Tonight moving into Tuesday is supposed to be pretty f****** bad, you guys. The US hasn’t seen temperatures like this in decades (with windchills some places are looking at being -30°F or -40°F) and a lot of snow is going to be falling on top of everything else. When you add this to high winds conditions are going to be just plain dangerous.
PLEASE STAY SAFE.
This is some seriously heavy s***. There are all kinds of things that you can do to stay warm. Bundle up. This isn’t really a time to skimp out on heating your house. If you are worried about your pipes freezing, allow your faucets to drip a tiny bit at all times. If you have heat tape, plug it in. But most of all. Please don’t drive in these conditions. A lot of places have already put driving bans in place and I can’t stress enough that they are there for a reason.
Stay warm, everyone. Stay safe. Also please spread this around so that people understand just how serious things are going to be. Some places may experience power outages and that is terrifying with these conditions. Tell your friends. Be informed. Pay attention to what your local stations are saying.
Hello americans, as a Canadian I have some tips for dealing with the cold. First is that if your power goes out and you don’t know when it will be back on the best thing to do is immediately go and use the hot water and put some in a thermos for later on. If you have camping gear I suggest you get it out so that you can use the sleeping bags to keep warm. If your house gets cold enough for water to freeze then when you go to bed I suggest actually putting some water in a container in your fridge, fridges are well insulated and even though it will make the water cold compared to normal room temperature the fridge temperature should be high enough to prevent it from freezing. If you have a dog or cat letting it share the bed with you is a very good way to keep both of you warm, if they are under the covers they can help heat it up. Give all hamsters/mice/rodents extra bedding so they can stay warm. Personally I put some toilet paper or kleenex in for my hamster because it’s a good insulator and it doesn’t get tangled in their feet, but only use stuff that isn’t medicated because that might hurt them. Dress in as many layers as you can and use thicker clothing made of fabrics like cotton. Decide which rooms you want to keep warm and close the doors to all other rooms to prevent heat loss from the others, if you can have everyone sleep in the same room do it, that will keep people warmer. If you are already using all the blankets you can also use towels to help keep warm. If the sun is out open your drapes so the sunlight can help heat the room, if the sun isn’t out close them tightly to prevent further heat loss. Don’t let yourself overheat until you sweat though, once the sweat cools it will be very hard to warm yourself back up again, also don’t let yourself get cold because of how hard it is to warm up in these conditions. I think that’s about everything so stay safe and stay indoors.
The previous comment has ways to keep your pets safe when the power’s out but nothing for reptiles, birds, or fish.
For birds you should move them into a smaller cage and cover all but three sides with a blanket or towel until the power comes back on. The smaller the cage the warmer it will be, but make sure that your bird is comfortable! Keep your birds away from heaters and fireplaces that make fumes as it can easily kill them!
For tropical fish I recommend that you immediately get a large clean bucket of water for each tank (you can even use some of the water already in your tank if you don’t have any dechlorination kits) and put it in a metal tray or glass dish over some candles. It will take a while, but the water will warm up and you can readd it back into the aquarium to keep your fish nice and warm.
Small reptiles you can take heat packs and wrap them in a towel or washcloth to keep them warm. The same will work with snakes in a snake bag, but make sure you wrap the heat pack or you could make your snake uncomfortable! You can use the same method with the water for fish to make hot water bottles and give them to your reptiles. During long power outages you might want to not feed your reptiles because they need a higher body temperature to digest their food and if they get cold after eating they could get stressed.
Also, you can heat your home (or reptile room) with candles and clay pots. It works best for smaller rooms, if you have large open rooms I suggest you make a few of these and put the around the room. I do not know if these are good to keep in the same room as birds. Covering windows with blankets or towels at night can also keep your house warmer as well as keeping all doors to rooms you won’t be using shut. If you have a fireplace or wood stove gather as much wood as you can and keep it INSIDE so you don’t have to keep going out and losing all the heat you do have.
If your power goes out and you have food that will spoil like milk or eggs, I suggest you move it to a cooler filled with all your frozen food. Even if you don’t have ice, the frozen food should keep the rest of the food cold.
Stay safe and warm everyone
Siblings-a-Fixin' 