how people in extremely cold places can survive? For example, Oymyakon in Siberia regularly gets below – 55°c / – 67°f, and I’m sure we’ve all seen those videos of people throwing boiling water into the air where it freezes instantly. How does blood not freeze? How are mucous membranes and eyeballs not frozen within seconds? How does anybody pee without it instantly freezing?
Obviously people live in heated housing, but how can people go outside/ pee outside without injury? I’ve wondered about this for years, and even more so when I see pictures of animals seemingly frozen in place mid-movement.
Thank you
In: 5357
Most folks here covered it pretty well but I’ll add a little more info about the extreme, extreme cold. I spent 13 months at the South Pole where my job required me to walk out to a telescope and back (1km each way) 3 times per week. In my experience there’s a lot of truth to the ‘you get used to it’ comments. By the end of summer, -20F or -30F didn’t seem bad and I’d wear trail running shoes and minimal layers, light gloves and no face protection or goggles. Around the mid -40s it started to feel a little challenging, and I found in the mid-50s F that my eyelashes would freeze closed and going without face protection started to be fairly uncomfortable. I wore winter hiking boots through the -40s to -60s. At those temperatures it’s risky to let any exposed skin touch metal or other heat-conducting surfaces outside. I accidentally leaned into a piece of metal with my forearm when I was trying to unscrew some bolts on the roof of the building and ended up with a little frost nip just from a second or two of contact. Colder than about -60F it felt legit dangerous to be outside to me. Those temps require goggles and face covering, especially if there’s any wind. Somewhere in the -40F to -60F range snot freezes in your nose, which feels weird, but your nose isn’t damaged. Getting down into the -70F and lower range required a lot of cold weather gear: two hats, two balaclavas, goggles, several layers under a heavy, hooded coat, two pairs of gloves, several layers of pants and two pairs of socks in the very warm, heavy boots we got issued when we deploy. If there’s any wind you need to pay careful attention to make sure you don’t have any exposed skin or gaps in your gear. I got frost nip several times from air getting into a gap between my goggles and balaclava. Colder than the mid -80s F becomes a real challenge – all of the cold weather gear, and a determination to get where you’re going without delay. I could feel the cold seeping further and further in towards my body as I got towards the end of the walk. I’m not sure I could have done a 2k walk without serious risk of hypothermia and/or frostnip to my face and hands.
The coldest ambient temperature telescope walk I did was -93F and the coldest with wind chill was in the -140s. Both were significant psychological challenges. I was not the bravest nor hardiest soul on station though – some of the other guys and gals on station over winter were outside a lot more than me. The coldest temperature I experienced was -104 F ambient. I did a quick photo shoot on the back deck of the station wearing just indoor clothes. My eyes didn’t freeze but they didn’t feel right either, my hands and feet hurt right away (not from frost nip, just aching from the cold), and after a minute it started to feel like I was getting an ice cream / slushie headache but on the outside of my brain instead of in the middle. I spent about two minutes total outside, with quick warm up trips back inside after about 30 seconds of exposure and, while I wasn’t injured, it did take a few hours for my hands and feet to stop hurting and feel warm again.
But as others have said, the right gear makes it manageable and you do get used to it, at least down to about -70F, in my experience. I never felt used to anything colder than that.
I lived in an area that was -40C/F to -60F/-51C (with the latter numbers being extremes) every year with the -40 on multiple occasions per year. I had to go outside about four times/day to work for about an hour during these temps and one thing I noticed it was always sunny and calm. Had it been windy, it was have been unbearable.
I talked to a meteorologist and he said in our area, the extreme colds were associated with high pressure systems and as such, were not overcast or windy.
So, I’ll agree with everything the other people say and throw that high pressure tidbit in. Coldest we ever got was the -60F/-51C and that was during an extreme cold spell where it never got above -20F/-30C for two weeks. I kid you not, my mom said, “It’s time to go out and work. It’s -44, that’s warmer than yesterday!”
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Lots of people are going over the practical aspects of how they make it work for them, but I thought I’d come at this from another angle…
You may have heard that humans are warm-blooded. What that really means is, our bodies have a specific temperature they like to be, *and they have ways of maintaining that temperature!* That last part is key.
