Surviving the Cold

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.