A Floridian's Guide to Living Someplace Very Very Cold
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- When I moved to Montana in 2003, a lot of well-meaning cold natives gave me "advice" that was pretty obvious, and missed out on giving me advice that would actually have prevented me from making a number of disastrous mistakes. So here are about a dozen /actual/ secrets that no one tells you, mostly because they have no idea that people raised in warm places don't know about them.
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I moved from Florida to Indiana last year, and I was so proud when I bought my first ice scraper. I was PREPARED and winter could SUCK IT. I was ready. I was unstoppable. I put it in the trunk of my car and waited for the first time my windshield frosted over. When it happened, I went to my car, and tried to open my trunk. My trunk was frozen shut. My trunk was frozen? Shut? I did not know my trunk could freeze shut. I was not prepared. When I finally showed up to work (late) and told my coworkers what happened, they all nodded knowingly. I was like, you have to tell me all the things you think are common knowledge because I 👏🏻 DON’T 👏🏻 KNOW 👏🏻 ANYTHING 👏🏻
this was incredibly funny to read
You know, this never occurred to me as being the reason why we always keep the snow scraper on the ground in the backseat. It's just always been there, slightly annoying to maneuver around.
We all learn new things about winter, even when you grow up with it!
Erika Lane I don’t know why this doesn’t have more reactions and replies because it’s HILARIOUS
@@NoraVonYT Probably because too many of us have had the doors (locks) freeze and so didn't need our scrapers anyway.
It's no big deal with the OP. At least she made it to work.
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Can confirm that these are accurate and useful. Bonus tip: Don't care about other people making fun of your cold tolerance. Put on warm clothes and accessories (hat, scarf, boots, gloves, whatever) when you need them, not when other people start wearing them. Like he said with the gloves, it's easier to stay warm than to warm up, and it's easier to keep skin healthy than to heal dry, chapped skin.
PrimroseFrost +++++++++
THIS.
To expand: when the temperature drops below 50ish degrees, start using hand lotion EVERY DAY. When it's
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@@Dyloniuss Really? Is that common? I actually never did that and never had that sort of problem. I go through winters that are sensibly like Hank's.
I'm a couple towns over from Hank
Been here my while life and
If I see someone layered up when it's 45-60 I am OBLIGATED to make a "you ain't from 'round here are ya?" comment
Not because I'm making fun of you, but because I know what's coming, and I'm worried about you
I’ve lived in Canada all my life, and I loved this! More tips:
-always have blankets and winter gear in your car, in case you get stuck in the ditch.
-keep your phone close to your body to keep it warm, so the battery doesn’t drain as fast.
-sunglasses are more useful for driving in the winter because on sunny days, the sun reflecting off the ice can be blindingly bright.
whereabouts in Canada?
This is such a helpful comment. I am a Floridian who just moved to Oregon. I would keep a blanket and pillow in my car in case I wanted to take a nap on a long drive, but now I know that it could be life saving! yikes!
Keep a couple of candles as well they will help keep you warm.
Booster cables get a set keep them in the car.
@@lynngreydanus-smith8816 booster cables? Is that the same thing as jumper cables? I have a pair of those, but I never thought of keeping candles. That's fking brilliant. Honestly I never would've thought of that 😅🤣
@@PBthesquirrel if you can get the long/tall tin to keep them and a pack of match’s in you’re golden.
Here are a few more tips!!
- A hat is your best friend. Never leave your house without one.
- Small steps on ice and you won't fall twice.
- Once you come inside, don't forget to put your boots someplace warm. I accidentally left my boots in the garage once and the next morning my feet were blocks of ice. Also put your clothes somewhere to dry off and warm up.
- If you have to get somewhere on foot, leave early. You'll walk much slower than you expect, and I was late more than once because I forgot this.
- If your car has to stand outside, put an old blanket on the windshield. It won't freeze to the glass and you won't have to scrape off snow and ice in the morning.
- Drink lots of water!! Staying hydrated is as important during the winter as it is in summer.
- Make sure to keep your immune system strong. Warm drinks, lots of vitamin C, healthy food, flu shots, you know what you have to do.
- If you do get sick, stay at home. If you do not *have to* go outside, it's better not to infect others and make yourself feel worse.
- Ginger tea is a godsend. Grate or slice up a small knob of ginger, pour hot water over it, then let it steep for a few minutes. Drain it, add some honey and lemon and - presto - you have a health elixir in your hands! It's good for a sore throat, infected sinuses, runny nose and upset stomach.
Good luck! Have fun making snowmen! :D
The lack of sunlight hitting exposed skin reduces your innate vitamin D production, so make sure you get plenty through food and/or supplements in months with "R" in their name.
I buy ginger paste (in a squeezable tube) for when I’m sick or my joint issues are flaring up and while it’s more expensive than whole ginger chunks it’s also a godsend
I'm definitely using the blanket on windshield trick now. Thanks!
@@ragnkja That's september to march. 8 months of cold!
Advice about the blanket tip: Make sure it will not get above freezing and then cold again, or else it *will* freeze to your windshield.
Personal tips from personal experience:
-An unexpected winter accessory: Sunglasses. Sun reflecting off the snow can be so freaking bright, you'd think you were a pokemon trainer whiting out. Plus the added wind protection for your eyes is awesome.
-People who find it a little hard to breathe (tight, wheezy) when you're walking outside or when you go from outside to inside, protect your face with a scarf or the top of your jacket. The air you exhale will be warmer than what's outside and will help manage that tightness.
-Keep a sleeping bag or blankets and other supplies in your car. Anyone who's been on the 401 (whaddup canadians) or on a snowy road can see how quickly things can get dangerous. Ending up in a ditch or being stuck due to an accident can get out of hand fast. Be prepared.
as someone who works overnights and used to snowboard sunglasses/goggles are just a part of life.
When they say "the secret is layers," they're not saying, "put more clothes on." They're saying using proper layering will keep you warm. Having wool (preferably) or polyester socks base layer,long johns, hat and scarf, an insulation layer like a down or synthetic puffy, and a waterproof, wind-resistant shell will ensure optimal breatheability and warmth.
Just putting more clothes on will not help because the actual ambient temperature is only one of many factors to worry about when being outside in a cold place. Sweat is your worst enemy, it's not just uncomfortable, it can be deadly, you want your clothes to be breathable and quickly dry any sweat you do produce. Wetness, no matter how many layers you're wearing, getting wet from snow or water will sap all your heat, and also be very uncomfortable. Regular sweaters do almost nothing to block wind, and wind chill often brings temperatures down 10-20 degrees.
right but its always said in such a stupid way. I am from Texas and I'll visit up North when its warm but I'm not staying for winter. people always just leave it at "layer up" or "the secret is layers" when you ask for tips or even if you don't. Its annoying and less than helpful. while they do probably mean all the actual helpful clever layering tips they learned growing up, all of that is stuff we didn't learn, and are asking about but noone tells us because they think of it as common knowledge so they repeat the same useless vague advice
I think of layers like the fur of a Mainecoon cat. They have three different layers of fur.
@@tabithafox7324 Such an interesting way to view it. Its so my normal ( live in MI) to for example go to switch to my wool socks to go shovel.
Weird how different everyones normal/common sense is.
On the flip I struggled when younger to remember to take Sandals to FL. Here sandals are like a you wear for maybe 5 weeks in dead middle of summer sort of thing and otherwise hide in the far corners of your closet.
@@lijohnyoutube101South Dakota here, flip flop weather is 50+ and I will not back down about that.
Tips for driving in the snow:
Brake 3 times sooner than you think.
If it looks like the road is wet its probably black ice and will ruin your day.
Hank wasnt kidding about the ice scraper, also get the winter wiper fluid.
Dont assume snow on the side of the road is soft, it could be solid as a rock.
Highways become a free for all, expect cars to be going 65 in the left lane and 25 in the right lane.
Change lanes very slowly because of the ridges that build up in between.
Keep your headlights on all day if its snowing.
Dont jam your brakes when youre going downhill or turning, slow down ahead of time.
If your abs comes on you started braking too late.
Winter tires will make a civic a better snow car than a subaru with all seasons. No joke, if your can afford them, they work. Also they are more grippy when its cold, not just when its snowing.
Biggest tip: your biggest threat is the idiots driving around you, always assume the worst and you wont be surprised.
Sincerely, a guy who used to deliver pizzas in massachusetts
Bonus tip! Sometimes it helps when it's really icy to let a little air out of your tires, especially if you don't have snow tires
✋my Honda Fit made it up a gnarly hill in a blizzard a few weeks back because I had appropriate tires and winter driving experience. The SUVs were stopped halfway for lack of traction
Also just because it's snowing doesn't mean you need your hazards on. It only creates confusion. Even if you're going really slow -- everyone is. People can see your taillights just fine. Hazard lights are for stationary objects when snowing!
Alec Hall there is a different wiper fluid for winter?! In Florida you use the same all year round that's not how it works???
And winter tires?! Do you have to change everything in your car for winter?
victoria LoCicero It makes life easier if you prepare your car for winter but you don’t necessarily have to. You really just need to be careful.
Another recommendation: When it gets very cold trade the gloves for mittens if at all possible. Having your fingers separated increases the surface area that gets cold and makes your hands infinitely colder. Mittens are definitely superior for keeping hands warm and can also often layer with thin gloves for added warmth.
I had a mittens section in this video but it got cut for time!!!
I wear a pair of tech tip gloves underneath my mitts so I can use my phone by taking off a mitt but without having to touch a freezing block of metal with my bare hands :D
@@vlogbrothers I feel like an expanded version on Hank's channel would probably be very helpful.
@@vlogbrothers This should qualify as educational imo.
@Joe Chip, same, but I found mittens that will flip open to allow use of fingers as needed without taking the whole thing off.
I was told something beautiful about winter once.
