SNOW

[MaryN]

You old softie, SS. XX

[CharlesHarris]

MB,

My friend Giorgio in Mirabello, Italy (in the Piedmont) has the same problem and intensely dislikes the cold and wet.
I sent him some U.S. Military Surplus ECWCS Gen 4 Level 2 Fleece Base Layer Set from Sportsman's Guide and he seems quite happy with them wearing his boiled wool garments over it.

I have several sets of this and wear them from Halloween until April Fools Day.

[Mortblanc]

In the past two days I have switched to wearing some fleece-lined cargo pants I picked up from Sportsman's Guide, the fuzzy footwear referred too as "monkey socks" when my son was an infant, a thick sweat shirt and a polar fleece cap. This has traditionally been part of my sub-polar gear for hunting in the snow.

Mind you this is now inside wear and the indoor temp is a toasty 20c.

My fingers are still cold as is the tip of my nose.

[Pete Grey]

Thanks to a rise in temperature and some rain the snow has nearly all gone, I expect the next thing we hear will be flood warnings.

[Straight Shooter]

Same here Pete , temp right now 23.5 c indoors MB.

[Pete Grey]

The snow has all gone now, but this morning as I was out walking, 4 layers of clothing, temperature 2 or 3 degrees C. it was damp and I was cold. If I was outside for 48 hours with the best bug out bag I could put together my chances would not be good, a combination of age, fitness and health would drain the life from me. If I need to bug out I must have transport and shelter, thank God for my old camper van, always ready to go with a minimum of 2 weeks supplies on board. I think in a crisis if you can bug in your chances are very much improved, your home is where all your preps are.

[Mortblanc]

I finally caved in and zipped the thermostat up to 25c. Better to pay a bit more for heat cost than to sit here shivering and b!$#hing until April.

The outside temps have not been above freezing in nearly a week.

This is normal condition for us at this time of year, I should not be complaining except that my medicals stuff has changed my perception of cold. Our real winter starts about end of November and runs until April. We will remain below 10c for most of that and generally will remain 0-5c for the entire January and February and part of March. We can expect sleet, snow, freezing rain any time through there and "climate change" is an unknown factor to us. Our climate has not changed in the past 70 years! If the temps are above that it is abnormally warm.

CH is in the same climate zone as me, except he gets some mountain effect weather I do not see. I am in rolling hill country and he is in ridge and valley geography.

The kit I keep in my vehicle at this time of year includes a heavy parka, extra wool socks, felt lined "canoe boots" and a down sleeping bag. There is also a stove, small pots, water supply, tea and soups. That is just the kit for getting stuck in gridlock on the highway, which happens often here during winter. I suppose the extra food for a week, tent tarps and other "necessities" I add might qualify it as a "bug out" system but it is not really intended for that.

And as I have stated may times, my bug in location is what most folks would consider a bug out spot. I already live where they wish they were.

[Born Prepper]

No real horror story from myself, but there was a really bad accident half a mile down the road from me, if the road service had of gritted the road, it would not have happened...

Air ambulance involved, so it was pretty bad.

A car couldn't get stopped at a junction, got t-boned, and was a wreck!

[Mortblanc]

About 20 years back I was living further south than I am now and those folks really wwre not used to having snow on the ground.

We had a real heavy ice storm and everything was encrusted with an inch of ice then covered with about 4" of snow.

I had to get to work and I lived way out in the boonies, but I had 4WD so I was not really concerned. 20 miles to work over ice covered roads. I went slowly and had no problems except as I got within sight of my destination there was a large junction with a stop light. The light was green for me but I had the sudden impulse to stop anyway. As I eased up on the throttle and dropped to a lower gear a large Ford Taurus estate wagon careened through the intersection sideways to its normal inclination and spinning more and more rapidly. It finally slowed on the uphill slope after it passed and slowly eased itself into the ditch leaving only amused drivers in its path rather than a pile of dabris.

As I type right now the temp outside is -12c. The light snow we had Christmas day has sublimated and gone. Only a few patches to show it ever existed, but a few miles north of me in PA they have 90cm on the ground.

They are up on the east side of the Great Lakes with both frozen air and 20% of the worlds fresh water supply to provide moisture.

Likely they wil not see the ground again until spring.

[Straight Shooter]

We had a bit of snow again last night......but amounted to nothing if fact no trace at all by 10 am, different story further and higher up the valley ,fifteen miles away about 4" gusting winds made things worse, as i type the gritter's are out ....going really cold out ,my drive is icing up already , but our stove is kicking out lots of comfort n joy ...chestnuts i think .