TULSA, Okla. — You’re going to want to stay inside Thursday and Friday, but if you have to be outside, you’ll need to bundle up.
The best way to prevent a cold weather injury like frostbite is to decrease heat loss, and people can do that by layering their clothes appropriately.
The wind chills we’ll experience will speed up heat loss by whisking away the warmth from our skin. That’s why it’s important to dress in layers.
“You have to have a base layer. A hydrophobic base layer. It allows that sweat to evaporate if you are kind of being active," said Doctor Barry Dockery with Utica Park Clinic. "Outside of that, do a fleece layer, maybe a down layer allows that to continue to evaporate out, and then basically a shell that is both waterproof and windproof.”
Most importantly, don’t forget about your hands, feet, and head.
“Layering the hands, having a good glove, but also layered under that. Using a beanie on the head and then layering on the feet as well. We tend to forget about our extremities, hands, and feet,” he said.
For socks, he suggests a thin, moisture-wicking sock with a heavy wool sock over it.
It doesn’t stop there, either. You should also wear the proper shoes that have traction and are waterproof.
“If we’re outside for a real prolonged period of time and then our feet get really cold, and if they get wet as well, we can have something called trench foot," he explains. "That’s whenever we have wet feet, but we are outside for a real long time. It can get really painful.”
Now let's talk about frostnip and frostbite. These are the important things to keep an eye out for.
Frostnip is when your limbs get cold, painful, and red. A step up from that is frostbite. That’s when tissue damage occurs to the skin. If you are experiencing frostbite, you should seek medical attention. In both cases, you should get the person experiencing this inside and slowly warm them.
Lastly, the most dangerous and scary cold weather injury is hypothermia. Dr. Dockery says they don't see much of this in Oklahoma, but it can happen. Hypothermia is when a person's body temperature is under 95 Fahrenheit. A person can experience confusion, fatigue, stuttering, and shivering.
"When you see something like that, immediately get someone inside, change their clothes if they're wet because a lot of times hypothermia comes when people start getting wet and cold," Dr. Dockery said. "Get fluids that are warm as well. Rewarm the extremities and keep someone warm. You can have various degrees of hypothermia. Whenever you start getting past the stage of confusion and people stop shivering, that's a really bad sign."
He says at that point, seek emergency services because it can become fatal.
So the message of this winter storm is to stay safe, prepared, and warm.
Trending Stories:
- Bixby baby arrives home from NICU after birth at 22 weeks
- DOWNLOAD the 2 News Oklahoma app for alerts
- Stillwater airport airfield damaged due to unauthorized aircraft landing
- FOLLOW 2 News Oklahoma on Facebook
- Winter Weather Blog: Slick streets, cold temps cause crashes
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere --
- Download our free app for Apple, Android and Kindle devices.
- Sign up for daily newsletters emailed to you
- Like us on Facebook
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Twitter
