WIND-CHILL CHART

For instance if you are standing in your bus shelter at 15 F (~ minus 10 C) you are just fine – but if you were standing outside in a wind of twenty to twenty-five miles per hour (~ 30 to 40 km per hour) it could be life threatening.

As you may have figured by now, our team members dread wind much more than actual cold temperatures. It is much more difficult to protect yourselves against frostbites caused by the wind, since it happens so easily. A really difficult place to protect is the face. That’s why they have those big ruffs on their jackets extending out from the face. This way an air pocket is created right in front of the face which is kept "warm" by the breath! They constantly have to be checking each others faces though – since frost-bite is not a very smart thing to get out there…or for that sake anywhere.

Lets take a closer look at what a frostbite is.

What happens when you start getting kind of cool is that your body goes AHA! RED ALERT. What keeps our body parts warm is blood flow. The body will make whatever adjustments needed in order to keep our vital organs – such as heart, brain, lungs, kidney and liver – warm enough to function effectively. If the body detects a general cooling of the body, especially the head, it will reduce circulation to the extremities of your body such as your hands and feet by constricting blood vessels. In other words - wear a hat! If not, you will have cold hands and feet.

Frostbite is when your tissue is frozen!

As blood flow gets less, cooling turns into freezing. As you know all of our tissue is made of cells, and inside the cell is water. Once this has been frozen and re-thawed the cell is not only dehydrated, it most often "bursts" and breaks.

We talk about 4 degrees of frostbite:

-A frost nip: Only the outer layer of the skin is frozen.

-1^st degree superficial frostbite: layers of tissue below the surface have been damaged. Looks white, molded and sometimes even grayish.

-2^nd degree superficial frostbite: same just deeper.

-3^rd degree deep frostbite: the tissue is frozen from the skin into the muscles and is dead. The frozen area feels hard. After rewarming it often does not blister. Most often it turns black. If the area gets infected amputation can be necessary.

If the frostbite is deep and severe enough, it might cause loss of function and even need to be amputated (removed).

Note most people think they are doing good as long as they don’t feel pain. THAT IS WRONG. Once you feel pain you already have frost bite. What is painful is actually when the blood starts returning to the area. Until then all you feel is numbness. That is what you want to look out for!

The best way to prevent frostbites is:

1) Eat and drink a lot – it is the fuel your body uses to produce heat

2) Wear good gear, like mukluks on your feet.

3) Move around so that you are constantly making the blood flow around in your body.

DON’T EVER:

**Rub the frozen part with snow
**Hit the area to restore circulation
**Expose to an open flame 

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