Winter is a palate cleanser. The chaos of smells and colors and humidity and just pure sensation of summer is delightful but also overwhelming.
Winter allows for quiet, for reflection, for emptiness, and for stillness. When you walk through a winter landscape, it allows you to reset.
So embrace winter as a time to settle yourself and recharge.
So true
That is absolutely beautiful! You captured one of the main reasons I love winter. Thank you!
Winter is the nighttime of seasons. The world goes to sleep
Chicago has entered the chat
OMG....winter is so noisy and so much more work!! Crunch, crunch, crunch in the snow. Traffic and train noise is so much louder without the buffering deciduous leaves. Chopping firewood, stoking the fire, shoveling the snow, packing buckets to water stock, extra time to put on and take off boots and layers. I hate winter and we can get 8 months of it here!
As someone who grew up in the Arctic, some of these things I never even though about. 😅
Also: if you are in a very windy place/know it's going to stom, DON'T put the wipers up! Easier to deal with them suck to the window, than broken off.
And don't shy away from using sunglasses in the middle of winter! Sometimes it can be near impossible to see without, because snow is so reflective.
Nyoka Steenholdt sun damage potential is greater in the winter than the summer because of the reflection.
I got teased in elementary school for wearing sunglasses during recess in the winter, but the bright snow hurt my eyes!
Ikr! I was just slow blinking, thinking “you didn’t know that...?” 😅
sunglasses + sunscreen! the reflection can damage your eyes and you can get a sunburn as well
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*Bonus tip for walking on ice:*
If there is snow on the sidewalk or next to the sidewalk, WALK ON THE SNOW. Snow is wet and might get in your boots but being cold and wet is better than fall and ouch
And even snow frozen solid to the ground is better to walk on, because of its irregular form. It means that there's more stuff for your shoes to grip at all.
Walking in winter is like the adult version of the floor is lava game. You can touch it but watch out!
You could also get some actually good shoes, like Icebug. Just don't walk onto somebody's floor with carbide tips, you'll scratch it like crazy and if it's polished stone that's when you slip.
Also, try not to walk in someone else's footprints when walking on a snowy sidewalk. As a Texan that moved to North-Central New York, that was a game changer.
Yeah, my mom says a frozen butt is better than a broken butt.
Also: Do NOT walk on the snow IF it has newely snowed and its only a thin layer of "powder snow" (the snow that is not wet because it's too cold for that) on top of the ice. That is even more slippery than just going on the ice. If you go on snow: make sure it is actually snow and not just a thin layer of snow on top of ice.
If your locks freeze, DO NOT POUR HOT WATER ON THEM. They will just freeze more. Get some lock de-icer. It's like $3 at Wal Mart and it lasts for years. As long as your locks don't freeze every day.
Snow pants may seem "uncool" but you'll really want those when you're shovelling your driveway in a snow storm.
Long underwear is the best invention. Quick walk around the block with your dog? Long underwear. Doing some work in your shed which has no heat? Long underwear. Skiing, snowshoeing, or winter hiking? LONG UNDERWEAR.
It may seem counterintuitive, but injecting construction adhesive into the lock will loosen it right up!
Climbing into the car one winter morning, start it up, and the dashboard's outdoor air temperature shows as -2°F? Long underwear. Or relocate to southern California.
Rubbing alcohol or vodka also works
@@argella1300 Lock de-icer is mostly rubbing alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is the same thing. Dirt cheap in large bottles.
I’m Swedish here’s my tips for cold whether:
1. Layers sucks. Do you know how long it takes to put on and off those layers multiple times per day for MONTHS.
Get yourself a huge super warm jacket, that is at least somewhat windproof, otherwise the wind will just blow away all the heat you are trying to keep. So you can just put that on, and you are ready to go even if you just had a t-shirt on under you’ll be fine.
2. The most important parts to isolate to retain body heat is around the ribcage and the head.
So having a super warm jacket, will make it so you can skip of wearing ski pants for even down to -20 Celsius
This is the reason you see lots of swedes run around with a hat and jackets designed for polar climates, even though it’s not even close to that cold.
3. It's a good idea to wear some kind of long underpants, like leggings or long johns if it gets like -10 degrees.
4. Icicles may look nice, but they are super dangerous in urban environments. Tall buildings, large iceles (even as long as a person), directly over sidewalks, these things in combination with each other. Not good.
At least here the city actively work to take away the icicles and snow from all roofs. But its not perfect. So it's a good idea to always look up from time to time. And not walk directly under the edge of the roof on sidewalks.
People die and are heavily injured by icicles every year.
5. Keep an eye on your dogs and outdoor cats paws. They can become so dry that they begin to crack. There are special paw moisturizers but really anything that isn't toxic for them to eat will work.
7. Same goes for human hands, even if you have gloves there is a risk your hands will become so dry that they will crack and even bleed. So keep some hand moisturizer next to that chapstick in your pocket.
8. If its between -20 to -30 Celsius (basicly so cold that your eyelids begin to stick together a small bit when you blink) soap bubbles will freeze mid air if you blow some, and you can shatter them. It's pretty awesome, and super fun to play around with. The colder it is the better it works
9. If you have headphones that aren't wireless, than you need to keep that cord inside your jacket. It becomes even more fragile, becomes the cold makes it really stiff and easier to damage the wires inside.
10. Lithium batteries really don't like the cold. If it's like -15 celius a phone can go to 0% battery from just checking the time.
It will get some of it charge back when it becomes warm again. But that takes like 30 minutes. And you don't get the whole charge back.
IPhones have been infamous for being especially bad.
Most modern phones are designed to conduct heat, to keep the smartphones from overheating. But this also makes it so it's quite fast and easy to cool them down below the temperature the can function in.
11. Dont ever ride anything on two wheels when it's snowey or icy. Even if they have winter wheels. The statistics for accidents for the people who use their bikes or motorcycles during winter are really really bad.
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I'm Canadian and I approve this message.
I wear long underpants/leggings at 30 F degrees. I don't know how people stand 30 degrees without it.
Uniepup you get acclimatized to it. Today, for example, it’s -7C which actually feels warm after weeks of -20 so it was a light-jacket no gloves day for me!
Introverted Bear Wear a coat that completely covers your torso-think stadium length instead of bomber jacket. The legs don’t matter as much if your complete torso is protected.
Iowan/Nebraskan here. Put sandbags in your trunk to give your vehicle better traction on slick roads.
If you need to clean the snow and ice off your car, prepare to leave 10-15 minutes sooner than you normally would otherwise you’ll be late to wherever you’re going.
Check the hourly forecast before you leave! Just because the generic outlook says a high of 27°F doesn’t mean that the high point wasn’t at 2am and the rest of the day is much much colder.
And finally, be practical. Don’t wear skin tight clothing unless you have thick layers over that clothing that you can peel off. And make sure your snow boots are tall, waterproof, and insulated. It’s worth the extra $ for good quality snow boots.
Sarah Crossen I follow most of this advice and I live in Atlanta! It’s all so practical. And Hank, they sell the ice scrapers with shorter handles for the Southern folks who get ice instead of snow!!!
Sandbags in the trunk was good advice 40 years ago when most cars were rear wheel drive. It put more weight over the drive wheels. Front engine, rear drive cars are pretty awful in snow. They don't put the weight over the drive wheels and they tend to break the rear wheels loose when you step on the gas. Extra weight in the rear helped with that.
Nowadays most cars are front wheel drive and have the engine up front over the drive wheels. Weight in the trunk, over the nondrive wheels, won't help.
Better advice would be to get proper winter tires.
@@alyssac.209 Also, if the ice is super thick, you may want to go out and start your car and put the defroster on 10 to 15 minutes before you leave. This makes it much easier to to scrape.
Sandbags are also incredibly helpful to have if you get stuck in the snow. You can put a little sand behind your tires to generate some traction. Having a shovel in your car also help and they make short, trunk-length ones!
_Put sandbags in your trunk to give your vehicle better traction on slick roads_
That assumes a rear-wheel drive.
Some more suggestions for those encountering cold weather for the first time:
1. Flannel sheets go on the beds when the cold starts. Makes a big difference in comfort and is something someone from a warmer climate may not know about.
2. Efficient air humidifiers will not only make you feel the chill less, they will greatly reduce dry coughing and skin dryness and even help your house plants survive. Multiple gallons of water per day are needed, so a robust humidifier or several of them are needed.
3. Skin moisturizer is a must for men as well as women. You can use an unscented brand. This will reduce the itchiness of dry skin and prevent painful cracking of skin on your fingertips. The need is less if your interiors are humidified, but it will still help.
4. Fireplaces are delightful, but they promote heat loss up the chimney. On the coldest days, your home will be warmer if you avoid lighting a fire. We also block off drafts from the cold fireplace.
5. If you move to a city with significant snow, be sure to ask about snow plowing and snow emergency parking restrictions before making a decision on an apartment. In many city neighborhoods there is only street parking available and the situation devolves into war when parking on one side of the street is banned during snow emergencies. People will laboriously dig out their car and put an old chair or garbage can in the spot to hold it while at work. They come home to someone else in the spot they cleared and nowhere else to park. Much anxiety.
6. Be aware of the dangers and sneakiness of “black ice.” It is thin and perfectly clear and can form invisible patches on your porch, outside steps and walkwa, and roads. It is a major hazard that causes many broken bones and car accidents every year. You can’t see it, the surface looks dry, and wham! It can lurk in invisible small patches on otherwise clear roads. Related: any northerner knows that ice is much worse than snow, unless you live somewhere like the snow zones by the Great Lakes, where snow is ridiculously massive.
7. Electrical equipment with batteries do not like extreme cold. Like someone else pointed out, this includes phones.
8. Don’t forget to protect your pets. Cats and short-haired dogs are not built for staying outside in extreme cold.
The fireplace thing depends on the type of fireplace, and probably also the design of the house. A good, modern firebox doesn't let nearly as much heat up the chimney, tipping the balance in favour of lighting a fire. Avoid the open hearth style if you want to use the fireplace to heat your house, because it's inefficient in so many ways.
