How clothes can save your life

Warm clothes can save you from deep snow, freezing cold

Life-saving clothes? Seems a little dramatic, doesn’t it?

Usually I think about clothes for their form, not their function. How can they make me look? How can they make me feel? Who do they make me?

But as I write this from my home in the DC area, we are under an actual National Weather Service blizzard warning. It’s our fourth snowstorm in less than 2 weeks.

Two of them were pretty dustings. The third, dubbed “Snowmageddon” or “Snowpocalypse” buried us but was mostly inconvenient.

But this one is actually a little bit scary. The wind is howling and snow is blowing. Travel is not inconvenient; it’s impossible.

My husband and I ventured out into it this morning to clear some snow off our roof, fearful of possible collapse. We had to put on layers of long underwear, snow pants, turtlenecks, gloves, down jackets, hats and even goggles.

It made me realize that in this case, the difference between windburn or frostbite was our clothes. They needed to be functional. It didn’t matter what they looked like.

If we lose power in this storm, it could be hours or days if it’s restored. Power crews can’t go out in this. Again, what we wear may become vitally important. Standing between us and freezing temperatures will be our clothes.

If you’re also in the mid-Atlantic, I hope you’re safe and warm.

Tell me: