Southern friends, since a lot of you are having extreme cold and power outages: here are some tips for how to stay as comfortable as possible if you have no/inadequate heat or power:
*designate one room (bedroom usually) as the warm room
* keep the door to it closed

* take old clothes/blankets/etc, preferably wool or cotton of dark colors, and layer between the window glass and the screens or the inside of the windows and some cardboard. Glass is where you lose the most room heat.
* Wear a hat and socks, even to sleep

* Yes, even if you think you aren't cold, cover your head, it's where you lose the most body heat. Improvised scarf of wool or layered cotton > baseball cap or hoodie hood, but anything is better than nothing
* Pile as many blankets as you can on the bed

* Get in the bed and stay there. Let your pets on the bed even if they aren't usually allowed: they're cold too, but also, they produce A LOT of body heat
* Stay dry as much as you can; even if you still have hot water, skip the shower, it's a net personal heat loss

* Even if you don't still have hot water, leave the tap that's furthest from the water main running at a steady stream; it will help avoid the pipes freezing (you do not want the pipes to freeze, it will be much more expensive than the added water bill)

* Do not use your oven, your stovetop, or any form of combustion device for heating the space, period. It's safER if you have a carbon monoxide detector, but that's still "horribly unsafe".

* If you managed to score an electric space heater, the general advice is to turn it off when you go to sleep unless it's got anti-tip and automatic shutoff features, but honestly, the risk there is low enough I personally never worry

You're still gonna be miserable, but if you stick to one room and try to minimize the heat loss in it, it will be LESS miserable. Oh, and if you can, push your bed into the center of the room -- the further it is from the uninsulated walls, the better.

Also, eat a little more than you usually do: staying warm is more metabolic work in extreme cold weather! And drink more hot beverages like coffee/tea/hot chocolate: the heat gain is minimal but it does exist, and it helps psychologically (and keeps your hands warmer).

But the biggest things that will help is wearing as many layers as possible of natural fiber fabric (synthetic is okay in a pinch but natural is better), staying dry, covering your head and feet, and doing what you can to spot-insulate one room.

Oh! And advice for space heaters: I think Lasko brand are the ones we've been happiest with, but if you can't find one of those, make sure you look for one with a ceramic plate, with an overheat switch and anti-tip protection.

Put it at least 6 feet from any water and 3 feet from any furniture or fabric, only operate it on the floor or on a flat tabletop/counter, and plug it directly into the wall, not a surge protector or power strip.

I see this thread is reaching far enough that the Reply Guys are starting to show up to argue with my advice and folks: this is not arctic outdoor survival advice, this is advice to help Susie in Texas whose bedroom just hit 45*F and who doesn't even OWN gloves be less miserable.

If you're here to argue with me about fiber choices or layering advice, stop and ask yourself "is it maybe possible she knows what I'm about to say and is adapting her advice for the closet of someone in Arkansas whose whole wardrobe is based around cooling, not heat retention?"

Because I assure you, I already know what you're about to say and my advice was adapted for the closet of someone in Arkansas whose whole wardrobe is based around cooling, not heat retention.

The people I'm aiming my advice here at are stuck with what they've got on hand. Any "actually" that requires a time machine and the acquisition of an extensive winter wardrobe is not only useless, it actively encourages people to go out driving in unsafe conditions to buy stuff.

This is not general cold weather outdoor survival advice. This is "my house is insulated by newspaper stuffed in the walls and my power just went out, how do I make things less miserable with what I have on hand" advice.

Right, that's this thread muted because of tedious fuckery, stay warm folks

*deep sigh* As apparently some people have the reading comprehension skills of a paramecium and the tenacity to keep sending meatpuppets to hassle me elsewhere to avoid the blocks/mutes, please allow me to clarify in very small words so I can just point the next 12 of you at it: https://twitter.com/rahaeli/status/1361375164785647624

Here is what this tweet means to everyone who is not spoiling for a fight about why you're the mostest smartest antarctic survival expert who is going to summit Everest any minute now.

If your windows look like this, take the screen off without opening the window and stuff blankets or towels there before putting the screen back on.

If your windows look like this, tape a bunch of blankets against the inside glass (and the outside of the frame if it's not well caulked) and then put cardboard over the blankets.

Your local community college has a number of fine professionals who can help with that reading comprehension problem, but never having seen the most commonly used window style in much of the south before is all on you, friends.

I swear to God I need to just start automatically deleting threads as soon as they get more than 500 likes or 100 RTs

Also, before you start yelling at me about some of this not being helpful advice without power, please review the first tweet where I very clearly said I was ALSO providing suggestions for people with power but with inadequate heating/insulation