Only Hank Green has made himself credible enough that I think "43 million bugs per square centimeter, is that so?" before I think about how much 43 million bugs per square centimeter is
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Have a thermometer at your house and check it every time you go outside. Yes. Every time. It'll make sure that you're dressed appropriately. If in doubt, bring more clothes than you think you'll need.
Store a blanket in your car, just in case you break down. Also keep a candle in there. If you're broken down and waiting, you can hide under the blanket with your candle (DANGER!) but you won't die. This saved my life once.
If you do happen to get WAY too cold (approaching hypothermia) when you get somewhere warm, make sure to warm up slowly. Don't jump in a boiling shower. You could get seriously ill.
Don't drink alcohol when outside for long periods of time (ie. skiing, snowmobiling) it makes it harder to tell when you're cold and you'll lose heat faster.
Keep your spirits up and enjoy the winter.
- Canadian living in Northern Canada, 30 years and counting.
Excellent tip on the hot shower! Thank you!
As somebody who grew up in Montana and moved to Florida, I find this video hilarious
Any warm weather tips for Montanians?
Coen A Drink water constantly. Have multiple pairs of sunglasses. Sunscreen is your friend. Be careful what you put on the dashboard- you’d be surprised at what the sun can melt. Invest in a car with excellent AC (or install an auto starter so the AC can start before you need to go somewhere).
2kn111 good advice, thanks
@@2kn111 I’m a Florida native and I approve this message.
I grew up in New Jersey and moved to Florida 15 years ago. This is the first winter that I hate. I have finally become accustomed to it being super hot all the time. It’s in the low 40s tonight it Florida and I’m dying. I have lost all northern blood. Another side effect of living in Florida is being used to super humidity so when it gets cold and dry. Everything drys out. My nose and skin get super dry with chapped lips.
Hank! My husband who is Russian says you left out the very important point to not use your phone when it's - 20 out, as it will not work and then die. 😂
Ashley Chin He’s right! The cold saps the battery like a hungry vampire
Only true with Iphones. Androids works just fine, not to talk about Nokia...
@@SwedishNeo my Android will shut off when it's cold enough.
IKR, I was out taking pictures of the snow drifts back when it was -25 and I glanced at my battery and it was suddenly at 1%. I went back inside and it came up to about 30% after it had warmed up.
Yeah, cold messes with the lithium ion batteries (used in most modern smartphones), and slows the chemicals, meaning less energy. Took my battery from 30 to 0 in 5 min once the phone got cold.
Bonus tip from Wisconsin: don’t walk on the painted road markings as they are extra slippery and dangerous.
Also metal thresholds are super slippery. Those almost get me at least once or twice every winter.
As someone who grew up in IL and now lives in Milwaukee... Why does WI use such crappy paint on the roads?!? I've been here for 15 years and I still hate this... IL uses a paint with reflective grit which means it's not slippery and you can see it when it rains... WISDOT, you annoy me to no end...
@@BardovBacchus Ohio is just as bad >_
And no walking on metal! (manholes, handholes, etc)
@Zaina YES! It's so dumb. They should put grit in it.
Additional notes from a Tennessean who moved to Chicago 25 years ago:
- You will need TWO coats. No, you can't just layer more unless you want to have to take all those layers off every time you go inside so you don't sweat like crazy. (You can compromise on one of those coats that has a liner you can zip in when it gets super cold.) You need a light winter coat to hold you for temps down to somewhere in the 20sF. You will wear this one most of the time. Then you need the heavy duty, super well-insulated, needs to go down at least to your mid-thighs coat that you will wear when temps drop below 20F. Do not worry about this coat being cute. Its job is to keep you warm and alive. No one looks cute when temps drop that low. You may not wear this a lot every winter, but you need it nonetheless. Think of it as a many year investment.
- You may think earmuffs look dopey, but they WILL keep your ears warm better than most other options. It is worth it to not feel like your ears are freezing off.
- Long underwear is worth it when it drops below 20F.
- Better than gloves in really cold weather are mittens, specifically mittens with the flip-tops. Your fingers will stay warmer if they can be next to each other and share body heat between each other. If it gets really cold, you may layer these with silk insulating glove liners.
- Related to putting cold hands in gloves, same goes for socks. (I know this is more of an indoor problem than an outdoor one.) Putting on a pair of socks will not warm your feet. They may help KEEP them warm, but if your feet are cold, you need something to warm them first.
Again with the long underwear? That must be an American thing.
@@tchevrier I keep apple pie and a bald eagle in mine.
@@danielpittman889 is the apple pie to keep the eagle fed so it doesn't...
@@tchevrierMost places in the world don't get as cold as the upper Midwest, the obvious exceptions being Canada, Russia, Mongolia, and parts of China and the -stan countries.
@@milkwalkerjones633 and I'm from Canada and I've never owned a pair of long underwear.
frostbite tips from a canadian figure skater whose home rink is known around the province for being weirdly cold:
- adequately covering your skin is honestly your best protection method against frostbite. it might not prevent it entirely, but it will seriously slow it down.
- if your skin is covered and, say, your toes are starting to feel cold, know that you should be aiming to be somewhere warmer within the next half hour if you don't want it to get painful
- if it does become painfully cold and you can't go somewhere warmer quite yet, don't panic. it's going to be very uncomfortable but you won't have any long term damage.
- if it becomes so cold that you actually cannot feel sensation in the body part, you should definitely be making attempts to make it warmer somehow. if you can't get somewhere warm, do your best to get your body moving as adding layers won't really help at this point.
- in the event that the body part in question goes past being numb and starts feeling suddenly very warm without the climate around you changing, you quite seriously need to get somewhere warmer asap. at this point you almost definitely have genuine frostbite and there will be painful repercussions if you aren't taken care of immediately.
- also, i think this is a well known tip, but i figured i'd add it anyways. if you are feeling painfully cold, numb, or suddenly warm do not try rubbing the skin to warm it up. it doesn't work and you are just going to damage the skin and other soft tissue that has frozen because frozen flesh becomes harder and less flexible, and forcefully moving it around is just going to cause tearing.
ideally, you shouldn't experience anything worse than a tiny bit of painful cold in your life, but things do happen. be careful and stay safe!
I didn’t know that last either, thank you!
One tip that helps with cold feet, if they get wet, or are uncomfortable cold and your stuck outside for some reason, it helps to take off you boots one socks and rap then in a spare piece of cloth, I wince did this on a tobogganing trip after my boots were filled with snow and it helped a lot
Related: hypothermia. It's not hard to get when it's crazy cold out. If you're shivering, you're ok. If you stop shivering but you haven't gotten warmer, it's hypothermia. Your body is shutting down the non-essentials, pulling blood away from extremities toward internal organs. If you ever start feeling this way, get warm now! Call someone for help if you need to, and DO NOT GO TO SLEEP even if you're tired.
When I was a youngster, we used to play hockey on outdoor rinks. I remember after the games, all the kids crying as their toes thawed and all the dads rubbing them to warm them up.
“If it’s in the teens ... and windy - just give up!” I love this - I LOVE the wind 10 months out of the year ... but the deep winter wind ...NO!
M S agreed. It was like 6ish degrees after snowing earlier this week, and windy and it was so cold and I wanted to leave the outdoors but unfortunately we haven’t built walkways like that yet.
I always say wind is acceptable between the months of May to October. Wind when its 80 degrees, so pleasant. But wind in anything below 30 just makes it 10 times more miserable.
You love the wind?
Okay it’s nice fir windsurfing but I had to bike to school for half an hour in high school. Nobody likes wind.
Edit: okay maybe when it’s warm outside, but while biking you kind of make your own wind so even then it’s a no ☺️
Envy West -even then I LOVE wind ... walking around and the wind is wiping my hair around ... love the smell ... love the feel LOL my favorite day is about 60 with sunshine, bluish sky, puffy white cloud, and WIND!
Wind chill is no joke.
Snow-Specific Tip: *Shovel in tiny portions.* DO NOT try to load up a shovel as much as you can and then toss it off; this will get heavy, exhausting, could hurt your back or chest, and if the snow is wet, COULD CAUSE A HEART ATTACK. As someone who grew up outside of Chicago, this is very important information if you are not used to shoveling snow.
Great advice! It's the type of thing people like me who grew up in Minnesota just don't think about. Also, one I've noticed is not always obvious to people: Keep an emergency blanket in your car! Having a warm blanket and a light in your car in case of breakdowns in the winter can totally save a life, and also are very handy in the summer when you forget to bring a picnic blanket to fireworks :D
Yes! Emergency snow supplies in your car are key, particularly the blanket.
100% agreed! My mom had a rule: always be prepared to walk two miles. If you're going out and are in fancy shoes, bring your boots just in case.
@@HolaMindy I usually abide by this rule but never thought of it in terms of cold weather! Thank you!
100% agree! also never go out without a coat, even if you think you'll be in your car the whole time if it breaks down trying to find help in the cold is a pain.
Blankets are just plain nice to have in the car when it's freezing outside and you get into a car that's equally freezing.
Canadian tips:
- wear tall socks. Not only do they keep your legs warmer, but they keep your socks from scrunching down into your boot. A taller sock keeps them up and helps make a seal that snow can't get into
- natural wool stays warm even when wet
- when you layer, make sure the fabric is breathable. Air helps insulate and trap heat. Also, if you end up working up a sweat, it's going to feel gross and cold if it gets trapped in layers of clothes.
- if you wear glasses, consider getting anti-fog coating and be careful that you don't blow your breath upwards when wearing a scarf around your mouth. I wore glasses for decades and my breath would condense and freeze on the lens. I spent most winters blind whenever I was outside.
