Artic conditions in Europe.

[Asiel]

Not as much snow as we usually have for this time of year, but we still have about 3 ft of it. The cold is about on par, -25 this morning, warming up fast, it's already -17. We're expecting a very mild week starting tomorrow night, I hope they're right. We might even see some melting. So far we haven't had much in the way of storms, we ususally get that middle of Feb and March.

[Barbara]

We don't have that much snow. It is rather in the north of Germany. But we had lots of ice as very humid snow met a cold ground. So we had planned to have dinner with friends tonight and had to cancel it as driving would have been to dangerous

[king2005]

I'm not from Toronto, Ontario, Canada but according to everyone else, it's "freezing" out & there is a lot of snow. To me this is late/early fall/winter weather.

The weather shifting just makes me think of what happened to the Dinosaurs. But instead of a giant meteor, it's us.

For people not use to snow or freezing weather, I wish you all the best!

To be honest, 4 days isn't enough food storage. Try to store enough for simple meals for 2 weeks. Simple canned goods might not be a fantastic meal, but I've gone through isolation with an ice storm that kept most people with no hydro for 3 weeks & too many with non for 2 months (too much ice & trees to cut through to get to them). Since then I have a cupboard full of canned goods that I keep there just encase. Everyone who went through it is mentally traumatize for life as nearly everyone I know that went through it back in 1998 still keeps a cupboard full of canned goods. You want canned goods you can eat right from the can, as you might not be able to produce enough heat to cook a meal.

Things like canned beans, peas, mixed veggies are great for veggies intake. Canned brown beans is great out of a can too. Chef-Boyardie (sp?) is great for meat intake.. it's poor quality food, but it's great food out of a can & lasts a VERY long time & is cheap to buy in large amounts. The no-name is even cheaper & I find no-name tastes better anyways.

Water is important too, stock up! If you have a way to create a lot of heat and are isolated & run out of water you can safely "hard boil" snow & "should" be ok.

Since your not use to cold weather your pipes might not be deep enough in the ground & could freeze (no water)... keep the kitchen sink running (more like dripping)... this will "help" in preventing the pipes from freezing on you. Wasteful can be. We collected the water in a large pot & used it for cooking. We did our best not to waste it.

Also stock up on candles & matches. It's amazing on how much heat candles can create in a small room, or in your hands. A candle can also heat canned goods, just make sure to OPEN the can before heating as it can blow up when closed. Not to forget they create light. Just be smart on which candles you buy & which candle holds, as you want to create heat/light safely

Hope this helps someone with no experience in cold weather