Various injuries can occur during dangerously cold temperatures from frostbite and hypothermia to slipping on ice.

Julie Pearce, a Nurse Practitioner of Emergency Medicine at Essentia Health, says that hypothermia is easy to get this time of year and can occur quickly.

“The most important thing in preventing that is dressing in layers, staying warm, and limiting your exposure outside if you’re able to. If you have cold exposure, the most important thing is to come inside, and get warm again,” explained Pearce. “With the temperatures like they’re going to be, it can be minutes before you quickly develop something like frostbite or a hypothermia injury.”

Frostbite can occur so quickly that you do not notice it right away. For some, fingers and toes will go numb, making it difficult to see an injury occurring until it is too late. Frostbite can often be treated at home by running warm water over your injury, but be on the lookout for blackened tissue and other problems.

“If you’re developing symptoms beyond basic minor frostbite injuries, and you’re starting to have limitation with the range of motion or discoloration, it’d be best to come to be seen by an emergency department or an urgent care,” said Pearce.

Another health problem sometimes faced in the winter is carbon monoxide-related injury.

“It’s important to make sure that your exhaust for your furnace is not covered in snow and
that you’re looking for symptoms that could include headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness that couldn’t be explained by anything else, sometimes that can be connected to a carbon monoxide related injury.”