- wear an SPF moisturizer on your face. Winter winds are super drying and the snow reflects more sunlight at your face than you'd think.
As a fellow Canadian. Can confirm theese tips
And make sure you rub some of that sunscreen on the bottom of your nose.
WHY YOU SHOULD HAVE THE LITTLE ICE SCRAPERS: by a Pennsylvanian
Have the full sized ice scrapers. Yes. Always. Always always always have the full sized ice scrapers. Make sure to have one in the house, the garage, your car, your dog house, horse and buggy... everywhere.
However! ALSO have the little ones. They fit in the glove box and in your bag, are easier to carry in to work... And if you lose the others and your car door is frozen shut, barring you from the only one you have left, then you take out the little one from your bag and chip your way in.
Plus you can give the little ones to someone you find who doesn't have *any* scrapers cuz even that helps decrease world suck by just a littlest bit.
Happy scraping!
This reminded me of the King of the Hill scene where Hank opens his WD40 can with the assistance of a smaller, tactical WD40 can.
I always appreciate my ice scraper in my dog house.
I love the Lancaster mood of "horse an buggy" lmao
Also the little ones tend to be a bit sharper with better corners, & are the only way to get your car back after it has been encased in a 1 cm thick layer of ice. Southern Ontario we have a LOT of freezing rain & ice storms, & the scrapers attached to the brush never work as well as the little hand scrapers for that.
Also the little ones are much easier to use to scrape the windows while you're driving down the road.
One tip I want to add is... that sunglasses aren't just for summer. SUN + SNOW = MELTING EYES!
Even overcast skies can be very glaring on the eyes, a few days ago there was snow and a white sky. It was very uncomfortable.
I bought sunglasses for winter not summer, though i go to work before sunrise and go home after sunset so they don't get used much. Also as a side benefit something protecting your eyes from wind is incredibly helpful.
I have found that sunglasses are helpful when driving in blowing snow. They really cut down the glare.
One time, I was walking home from school during a snowstorm. It was really cold, so I kept my head down, and it turns out looking at snow for a while isn't good... I started seeing stars and my vision was all weird... Luckily, I was fine afterwards, but remember to take care, everyone!
that old white fire
Move over self-care bunny, there’s a new sheriff in town: Mr. Good Seal
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Born and raised in Michigan -- fun fact, because snow reflects sunlight, you can get sunburnt worse when there's snow on the ground than when there's not. Don't think cold weather is an excuse to neglect sunscreen!
Ice walking tip from NJ: penguin walk. Do the waddle. Your dignity is now frozen with your driveway.
Fran LoIacono The penguin walk is so important!
Also small note; if you are a person who frequently wears makeup DO NOT LEAVE YOUR MAKEUP BAG IN A COLD CAR OVERNIGHT! Or you will spend your morning with the contents on your work desk thawing out because your tarte shape tape now doubles as a blunt object/murder weapon...
It gets cold in New Jersey?
"your dignity is now frozen with your driveway"
These are great tips. Another is you will see a fewer number of people in winter. People's social lives dramatically decrease in colder, harsher weather. When I moved from California to a Massachusettes' boarding school, the shift from seeing everyone out on the quad every day to the quietness of winter shocked me. During winter make sure to schedule in time to meet up with friends, drink hot chocolate, and be cozy. Participate in post-storm snowball fights and snowman building. Also, some people get depressed in the winter and start to act differently. If you feel blue, try taking vitamin D and see if that helps and seek counseling or other medical advice. Spring will return and you'll see everyone again!
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Seconded! If you get winter depressions, a good light box (as in medical grade) can also help. :) Go outside if at all possible, you need sunlight and fresh air, I think I read somewhere 15 minutes of daylight on your face and hands is the very least you should have per day.
Winter is an excellent season to eat and drink together, next to a fire. :P
"Pretend I'm a baby" is my new favorite way to get people to quickly understand how little I understand what they're talking about lol 😆
This week in Wisconsin there's a polar supervortex in the forecast (something I've never even heard of in my 24 years of life) . It's predicted to reach -55, which is well beyond the temperature gasoline freezes at. Even those of us who have been here for our entire lives aren't prepared for this level of "very cold".
That's even cold for a Canadian, good luck
The lows will be in the -20s F. It’s the wind chill that’s expected to be -40s or -50s. The gas should be fine. 👍👍
Gasoline should be ok, assuming some of that is wind chill. If you drive Diesel though, you're not going anywhere. Diesel turns to jelly around-38.
@@Apophii (exept the winter kind. they add something that makes it usable and it's regularly stocked at gas stations at winter time. or maybe not, if actual cold temps are not usual where you are. where I am, gas stations that have switched over to winter diesel, advertise it.)
Nice to see you here
You wear layers so you can take it off in stages... WORST THING IS TO SWEAT WHILE IN SUPER COLD WEATHER. You dont want to sweat.
I always remember Les Stroud saying "You sweat, you die" on Surviorman lol
@@RelemZidin hehe heres a story for ya... The airport where I used to work...Les Stroud came to get an old ultralight to use in his show...
(premise crashing in an ultralight up north )
He got it from Baldwin Airport (CPB9) in Ontario.
londoners 100% get the layering thing because the tube is SO much warmer than outside (combination of crowd, bad air flow and just the fact that you're underground) so you dress for outside weather and then end up overheating on the train unless you can take off at least one layer
I wear a ski jacket which is incredibly good insulation, so I can just take that off (or even just unzip it) and I'll have a tshirt and jumper underneath, maybe two shirts if I'm going to be outside a lot or out at night, and be perfectly comfortable with the heat of the tube
I found that one out the hard way, one time riding my bike to school.
It wasn't even that cold, or that long a ride.
But it sure as hell wasn't pleasant either!
Yup, the critical thing here isn't "wear enough stuff to stay warm", it's "wear that stuff as separate layers, so you can shed them as the internal and external conditions change".
Also, the materials used to make your cold weather clothes matter. I realized in my 30s why I was always miserable in the cold. I grew up wearing cotton socks, knitted gloves that I'm assuming were cotton, jeans with nothing under them... Wool socks, insulated waterproof gloves, waterproof boots, fleece leggings under jeans, etc is the right way to go
The way you stay warm is by trapping body heat. Which is why when shovelling snow it's easy to get way too warm in the coat you normally wear. Speaking of shovelling snow, if you're expecting like 15 inches of snow don't wait until it's stopped snowing to shovel, shovelling while it's snowing feels Sisyphean but it's way easier to shovel 3 inches of snow 5 times than 15 inches of snow all at once.
The other big thing with keeping your hands warm is to keep your core warm. The body will start pulling heat from extremities in an effort to maintain core temperature without you knowing it.
So your core may feel totally comfortable, but that's only because it just pulled a bunch of heat out from your hands and toes.. and you're wondering why your hands and toes are cold despite wearing gloves and wool socks...
When I got outside in sub-zero (F) weather I have 5 layers on my torso, the bottom one being thermal underwear made from polypropylene.
YES! Shoveling 3 inches 5 times IS easier, and the energy you’ve conserved should be enough to dig out the mountain range of snow at the end of the driveway where the plow eventually barricades you in again!
Absolutely true! Also, I find shoveling while it's still snowing to be incredibly relaxing and serene. It makes shoveling actually enjoyable! (For me at least haha)
As a Michigander, I can fully confirm these tips 😂 also, put hand warmers and sand in your vehicle in case of emergency. The sand can be put around your tires to increase traction if you get stuck
currently very cold (per hank's scale) and steadily snowing where i am in michigan. Another suggestion: shovel your driveway each time it snows or else the bottom layers will freeze into a block of ice forever
Kitty litter works too for tire traction.
Yes! Michigander here. SW Michigan where we don’t even have lake effect snow or anything. I have a 2 minute walk from the parking lot to my building at work, and I had my thick, knit scarf wrapped securely around my face and was in pain about 30 seconds in to the walk.
@@dancer0rache93 I live in the snowbelt lol and we're drowning in snow right now
@@forenschick I had zero luck with kitty litter when I tried it a couple of years ago, it just smeared all around. Maybe it wasn't cold enough that day for it not to interact with the snow and ice or something, but it definitely didn't work for me.
Here are some pro tips from someone who lives in Austria and grew up in the alps region.
Make sure your roof can handle the weight of the snow, especially when it snows way more than usually. Good isolation is super important too.
Get good shoes and wear the right socks, not only because it’s slippery and cold but you‘ll get wet feet in an instant if it’s warm enough that the top layer of snow melts when it’s sunny.
Don’t forget to buy windshield washer fluid which has antifreeze in it or you‘ll really be surprised.
Have blankets in your car for emergencies. (And you should always have water in it and food for a day)
Layers are good BUT you need a really good coat. The longer, the better. Get one with a hood, the wind can make you feel miserable if you don’t. And ears are really sensitive.
If you go outdoors and take something to drink with you, use a thermo bottle. Otherwise the water or whatever else you drink will be frozen.
Protect your tech outside! Like smartphones or headphones.
Make sure your plants outside can handle the cold, put those inside which wouldn’t make it like certain flowers or fruit bushes.
Don’t use regular chapstick if it’s sunny and there’s a lot of snow, wear one with a sunscreen in it. Or do you want sunburned lips?
It’s okay to feel depressed when it’s so dang dark all the time, invest in the right lamps and get help if needed. Seasonal depression is more common than you think.
Use handcream!! A lot of it! Cerave has great products.
If you have kids: offer different options! Layers aren’t always that great to run around in, so find the best options your kid likes. Their face is usually still exposed to the cold, use sunscreen and there’s a specific face cream to protect the skin, it made a real difference for my daughters. Especially when they were outside so much during their kindergarten time.
