Watching the Dolphins/Chiefs game and some of those players had bare arms… how do they not get frostbite or lose feeling in limbs?
ETA: 0°F
In: Biology
They have heaters and wear jackets on the sideline. They’re only exposed while they’re on the field.
Also they’re athletes physically exerting themselves. If you’re working hard super cold temperatures don’t feel so cold.
IFRC, they said yesterday that with the heat from the sidelines systems it was closer to 40’f on the field. Still colder than I want to spend shirt-sleeve time in.
I was watching the pregame, and they said with all the heaters and whatnot, it was around 40° on the sideline.
Yeah it seems insane, but more reasonable when you recognize they aren’t showing skin for all 3 hours of the game. On the field, their hearts are pumping warm blood at a crazy speed. They aren’t on the field for more than 20ish minutes at a time. Also, the field is heated with pipes under the surface, so that also slightly helps being on the field. Off the field they have heated benches, heat lamps, and insanely efficient coats that only billion dollar companies could provide for their employees.
With all that being said, I couldn’t imagine the pain they experience when tackling/being tackled/catching a pass lol
You learn all kinds of tricks like vasoline on expressed skin. Also the amount of adrenaline constantly pumping when these guys are on the field is insane. Even when they’re on the sidelines but the heaters and coats help in addition to the attendant lol.
Your body makes a lot of heat on its own. You get frostbite only when the air is so cold your body’s heat is not enough to prevent your limbs from freezing.
I don’t know if you meant 0C or 0F, but 0C/32F is not quite enough to cause frostbite in a hurry. If they were sitting still it’d be hours before they were in danger, but they’d probably be a lot less comfortable. They’re not sitting still: they’re playing a football game and doing a lot of rigorous physical activity. Their body is generating a lot of heat and they probably don’t even feel the cold.
0F would be more concerning, but I see charts indicating with a little wind that could still take up to 3 hours for frostbite risk. I have a feeling that’s for fingers and toes and other extremities, the arms are closer to the torso and “meatier” so they don’t tend to get frostbite so fast. There are also amenities like heaters on the sidelines.
Lots of physical exertion can stave off frostbite at those temperatures. That’s not an option for people in a survival scenario. But I guarantee you if one of these players complained they couldn’t feel their arms it’d take less than a minute to get them inside and surrounded by medical professionals.
So I got frostbite when it was way warmer than 0, as previous comments have said frostbite is a combination of cold, time, wind, and damp. I spent hours cross country skiing with wet gloves and got mild frostbite. A few plays with covered fingers and bare arms but being dried off and heated on the sideline in between will not freeze your blood vessels or kill skin cells resulting in frostbite.
The same way I end up wearing only a t shirt in freezing weather while chopping wood. Physical exertion produces excess heat, so much so that it can counteract ambient temperature while you work.
Think about it this way, if you work your body hard in normal temperature, you sweat your butt off. This is because the exertion raises your temperature, and you sweat to reduce your temperature because you’re overheating. Now, do the same amount of work in a cold environment… you might start out in 3 layers because you were cold when you started. But, you will shed layers as you get hotter.
When you exert yourself to the levels pro athletes perform, your body will heat up to the point that the cold air will actually feel pretty good. I’ve gone for runs in below freezing weather and by the time I’m done, the cold air is very refreshing
Wind is always the deciding factor. Fortunately they were out of the worst of it.
Seriously a -30 day with absolutely no wind is a nice refreshing day. Its rare though. I’ll take -30 with absolutely no wind over 0 and a slight breeze. Air flow over exposed skin is what draws heat away rapidly.
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