel warm, you can always take them off.

2. Stay Indoors

One of the best ways, and prob­a­bly the smartest way to sur­vive the frigid cold tem­per­a­tures is to stay indoors. If you don’t have to go any­where impor­tant, then why leave the warmth and com­fort of your home?  Errands and chores can be done anoth­er day. Take this as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to catch up on some over­due work or spend time with the fam­i­ly and kids. Just like how author­i­ties tell home­own­ers to remain indoors dur­ing hor­ri­ble weath­er con­di­tions, the same is true in this case. Stay­ing home means stay­ing warm.

3. Be Pre­pared

To be able to sur­vive the win­ter, you’ll need to be pre­pared.  From tools to clean your dri­ve­ways to lay­ers that will keep you warm, this win­ter sea­son doesn’t look like it’ll be light­en­ing up. Make sure you have plen­ty of salt this win­ter.  With all the snow and freez­ing rain com­ing down, salt will help to melt it away, mak­ing walk­ing around your house a lot safer. Be sure to keep a small shov­el and your car essen­tials in your car.  You may need these if your car breaks down or is stuck in the mid­dle of the road.

4. Be Aware of Weath­er Changes

Many of us hate the cold and can’t wait for it to warm up.  How­ev­er, if it warms up to quick­ly, it can have dan­ger­ous con­se­quences and we’ll be see­ing that in the com­ing week. Ear­ly in the week, we expe­ri­enced ‑41 degrees and by the week­end, we’ll be see­ing above sea­son­al tem­per­a­tures, like 4 degrees. With such dras­tic changes in the tem­per­a­tures, it’s impor­tant to be aware of the effects that these dras­tic weath­er changes can cause. If the weath­er goes from extreme cold to above sea­son­al in a short amount of time, be sure to check on your water pipes, espe­cial­ly those in the base­ment.  Extreme cold tem­per­a­tures cause pipes to freeze and if they thaw too quick­ly, they could crack and cause exten­sive water dam­age. This is also the same for cracks in win­dows, walls and cracks in your foun­da­tion.  Also, be aware of ice and snow melt­ing too fast, espe­cial­ly on the roof.  If ice or snow melt too fast, it can unex­pect­ed slide off the roof and pos­es as a seri­ous dan­ger. If you fear that will be the case, avoid try­ing to remove it your­self as you could put your­self in dan­ger. In this case, try pin­point­ing where the ice or snow may fall and avoid walk­ing under that area.

Stay safe this win­ter.

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Allan Baum
Security Industry veteran with over 30+ years in the industry. Founded family owned and operated Protection Plus in 1994 with his wife and has overseen its growth since. In addition to working with his wife and son, Allan has assigned the role of Chief Canine Officer to his trusted dog Waub, who joins him at the office every day.