Lastly, especially to those who also have certain rare chronic illnesses: don’t be ashamed that you are really, really sensitive and that the cold hurts you more than others. Raynauds is just one example but many other illnesses cause a cold sensitivity. Good news is that there’s now all kinds of warming clothes (they can be charged via USB), from gloves to coats and pants. Additionally there are electrical hand warmers. I use the gloves and the hand warmer (with my paraplegia, the autoimmune disorder and other stuff the cold is my biggest enemy next to unnecessary steps and other barriers most people don’t even recognize). The seat heater in the car and grain pillows are a lifesaver too.
*Not all coats are created equal.* This may seem obvious, but its a huge mistake I made. I moved from North Carolina (abt 40 F in the winter) to Utah (about 10 F in the winter) when I left for college. I walked around campus freezing to death in 4 or 5 jackets with a $30 coat over top for years until someone told me that high-end winter weather coats are made differently and actually keep you warm. I traded in my "coat" for a Columbia brand one meant for below-freezing temps and it changed my life.
You can get dirt cheap milsurp coats that are warm as shit. Soviet is best, Czech is pretty good too
I know your post is months old but yes! Lol. I finally bought a good jacket last winter and it made a world of difference! I wasn't freezing every freaking time I was outside 😁 I didn't get a fancy Colombia but I did get a nice ski jacket.
Oh I went through that, I had so many layers on (5 minimum) and got continuously sick but once I got the proper clothes via trial and error I even sweated with just 3 layers. People need to be more specific with their "just put on more layers" advice...
@@isaackarjala7916 where are you getting soviet mil surplus?
@@I..cast..fireball coat I have I've had for like 15 years... And I got it from a now out of business milsurp store in Ann Arbor, Mi (they have other locations but those other locations don't carry much foreign milsurp)
Other cold weather secrets.
The absolute worst time to go out, is when the weather gets a few inches of snow, then has a brief 1-day thaw, and then goes below freezing again. that re-freeze, is the most dangerous, because not all the snow melted, and the snow that did melt, re-froze into a pristine smooth slick death-trap, that is now UNDER the snow, so you go to shovel, or even walk through it thinking "oh, it's just some crunchy snow", and then you slip and fall on rock-hard sheets of ice that are just perfectly lubricated because the snow being compacted under your shoe the pressure creates the tiniest bit of melt, so then you get ice, then water, then ice. That's about as close to ZERO FRICTION as you will get in nature, and it's directly under your feet, and practically invisible. This is why we salt the roads. this is why some people salt their driveways, this is why you salt the sidewalk. it makes it a disgusting slush, but it's better to be cold and wet, than to have broken bones and be cold and wet.
The next thing.... There is a REASON hot cocoa is a winter drink. Not only is it a warm beverage, but chocolate contains caffeine, but even better than hot cocoa, is some like a mocha latte or something. It's sweet and chocolate so it's more energy which you need to keep warm, it's a warm drink so it doesn't make you cold, and it's got CAFFEINE which changes your blood flow. you know how people would drink alcohol because it made them FEEL warm, but it actually made them freeze faster? caffeine does the opposite of this. It's not something that's really obvious but I was actually just thinking about this recently.
solid advice. i nearly got in a car accident today from this exact thing!
And if you’re doing some outside trekking in the winter you can throw some butter in your hot cocoa to really amp up the calories and keep you going
@@KatieeeBug03 Butter in hot cocoa? that's a new one on me... I'm from ohio, so I know there's colder places, so maybe it doesn't get that bad here... though it did get to under -32F that one year.... interesting tip.
As a New Jersey native (not a warm place, per se, but not cold cold) who moved to Minnesota as an adult, I can confirm all of these are the actual secrets. I remember having literally the same conversation about how I used to think everything below 30 was uniformly cold, and in fact there's not one but two more layers down there below "basic winter cold".
There's chilly, cold, painfully cold, and dangerously cold. And I'm sure there's some further level that only Antarcitic explorers and maybe sometimes astronauts experience.
You said not to forget milk in your trunk, but really dont forget carbonated drinks in your car -A Canadian with a mess to clean up
Yeah, no kidding. Milk eventually thaws out without a problem, but expect a disaster with any soft drink, or even sparkling wine for that matter. I had a bottle of Prosecco blow up on me a few years ago after having left it on my unheated front porch.
Yeah I forgot this the other day. Had a whole case of sparkling water blow up on me.
Learned this about carbonated drinks, but on my porch. In the fall, the porch is *just* cold enough to sort of use as a giant fridge, at least for cold beverages and other things where you don't need to worry too too much about the temperature fluctuating. What I should have been more careful about was checking the overnight temperatures and not just the daytime ones - suffice it to say it got well below freezing well before we thought it would.
So the next time you think about putting a carbonated beverage in a cold place, you won't, because now
You know better.
Just made that mistake last week.
As a northern Minnesotan. We average -20 fahrenheit this week. I work at a late night drive job. It's not glamorous, guys. At the same time, we don't live here for winter, we live here for summer. We live for the sunshine-y lakes surrounded by lush trees and good friends. The cold is part of the compromise. DFTBA
I'm not sure I can agree with that. I look forward to the winter all summer long. Granted, I'm down in the twin cities and it isn't quite as cold. But I would take 0° over 100 any day.
The cold weather also keeps the poisonous/venomous insects and reptiles from moving in, which is completely worth it!
As a fellow northern Minnesotan, stay safe this week!
@@SarahErickson you as well friend!
Heheh the irony is that I live in New England and we have no good season. Summers are unbearably warm and if you don’t have ac or it broke everyone feels bad for you. Also, I’m uber temperature sensitive so my feet start getting cold in October and I start sweating in April-May. But it snows through March.
One thing I always try to remember to say our exchange students here in the north is that it's not the cloudy, snowy weather you should prepare for, but the clear sky. Even though the clear winter morning might look beautiful and welcoming it can get super cold. It's the clear sky you should be afraid of if you don't like the cold.
So true. Those clouds trap warmth.
For someone who lives in that colder climate, these tips seem SUPER obvious...But they aren't to southerners. My cousin who lives in Florida and has never seen snow once in her life, would not know to do any of those things. This video is for all you people who have never seen snow.
Can confirm, I've lived almost my entire life in South Carolina and I don't know these things. Everything shuts down here when it snows an inch. I love it.
Thats quite true...I have never known these strategies as I have never seen snow
Just moved to IL and I feel all this deeply. ☃️🌨️🤯
That's our daily routine here in Massachusetts.
I mean I live in a state that gets a pretty even amount of all the seasons and I forget drinks and stuff that freezes and explodes in my car at least once per winter. It was a good refresher course.
"If it's in the teens and windy, just give up."
SOLID ADVICE.
a little tidbit from a guy in Newfoundland. If your doors ever freeze lock, having a bit of isoprophyl alcohol will do you wonders. The temperature difference will help melt the ice a bit faster. I couldn't fit my key into the keyhole, had isoprophyl alcohol on me (I work in tech, we use it to clean parts), and a quick rub on to my key let it slide much faster in. Obviously I wiped it off afterwards, but its a quick fix.
also using a lighter to heat your key up does the trick if you don't have alcohol.
@@thedickiedoom But who packs a lighter today? They sell little bottles of lock deicer that you can keep in your parka pocket. 30mls or 1 oz.
Hank explaining concepts I've lived with all my life is hilarious. I don't think I've ever heard the fact we all know, that 30°F is actually nice when you've been having around 0°F nonstop for a while, spoken out loud. In Michigan, it's kind of just an unspoken rule. If you've been having super cold weather and you get above freezing for a day or two, you gotta go outside and enjoy it, because you probably won't see it again for a few weeks.
That's the whole point of the video though. That all of this is "common knowledge to y'all. So if southerners move up there when we ask for tips/advice we don't get useful necessary advice, because y'all assume everyone learns it growing up. I hadn't seen most of this stuff and haven't ever had to worry about pipes exploding because they froze, or most of that. We get useless or vague advice like "it's all in the layers" but not what that means or how to use the layers, or what order they go in, because again you assume we would know it already. I have been in weather below freezing maybe 10 times in my entire 22 years of life and would have to spend a lot of time on google to figure out how to prepare for a winter anywhere it gets properly cold.
@@tabithafox7324 I know that, and I wasn't arguing. It's cool of Hank to make a video about these things for people who don't know them as well as native northerners do. I just found it kinda funny.
I watch this every couple of months because it makes me smile
As a north German I would rather have temperatures under freezing because here in winter we usually have temperatures around freezing, when we get snow its gone in a few days and everything is wet and nasty.
We also have less light than you guys due to living further north, we go to and come home from work in the dark for a long time here.
tip number #3365
Keep an eye/ear out for when the snow plow comes by....and shovel immediately after it tries to wall in your driveway. The snow is all all loose and broken up right after they go by...infinitely easier to shovel than if you let it all freeze together...
or get a 4x4 and dont ever shovel..just move your vehicle a few tumes and pack it all down.
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In Alaska, we have these to alleviate that problem.
th-cam.com/video/gWpkSfAVG9I/w-d-xo.html
Clearing out a "pocket" a few feet wide ahead of your driveway catches as much of the plow snow before it block's your driveway as possible.
From a 23 year old who has spent his entire life with bitter cold winters, these are great tips that are rarely shared. I distinctly remember figuring out that gloves go on before your jacket after a number of terrible, hand numbing snow days. One I would add to the list though, is that nothing quite makes a tough winter day better than a homemade, hot meal (Chili is still my favorite snow day dinner, start it in the morning, its ready by dinner)
Bonus tip from a native Minnesotan: Those pointy things on the ends of sidewalks where the sidewalk dips down to meet the street that look like they're there for traction ARE NOT THERE FOR TRACTION and are easier to slip on if you think walking on those will make you safe.
Tactile paving! They're to help visually impaired people know where the curb cuts are, but they always seem to be slippery! I live in Seattle where the sidewalks are often slick with rain and I avoid stepping on those at all cost.