“Cold-blooded” animals don’t necessarily have colder body temperature than we do. What that term really means is they have no ways of *regulating* temperature, their bodies get warmer or colder with the surrounding environment.
But mammals like us have tons of things we do to keep warm. Our bodies just naturally produce more heat than cold-blooded animals, and more importantly, we naturally increase those heat-producing processes when we start to get too cold.
So, from a scientific perspective, you survive in a cold environment by making sure you don’t lose heat faster than you can make it. That’s what coats and hats and winter clothes are doing, slowing down heat loss so that we can replace it fast enough. Exposed skin cools faster, but our blood pumps heat throughout the body and that can keep it warm.
In theory, a well-fed person can survive almost any temperature indefinitely, provided they have enough insulation.
Live outside Ottawa which I believe had a record nations capital cold day some years ago. As many have said you get used to it but interestingly a lot of people even prefer it over the summer. No bugs, the temperature is tolerable (versus 35+ and humidity), days are shorter (less pressure to work/farm). I personally prefer winter but I do enjoy summer. I tend to spend more time outside in winter versus summer.
I need someone to come up with a proper explanation for this because everyone’s replies are bullshit.
I work in a blast freezer at -58°C/-70°F and can assure you there is nothing short of heated equipment and tons of layers that work.
I have the -100°C baffin boots, feet freeze without heated socks in less than 2 hours.
Gloves, nothing works short of heated gloves/mittens. And they have to be on max.
Head/face, baklava, neck warmer and a tuke.
I work outside year round in northern Alberta Canada. I much prefer the cold of winter to the heat of summer as you can always dress for the cold.
For the first weeks of winter I dress pretty cold so as to get my body used to the cold. An example is wearing a t shirt in minus temperatures.
The only thing I can’t really dress well for is high winds, I’m a laborer so I need good mobility.
Only times I took cold damage was the first couple of years when I would go inside when it was cold and dressed with everything I had in the closet so like 5 layers.
Now I use 3 layers at most. Really tight first layer and loose second layer to create a warm air pocket. Wearing a cowl is a great way to prevent cold air getting into your jacket or warm air getting out.
I wear the best gloves I can buy, even minor frostbite where your fingers go dark is incredibly painful. Putting dark fingers under warm water is worse than smashing them with a hammer for pain, only ever do that once.
Cold is uncomfortable at first and then kinda painful, later you stop feeling it and that’s when I’ve taken damage to my toes or fingers.
My job has exposure limits based on temperature and windchill so even if I’m feeling fine I still get sent inside at regular intervals.
Wool is the greatest thing I’ve found.
I live somewhere that gets sometimes gets weeks of – 40 to – 50 Celsius.
I also work a job that no matter the temperature I have to work outside. Sometimes for 15 min sometimes for a couple hours.
To deal with that type of cold you wear layers. In that type of weather I normally have 3-4 layers on my arms and legs. I have big thick insulated boots and I wear heavy socks. I am always wearing 2 layers of gloves and most likely have a heating pack jammed in them.
The face is the worst but you learn to cover your head and face properly. Surprisingly one of the worst parts is the condensation from your mouth and nose freezing on the mustache or eyelashes. Eye lashes getting frozen together or chunks of ice hanging offa the mustache.
I honestly would rather have -50 weather than +30 weather. I can keep adding layers and take warmup breaks in the cold. In +30 weather I can only hide from the heat in air-conditioned rooms and I hate AC because of how it drys out my sinuses. And I’m only legally allowed to take off so many layers of clothing before the cops get called on me.
Inuk from Iqaluit, Nunavut.
I walk to work all-year long, though it only takes about half an hour to get to my office.
With appropriate winter attire – 60 is doable. Beyond this though, your body does acclimatize to the cold.
Having said that, what we call most southerners (ie most of the Canadians that have replied), dont tend to go outside in – 60.
Funny story, one of my ancestors was a guide for some expiditions that would come here and he’d have to ‘guide’ the people for them to be able to pee.
Modern science is just now starting to catch up with Inuit traditional knowledge, by that I mean you don’t need to wear polar bear hide clothing / caribou clothing to survive up here but it helps.
Just… Don’t pee outside when it’s under 40below?
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