This article explores how to stay safe during extreme cold in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as temperatures plunge to the coldest levels of the season. Drawing on current National Weather Service guidance and decades of field experience in environmental health, we translate the “4 P’s” of winter safety—people, pets, pipes, and plants—into practical, science-based steps, and add a critical fifth: preparedness.
Understanding how cold affects the body and the environment can dramatically reduce your risk of frostbite, hypothermia, and costly damage to your home and vehicle.
Understanding Extreme Cold: Why It’s So Dangerous
When Arctic air settles into the region, temperatures and wind chills can drop rapidly, creating conditions where exposed skin and inadequate clothing become serious hazards rather than minor discomforts.
In these situations, the physics of heat loss are working against you every minute you’re outside.
The National Weather Service notes that strong winds accelerate the loss of body heat through convection, making it feel much colder than the air temperature alone.
This is why a calm 10°F day is far less dangerous than 10°F with a stiff wind producing a subzero wind chill.
Hypothermia: When the Body Can’t Keep Up
Hypothermia occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can generate it, causing core temperature to fall below about 95°F (35°C).
Even mild hypothermia impairs judgment and coordination, which can make it harder to seek shelter or dress appropriately.
Early signs include intense shivering, fatigue, confusion, and slurred speech.
In severe cases, shivering may stop—a dangerous sign that the body is failing to compensate. Hypothermia can develop in minutes in very cold, windy conditions, especially if clothing is wet.
Frostbite: Damage to Exposed Skin
Frostbite is the freezing of skin and underlying tissues, most often affecting extremities such as fingers, toes, ears, and the nose.
Wind chill strongly accelerates its onset by stripping away the thin layer of warm air at the skin’s surface.
Early frostbite may cause numbness, tingling, or pale, waxy-looking skin.
Because numbness reduces pain sensation, people often underestimate the damage. Protecting exposed skin with adequate layers is essential to preventing permanent injury.
The 4 P’s of Cold-Weather Safety
The National Weather Service highlights a simple framework—People, pets, pipes, and plants—to organize your winter safety strategy.
Each “P” represents a group or system vulnerable to cold weather, and each demands specific precautions.
People: Protecting Yourself and Vulnerable Neighbors
Humans are warm-blooded, but our thermoregulation has limits. In subzero wind chills, those limits are quickly tested, especially in older adults and individuals with chronic health conditions.
To safeguard people:
Pets: Fur Is Not Enough
Pets are subject to the same physics of heat loss as humans, and fur alone is often insufficient in severe cold, especially for smaller breeds, short-haired animals, and older pets.
Key steps for pet safety include:
Pipes: Preventing Freezing and Bursting
Water expands as it freezes, and that expansion can rupture household plumbing, leading to costly flooding once temperatures rise.
Pipes in unheated or poorly insulated areas are particularly at risk.
To protect pipes:
Plants: Shielding Sensitive Vegetation
Landscape and potted plants can be severely damaged by sudden deep freezes, especially if they are not native to cold climates.
Plant cells can rupture when internal water freezes.
Protect plants by:
Adding a Fifth P: Preparedness
Beyond the original 4 P’s, preparedness is increasingly recognized as a critical fifth element of winter safety.
Extreme cold can disrupt transportation, power, and communication with little warning.
Winter Vehicle Kits and Fuel Readiness
Your vehicle can become a lifeline if you are stranded in a snowstorm or extreme cold.
Treat it as a mobile shelter and stock it accordingly throughout the winter months.
Every winter vehicle kit should include:
Additionally, keeping your gas tank at least half full reduces the risk of fuel line freeze-up.
This also ensures you have enough fuel to run the engine intermittently for heat if you become stranded.
Here is the source article for this story: Preparedness: The 5 P’s of cold weather safety