Tips on staying safe during extreme cold
How to avoid frostbite, hypothermia
Cold weather can be deadly and can lead to hypothermia, the most common winter-weather killer.
Warning signs of hypothermia include uncontrollable shivering, memory loss, disorientation, slurred speech and drowsiness.
If you have any of those symptoms, get immediate medical attention.
Survival experts and the American Red Cross offer these safety tips to follow over the next few days to avoid hypothermia:
Limit your time outdoors. When you do go out, wear layers of lightweight clothing to stay warm. Air trapped between several layers stays warmer than a single layer under heavy clothing.
Always wear a hat and gloves and stay dry. Wet clothing results in much faster heat loss from your body.
Something else to watch out for is frostbite. Those symptoms include numbness, flushed gray, white, blue or yellow skin discoloration, numbness or waxy feeling skin.
It’s information that will keep you safer during the very cold weather.