Yes! Avoid manhole covers, those textured things, etc. they are slicker than the sidewalk
Also, you may be safer waking in the snow if you can't tell if an area is clear or covered in black ice. A sidewalk or parking lot that has refrozen is _way_ more dangerous than one that wasn't shoveled in the first place.
If lighting conditions are bad, walk on the white.
As a New England naive and current New Yorker, this was like listening to an alien talk about winter. Your hot tip about putting gloves on first before your coat sounded like "Hot Tip! Chewing food first makes it easier to swallow!" It's so interesting what you grow up not knowing if you're in a different climate or type of place. Like, the city kids I work with now fully understand the subway and how to properly cross streets. That might sound easy but it really is not.
As someone who lives in Alaska, my gloves are to big and poofy to fit through my sleeves but they open and extend up the arm a little so my gloves cover part of my coat sleeve.
new york ain't even cold tho
@@swirlyful I mean. It's colder than Florida! And it's regularly in the teens in the winter. And the wind is insane, so the wind chill makes it feel awful.
Another tip: Appreciate the wildlife you can see in the winter. There may be less animals and birds because of hibernation or migration, but the ones that stick around you can observe better in winter because there’s less foliage blocking your view. And cardinals are SO pretty against a backdrop of snow or ice! 😍
If you don't know how to drive in the snow when you get here, don't feel bad. Lots of people have lived here their entires lives and still don't know. Also, clean the snow off of the _roof_ of your car as well. If you don't, best case scenario the other drivers are blinded by the trail of powder behind you. Worst case scenario, ice chunks go flying and crack someone's windshield.
Fakjbf, this! Snow is not going to come off the car until you’re really going, and by that point you’re probably on the road where someone can be behind you.
Also I double check I didn’t misalign my rear view mirrors when I scrape them ^_^
This is especially important! Some states (pa for me) have even passed laws that you have to clean it off and you are responsible if the snow blinds another driver and causes an accident. Cops will also pull you over if your windows or lights are obstructed and that fine is not pretty.
Agreed to brush off roof. If I don't, I start driving and the snow just falls onto my rear window and then I can't see out the back of my car.
So much truth here! I moved from Seattle to Montana and had to learn:
1) The pipes freezing thing - freaked me out that I could have come back to a disaster if my landlord hadn't sent out a note!
2) You have to shovel your sidewalk ASAP. Snow will not melt 'eventually'... it will turn into thick ice and stay there till March :(
3) You can't take shortcuts across the grass anymore if there's 4 feet of snow on top of it. This one was just plain disorienting.
4) Snow will never again be an excuse not to do anything. Just like I grew up doing everything in the rain, here snow and cold are just unavoidable and I will never again have a 'snow day' because every day is a snow day ;)
I knew some things like how to dress because of growing up skiing, but living with snow day-to-day is soooo different.
Snow days do exist..... just extremely rarely. And usually only in cases where there's so much snow none of the streets can de cleared fast enough for cars to go anywhere on them. You get those once every two years or so where I live.
Or the opposite problem. It warms up. And you get ice rain. Which freezes into verglas. Which turns life into a waking black-ice hell. Nowhere is safe. There was a viral video a few years back of a bus sliding down a hill and soft of drifting to a stop, crunching against other cars piled up at the bottom. And a police car drifting down after it, because there was absolutely no traction to be had, no matter what grips you have.
I had to walk to school that day and gave up on my self image and went down a hill sliding down on my butt because there were so many people falling and hurting themselves. I had good hiking boots with great treads and they weren't much help, when usually they're great.
So those are sort of excuses to stop.... but most people just brush it off and try to get stuff done anyways.
2) is a whole mood. We had a giant snowstorm and there were like 30-60 cm of snow everywhere, and it kept on falling from our roof to between our deck, so we gave up on shovelling it, and we ended up with like a foot of ice til may.
#2 IS SO IMPORTANT. You might have to plan in an extra 20-30 minutes just for moving from your door to car, and prepping your car for driving. Shoveling my path in waist deep snow every morning was a level of frustration I never expected.
Yohannai snow days don’t exist where hank is at! I grew up in the area and never had a snow day in all my years of schooling
Welcome to montana. A year late but yeah. Shoveling is real deal. If the states not on fire its covered in snow.
As someone who moved from southern Texas to northern Minnesota this year and has now made it through my first two months of winter successfully to actually begin enjoying the snow and cold, this video was invaluable
If your hands are super cold once you get back inside, do NOT stick them straight into hot water! Put them under cool/lukewarm water and *gradually* increase the water temperature! I didn't know how painful it is to stick deeply chilled hands straight into hot water, and my bones hurt so much from it that I actually cried. Lesson learned.
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One of the most painful experiences of my life was trying to warm up nearly frostbitten hands. I knew to start with cool water, but if felt like they were being burned off.
If your hands get significantly cold, even cool/lukewarm water will feel uncomfortably (even painfully) hot when you first touch it until your hands warm up.
If you put them straight into hot water it will be incredibly painful.
@@jaynestrange Oh noooo! I'm so sorry to hear that-- anywhere north (speaking here from Toronto, Ontario, which is a very southern part of Canada), frostbite is seriously no joke. Hope you made it out okay!
@@dynamicworlds1 Yes, I should have explained all of that too. I just stuck my hands straight into hot water when I first moved back to Canada after 6 years in Florida, and I could have screamed. D:
HANK! the coincidence that you made this video now is wild, I moved from Orlando to Boston TWO WEEKS AGO. On first day at a new job on monday I wore my nice work shoes and little did I know that they were 100% florida shoes, literally FLAT on the bottom. My manager nicely took me to tour about 5 different buildings which meant walking on the ice outside all day. Luckily I did not fall but I learned a lesson that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Molly don’t lick the flag pole
Welcome to New England. We're having a pretty mild winter this year. Stay away from wind tunnels, though. Copley Square was insane yesterday.
@@JosephLSelby oh no. I just moved to Connecticut from LA area. This is a mild winter? I'm in for a treat.
Welcome to Massachusetts, Molly, and welcome to western New England, eleventhclara!
The cold snap we just had I wouldn't consider mild... it's normal to have periods of time that cold each year. But it's totally *not* normal--though it is increasingly *common*--to then immediately warm up to 40-50 degrees like it did. Most of the rest of this winter has been quite mild, yes, saving those kinda weirdly early snows in like November.
Mild yet unpredictable winters like this are becoming a more frequent occurrence... though I'd say baseline normal in MA did not used to have very many above-freezing days between December and February. Hard to say what normal is these days, though.
There's a related piece of traction advice: you might not need those traction add-on thingies, but you should at least get shoes with grippy soles. Not all soles have the same traction, and it's not just a texture thing: some are made out of materials that have better rubberiness. There's a research lab in Toronto that scientifically tests shoe & boot treads, it's call ratemytreads.
The bit about not getting cold to begin with is key.
One winter I was outside in devastatingly cold conditions without proper gloves for an extended period of time. The pain in my hands was so intense I was nearly in tears.
What I wasn’t ready for though was the ABSOLUTE HELLISH PAIN of my hands warming back up. The nerves in my hands felt like they were literally burning. It’s like the pain when your body part “wakes up” after not having enough blood flow
for those of you who live in sensible countries and don't know farenheit:
20F= -7C
30F= -1C
60F= 16C
-20F= -29C
0F= -18C
in the teens= between -11C and -7C
Edit: Wow thanks for the likes everyone!
I'm from Wisconsin so I have lots of experience with the cold and would add that wearing panty hose under pants can also help with the cold
That's helpful Thanks .d.d.d
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I'm surprised Hank didn't add sensible country notes. Thank you for helping!
Hank: 30° F is not cold
Me: *checks your conversion chart*
Also me (a really sensitive-to-the-cold person from the tropics): WTF HANK THAT'S *FREEZING*
@@Maiichu14 I can confirm. 30° F is a blessing at this time of year. You can't find it cold when you've gone through -20° F.
Another few tips from someone who has spent their whole life in a state that snows:
Pee BEFORE you put your layers on. Don't feel like you got to pee? Try anyway. You're welcome.
Table salt isn't the best salt for de-icing your sidewalk or whatever.
Start your car BEFORE you need to leave. Like 5 minutes before. Seriously. It'll give it time to heat up. (Remote start is your best friend here).
You will be static-y in the winter. It's just how it goes. Give up on not getting shocked.
Double your socks up. Seriously. Two socks per foot. So nice. Best thing ever.
Go slow when it's cold out. Snow isn't anywhere new as dangerous as black ice. Seriously be careful. 5mph isn't too slow if need be.
Certain types of salt can burn through your animal's skin. Be aware of that when buying salt.
A warm drink after playing outside in the snow is one of the best memories to make with those you love.
+1 on double socking. It really works. If you are wearing long-johns then put the cuff of the legging between the socks.
and then remember to take ALL layers off before you pee the next time
I'm presently resenting the -40 (both F and C) that I experienced this week, but I agree, when the air isn't attempting to kill you, the winter, even in the coldest of places, is lovely. Stay warm friends!
Fun fact: -40 degrees is the only temperature that is the same in both celsius and fahrenheit. Another fun fact is that it was -40 here in Sioux Lookout when I woke up this morning. Whee!
Other advice:
- if you live somewhere cold you need a block heater for your car. plug it in when it goes below -15C (uh, that's 5F). your engine and car battery will thank you.
- starting your car in cold weather (even if you have a block heater) drains the battery more than usual. you need to drive the car for a while to recharge the battery. if like me, you live in a small town, this means actually inventing ways to make the drive to work longer so your alternator has a chance to do its thing (also it's nice to drive for long enough that the engine actually warms up to a normal working temperature. if you don't do that semi-regularly you can get water buildup in the oil which is creepy and also makes your engine sad.)
- get a fleece neck warmer (aka neck gaiter, apparently?). it's a tube made of polar fleece that you pull over your head. it keeps your neck warm. when it's really cold or windy out you can pull it up over your face and be warm from the eyeballs down.
- your hat should have flaps to cover your ears (or just be big enough to pull down over the ears, but really, ear flaps are better)
- wind-proof pants that you can pull on over your regular pants - very helpful! also wear long underwear under your jeans, denim is terrible in the cold.
You forgot to mention the "square tires". When it gets cold enough - well ito the "too cold" range - your first mile/couple of clicks is going to be pretty rough going, and you won't have the control stopping and turning that warmer weather spoils you into thinking will always be there, even if the road is clear. Rolling friction in the body of the tire will fix it eventually, but take it easy at first. (And that's with modern rubber compounds and radial tires. Back in the caveman bias-ply days, some sort of mouth guard to keep your teeth from rattling would have been in order.)
Really?
It's the same ?
Wow..
If you live somewhere where you are not driving far, why not walk, or ride a bicycle? I do that even in the dead of winter and in snowstorms. It's not really that bad if you are dressed for it. That and most drivers stay home when it's bad, so you have the streets mostly to yourself.
Canadian here. All of this is correct. Also, a -40 (or any temperature really) wind chill feels much colder than actual -40 air temperature with no wind.
Bonus fact: Inanimate objects (like cars) do not feel wind chill! If it's -10 with a -20 wind chill your car will never get colder than -10.
Thank you for the fact about inanimate objects and wind chill. It's easy to see why in retrospect, but I don't think I would have figured it out myself.
Wait, yes they do. If inanimate objects didn't experience windchill, then air-cooling for computers wouldn't work.
@@Swenthorian Assuming I understand wind chill, you both have a point.
Wind chill is an attempt to estimate how a human perceives the temperature when the air is moving compared to when it is not.
So, kyle13131's point is that if the real temperature is 0 C and the wind chill feels like -20 C, then it will never cool anything (humans included) below 0 C (I'm going to ignore evaporation effects like sweating and such here). But it will cool warmer things (like humans and active CPUs) faster than still air would.
So, yes, a CPU will cool faster in moving cool air than in still cool air (because of convection) but it will still never cool below the temperature of the air, no matter how cold the wind chill model says it feels like.
So, if you were inside an unheated car in weather with a -20 C wind chill, but a 0 C real temperature, the inside of the car would be 0 C (assuming that the amount of heat you added was insignificant). Similarly, any unheated objects you touched outside would also have equalized to the real temperature, not to the wind chill apparent temperature.
@@Swenthorian In a sense, you're right. Wind chill does cool things off faster, but doesn't make them any cooler than they otherwise would be in the long run (computers are a bit different as they actively generate heat). I've met a lot of people that think a -20 wind chill means everything will be -20, which isn't true.
If it's 0° with a -20° wind-chill, anything warmer than 0° will cool down quicker than it would without wind.... Anything that actively tries to maintain an operating temperature can be said to experience wind-chill, but objects with higher operating temperatures, higher surface areas and lower volumes will require more effort to maintain operating temperature and a lower "felt temperature"
Igloos are hemispherical, maximizing volume while keeping surface area to a minimum
“Which are used for climbing in ice and I assume also MURDER”
Those do look nasty!
I had someone who had never seen snow before staying with me in the winter and you are absolutely right, it felt like babysitting. "No, don't do that, you could /die/." left my lips more times than it ever has actually babysitting honestly. DFTSW!
(Don't Forget to Stay Warm)
When they moved here they didn't know about HEATERS so when it got cold they just wore a lot of sweaters and blankets around the house and I came over and was like, "My dude! It's cold as tits in here what are you doing?!" Then they referred to the heater as "air conditioning" for 6 months and it drove me bonkers every single time because AC to me is "make the house colder" not ever "make the house warm enough to survive in."
My favorite memory was when the news said, "Be warned: expect about 2 feet of snow by morning!" they thought it was a joke and then got snowed in and we had to excavate their door to bring them food because all they had was rice and condiments. Like, because there was already about a foot of snow on the ground from before.
Now I live where there is no snow and everyone is like, "OH NO WE CAN'T LEAVE THE HOUSE IT'S ONLY 55 DEGREES!" and I'm like ???
This made me laugh a lot. XD Most people here in Denver call the quasi-cramp ons by a brand name, Yak Traks, even if they aren't that brand (mine aren't). My advice regarding those is DO NOT WEAR THEM INTO THE STORE WITH LINOLEUM FLOORS. You will slip and pratfall harder than one of the Three Stooges on a banana. Take them off in the entrance where there is carpet. They make ice 100x safer and linoleum 1000x more dangerous. XD
Yeah, they make ice walkable and turn any other smooth surfaces to your new equivalent of ice. Also a nightmare if you're late and attempting to rush anywhere without bothering to do the exchange
as someone living in tropical country: im scared shitless
right!! im subtropical and im like absolutely not the coldest winter gets her is 29F and that was like.... once, and we were not happy
Right? When the part about not turning off your heater while you leave the house , lest your house shall explode came up I was so scared. Like what? People just leave heaters on when they're not at home? Isn't that a fire hazard or something?
i don't think I can handle cold climate
@@theturniptress805 the danger is water in your pipes freezing and bursting. Your house won’t explode but you might come home to a flooded home. & leaving your furnace on isn’t a big deal. They have automatic shut-offs and aren’t on all the time anyways. They blow heated air for a minute or so then turn off for like 15-30mins. Usually (pre-quarantine) we can program our thermostat to be low (maybe 14-16 degrees C) when we’re not home.
@@Kiki-reads so that's how it works.thanks
i've only ever lived in tropical countries for the past 18 years. i'm moving to a Quite Cold place for college. i am scared.
If it is slippy outside try shuffling like a penguin. They know what they are doing.
Also there are these isolated window protector things that you can put on the front window of your car , saves you some scraping . Also clear all the windows, the side mirrors and your roof from snow. Do not pour hot water on your window and have some anti ice spray in your house (not the car!) in case the locks or doors freeze shut
Rubbing alcohol is useful in a pinch. Idk if it's a good idea but it's worked for me before
> If it is slippy outside try shuffling like a penguin. They know what they are doing.
[Queue extended montage of penguins slipping and falling]
Wd40 also messes up ice but then everything's all wd40yy
@@onytay75 Yeah I don't think I want to intentionally oil up my windshield. Might be okay for iced up door locks though. Alcohol based deicers are a better option as they evaporate cleanly and are generally safe for rubbers, plastics and paints.
@@Smidge204 no seriously. www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/04/penguin-walk-german-doctors-advice-slipping-icy-paths
Slightly obscure tip but high school students: if your school is like mine and for some godforsaken reason seemingly keeps the AC on in Minnesota January, make some friends who are in orchestra so you can hang out in the orchestra room. They have to keep the orchestra rooms super warm to keep the wooden instruments from cracking, and I swear it’s like 20 degrees warmer in our orchestra room than anywhere else in the school, so spending an open block in that room is glorious.
I never knew why the orchestra room was always so warm, but I definitely enjoyed standing around in there on colder days!
Remembered and used some of these tips during the texas snowpocalypse of 2021 so good things to keep in mind with changing climate even when you definitely don't live in a place that typically gets cold, never know when you'll need it.
As a Californian spending their first winter in Minnesota, my life depends on this video.
Fellow West Coaster now living in Minnesota. I feel your pain.
Welcome! And I am sorry for the temperatures you are about to experience. 🥶
oh god I am so sorry for what you will experience next week. (lifetime minnesotan here).
that distinction between merely chilly and life-threatening cold is no joke! this coming week looks serious..
hold on tight buddy it'll be over before you know it. (they said hopefully, knowing it to be a very big mistruth)
Bold move assuming my car is worth $15,000
The Hudhornet my car is well over 20 years old and my air conditioner is damaged beyond repair. During the last insurance appraisal for it, my car was worth a whopping $1,200 😂
A tip for ice walking (aside from you'll get used to it): try to land further forward on your foot than normal. Think of it how you walk barefoot on a hardwood floor - you're not landing on your heel because that is uncomfortable. Once you get this down you can more or less ignore that "walk like a penguin" thing everyone goes on about.
Bonus fact: Wear your COVID mask! Even if there's no one around, if you have one of the reusable ones it keeps your face nice and warm.
Also: There's a difference in humid cold air and dry cold air. If it's +5C and humid, that can feel a lot colder than -5C and dry. The cold humidity just seeps into your skin and it's awful.
YES. Living on Vancouver Island BC and trying to explain this to my Northern family members is stupidly difficult. 😂
@@kcowan97 I also live on Vancouver Island! One of my friends recently moved to Edmonton and she said she would take -20°C in Alberta over 0°C in BC any day. It just hits different here!
This Floridian now living in New England needed these good good tips several years ago.
I come back to this video all the time. Something about it makes me really happy.
I grew up in the desert in Arizona, where it is hot and dry and knowing how to sweat is a kind of skill. Then I moved to the secret, high altitude mountains of Arizona that no one knows about that gets covered in snow, and the wind blows through with a fierceness. There was something important and lovely about learning how to exist in that cold place this video reminds of that lovely perspective shift and growing up.
So I voted for the video about business and the Fyre festival on twitter, but I am now SO HAPPY you made this one instead. As someone born and raised in Maine, it was hysterical how much is just common sense to me that I never imagined anyone needed to be taught. Thanks! :D
and as someone born and raised in California, not common sense at all.
Hello fellow Mainer!
Fellow Mainer here too! :)
Yay Mainers!
Things that people who live in Phoenix think is common sense that would blow some people away:
1) You need a lot of water to hike a mountain. Every weekend sees helicopters rescuing hikers from the mountains in the city because they didn’t realize what a dry 75 is like. And sometimes they don’t realize what a dry 105 is like.
