Jan 16, 2024 By Paul Paterra 4 min read

The weather for the next week or so can be summed up pretty succinctly: it’s going to be cold.

And while it might not be quite as bad as the freezing conditions at Arrowhead Stadium during this past weekend’s Kansas City-Miami game, Dr. Sundeep Ekbote said it’s best to limit exposure to the frigid elements.

“If you don’t need to be outside, don’t go outside,” said Ekbote, regional chief medical officer and director of emergency medicine, Penn Highland Health Center, Southwest Region. “If you must be outside, make sure to dress more warmly than you think you need to be dressed.”

According to the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, highs for the next handful of days will barely get out of the 20s and on a couple of occasions won’t even escape the teens. Lows will creep into single digits providing a wind chill on some evenings that will feel like a temperature below zero.

Foks in the area may be greeted with an inch or so of snow Tuesday morning, with another chance of snow on the horizon Thursday night into Friday morning.

“Unfortunately with that snow comes a reinforcement of the cold air,” said meteorologist Lee Hendrix of the NWS. “We’re not going to see above freezing temperatures probably until Tuesday of next week, maybe Wednesday.”

Ekbote said staying in frigid conditions for too long can leave one susceptible to frostbite and hypothermia.

When exposed to cold temperatures for an extended period of time the body loses heat faster than it’s produced. Lengthy exposures eventually use up the body’s stored energy, which leads to lower body temperature.

Ekbote explained that if the body temperature was to drop below 95 degrees that would be mild hypothermia, below 90 degrees is considered moderate and below 82 degrees that would be defined as severe.

“When your temperature drops below 95 you start to not understand what you need to do to get out of your situation,” he said. “When you get below 90 degrees, you may be awake or alert but you may actually stop shivering because you’re out of energy and you may have definite altered mental status, meaning altered levels of consciousness. Below 82 degrees, you will be unconscious and trending toward death.”

Ekbote also offered tips to combat frostbite, which is defined as injury to body tissue caused by exposure to extreme cold. It commonly affects the nose, fingers and toes.

“There’s diminished circulation to your extremities as your body shunts blood flow from your hands and your feet or even your facial features to keep your core, heart and lungs warm,” Ekbote said.

Instead of rubbing the frostbitten areas, Ekbote said it’s more effective to immerse them in water that is heated to about 100 degrees.

“Rubbing the area can actually cause damage to the cell, while they’re rewarming. When you have evidence of frostbite where the fingertips are numb or extraordinarily painful, that’s really the point where you have to not be rubbing them, but warming them in warm water. Obviously, you have to get out of the environment to do that,” he said.

Warming stations do pop up throughout the area to allow people to get out of the cold.

A representative of the North Strabane Volunteer Fire Department said Station 2 is open for those who may need it to get out of the cold.

Connellsville Mayor Greg Lincoln said the city’s senior center is used on occasion as a place for people to get warm. He expected city officials to discuss that further today.

“We don’t open it up every day because we have to staff it with volunteers and it’s hard to get volunteers,” Lincoln said. “It’s really just a place with heat. There’s really no bedding or something for people to sleep on. It’s just tables and chairs, but it serves its purpose. If we have power outages or a request that someone is homeless we’ll get the center open. We’re going to discuss opening it up a couple of days this week. All week is going to be pretty brutal.”

With all of the frigid conditions on the horizon, Hendrix suggested staying homebound and looking at it as a chance to unwind.

“Find a good book, make a good cup of tea and relax,” he said.