2) Rain is a major event. If it’s raining, assume there will be a flood between you and your destination. The ground will not absorb the water.
3) Don’t drink tap water. It’s a bad idea.
4) Cars are ovens. We’ve all burned ourselves on the seatbelts when it’s hot, and we’ve also all learned not to touch _anything_ inside a car in July. Leather is a no-go, but toast or eggs on the hood are fine.
5) Heat makes planes do weird things. If it’s too hot, the planes will be flying faster and descending faster. It’s inevitable.
Lmao "I'm from Florida pretend I'm a baby"
Florida Man strikes again...is the headllne for every day of the year there...
This reminded me of when my half Spanish half Swedish friend came to live in Sweden. They grew up in Spain had only been to Sweden during summer. One winter day when we were out walking they suddenly exclaimed "Wait, wait! My NOSE HAIR is FROZEN!? It feels so weird!" and the rest of us were just like "Yeah, that happens."
i totally understand your friend's perspective lol!! it feels like you have boogers in your nose but it's just the hairs 😅
Solid advice! I'm going to throw out a few more things...
RE: tiny ice scrapers - although they are often useless, they can be much easier to handle than the longer ones if you need to scrape your side mirrors.
Also, if you want to make your life a whole lot easier, start your car ~10m before you need to leave and blast the heat on defrost. You end up not doing much or any scraping! And on that note, make sure your windshield wipers are clear of ice before using them.
RE: driving
Driving in snow is not a huge issue. Go slow, be aware of your surroundings, test your brakes before you're out on a main road so you know the reaction time, and **give people plenty of room**. Driving when there is ice is a whole different situation. Always remember: even if you have 4WD or AWD that ice is freaking ice and once your tires start slipping you can do your best to mitigate the danger, but you won't have much control.
RE: scarves/hats
If you're going to be walking around when it is cold and windy, I highly suggest getting a balaclava. You can get the bank robber style if you want, but I find the kind that covers your head but has a piece you can pull up over your nose/mouth to be a little less creepy on the day-to-day. They come in all kinds of materials and patterns now, too.
Cheers!
From a Canadian, this is excellent advice. Except for when it's sunny. Here, the sunnier it is, the colder it is. Don't let it deceive you. Also freezing rain storms (yes that's a thing) can be very dangerous and inconvenient, but nothing is prettier than the sun shining through the icy tree branches. (Also Hank please convert farenheit to celsius in captions or something)
It gets sunnier as it gets colder because cold air can't hold any moisture, and so clouds are unable to form which would block the sun.
Oof freezing rain sucks. We just got a bunch of snow and then it rained a LOT so now most snow is gone.
@@fakjbf3129 And then there aren't any clouds to trap heat, so more heat is radiated out into space, making it even colder. As someone who can't see the sun for at least six weeks of the year, even if the sky is clear, I know from experience that clear skies bring with them a biting frost.
I’m New England it’s true in the winter to spring months. It may be March. It may be look nice and sunny. But it’s effing freezing.
I'm in New England and our recent storm we ended up with a lot of ice. It was soooooo cold put but the sun shining through the ice on the trees was beautiful. My friend is originally from Equador she kept calling me Elsa when I said it looked beautiful but didn't feel beautiful.
TH-cam is really looking out for me. I just moved and I really needed this video.
A tip for using ice scrapers: Ever notice how it has those triangular ribs/spikes on the back of the scraper edge? Those are for cutting grooves into thick, hard ice. Put the spikes against the ice and press with the palm of your (gloved) hand, and give it some elbow grease. It will chop through a hard ice shell pretty easily! Once you've cut X patterns in the ice the straight scraper edge can be used to clear it off completely.
If your ice scraper does NOT have those spikes on the back, buy one that does!
I'm Canadian, and still about to watch tips on surviving the cold. It was -39C the other day
Same.
That's not human.
At the same time I'm here in the southern hemisphere with envy, yesterday was 39C
Being from a snow belt in Upstate New York (Southern Canada) I want to say I can relate but jesus thats brutal. My condolences
@@bluester7177 Have you ever experienced -39ºC? It might be worse than you think, though +39 is pretty bad, too!
Additional comment everyo ne is getting at with the long johns: Outer layers protect you from the wind and outside temp. Skin tight layers retain your body heat!! So put on the thermal long johns and thermal turtleneck on underneath your normal pants & shirt that you want to wear, and then have your jackets that are temp & wind resistant on top. I'm always shocked by how much a thin layer does for me - I get to walk around in a trench coat well into the teens because a true puff jacket would be way too warm.
I refuse to wear doughnuts!
Gotta love the Midwest saying: "it would be that cold if it weren't for the wind"
And the flip side for the other part of the year, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity that gets you"
I usually say them both together. "It's not the heat, it's the humidity. And it's not the cold, it's the gosh darn wind chill"
Regarding layers: You are doing a disservice by dismissing it as saying "put on more clothes".
The fact is, a thin set of long underwear will do more for your overall warmth than upgrading your jacket from a good one to a great one. It holds the warmth closer to your body, and stops air from circulating right against your skin and pulling heat from your body.
Man, as a Texan who just went through a record breaking winter week, I wish I'd remembered this video, or any of the practical winter experiences from my childhood in Minnesota 😭
Awesome to see all the Canadians & Québecois coming out of the woodwork and happily sharing our deep seated, down to the marrow, ancient wisdom of winter and crystal clear coldlore! With a little dash of reasonable healthcare to spicen things up, of course... "Even if it's just a walk in the park" - ing lot!
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*"Pretend I'm a baby!"* xD
Me: Ok Hank I'll pretend you're a baby.
this could be a great meme
could be applied to most people that moved from florida
It was great watching Hank explain things that I've always thought were obvious. #ColdWeatherUpbringingPrivilege
Raina Ramsay, yeah him thinking January is the end of winter, I literally called him a sweet, summer child ^_^
As someone who grew up in Oregon and moved for a time to Alaska, I heartily endorse and *love* everything in this video. "Cold" is when you can feel your breath freeze in your nostrils. So strange. Now that I'm back in the PNW, I apply some of the things I learned while living in Alaska to my life here and, you know what? It makes life here even better. (I still have two of those long-handled scrapers in my car.) Thanks, Hank!
Hahah... Coming from someone living at 61 degrees north, this is so sweet :)
I can clear up one misconception many people have about cold climate. Norway is not very cold, even though it is pretty far north. Yes, some places like the far far north of the country can be pretty bad. But actually several places in America are far colder than most of Norway, even though you are much farther south.
Thanks for sending the gulf stream to keep us nice and warm in winter. 👍😊
When your're currently in the middle of an Australian heatwave and you can't relate to any of this because you've never seen snow in your life...
Glitch Same! I’m here sweating in the 40 degree heat, thinking about how our winter days are usually around 17 degrees or so which is nothing compared to what hank is talking about
@@clairemckinley691 Agreed. As a resident of Adelaide, the hottest city on earth (or whatever the news reported) it would be an honour to be laughed at by a Montanan as we sit by the netball court in winter exclaiming that it's bloody cold at 10C (50F)
Tahnee Measday As a lifelong Michigan resident 50 is super warm! LOL
Here's another tip: in addition to drying out your boots between uses, hang up your snow gear somewhere it won't drip onto other clothes. That salt they cover the roads with? Gets all over your boots and coat and can stain or even ruin your lovely suede/leather/expensive snow gear as it dries.
Also, a heavy down coat is your best friend.
I went from living in Wisconsin, where I learned the difference between 20 and 0 to living in Nevada where I learned the difference between 100 and 120 and I gotta say that somehow they were both better than living in Washington, where it was always 60 degrees but NEVER SUN
How about living in Michigan where you can learn both? I've only seen one day above 110 here but that was enough.
As a Washingtonian, I am both triggered and also giving you a slow clap 👏
Oregonian here, SO TRUE
@@maniestacio9245 Also as a Washingtonian, you two must have been on the other side of the Cascades.
Yep, I left Western Washington for sunnier Eastern Washington and then left Eastern WA for Wisconsin.
I'm laughing so hard about the gloves and scarf, this seems like such common sense to me but I never realized that in some places in America it just doesn't get cold 😂
Yes! I'm German and I was like: everyone knows how to put on a scarf and gloves??
I hate scarves but they do seem like a very good idea. I with I could tolerate them
I currently live in Florida and here scarves are only for fashion. I never wore one till I visited Maine
I'm in sacramento and can confirm that as of today, January 25, I wore shorts and a t-shirt yesterday and today. It's 61 degrees. It HAS rained several times this year already, and that's what we consider winter lmao.
I’m from Georgia (the state in the US, not the country) and I didn’t know most of this 😂
This is probably one of my favorite Hank videos. I just love watching him love stuff.
Here I am, back to watch this again just cuz I really do love this video so much
I have one more tip: get excited about the cold. Find a way to frame it as a positive, and you'll be much happier. The cold is inevitable, so you might as well enjoy it.
Complaining about the cold (especially when it is supposed to be cold) is such a dull, uninteresting conversation, and talking with someone who hates the cold can really bring down your mood, and when you're working with less sunlight, it's important to keep your mood up. Make the decision to not engage in those conversations, or to find a way like Hank just did to turn those conversations around. If someone starts complaining about the cold, I always say, "Yes, but doesn't it make you feel tough? Don't you love that you can take it?"
The decision to get excited about the cold has made a really big difference in how I feel about winter.
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We have a wood burning fireplace that we use to supplement our heating system and every time I go outside to get wood I'm like "I have to brave the cold to provide warmth for my family" to psych myself up. xD
I actively try to counter bad-weather-blues small talk with how much I love the ("bad") weather. Rainy? I love rain! Snowy? So pretty! Windy and cold? Nevermind...
I always think, yeah I don't love the cold, but I do love soup and cold weather is the best soup weather. So there are definite positives.