Overview
- The German Weather Service forecasts several more icy nights with local lows around −17 °C in the Saxon highlands and persistent subfreezing conditions.
- Medical guidance warns that prolonged exposure can lead to hypothermia, with life‑threatening risk below about 30 °C core temperature and organ failure below roughly 26 °C, and that wind accelerates frostbite on exposed skin.
- Experts flag small children, seniors with dementia, and people with circulatory disorders, diabetes, polyneuropathy, asthma or heart disease as particularly vulnerable, though healthy individuals can be active outdoors with proper precautions.
- Recommended protection includes dressing in layers with a windproof outer shell, wearing a hat and eye protection, choosing warm drinks and soups, avoiding alcohol, using skin‑care barriers, and pacing strenuous tasks such as snow shoveling due to cardiac strain.
- Practical advice highlights that cold saps phone batteries and can damage medicines, so devices should be kept warm and drugs not stored in cars, drivers should carry blankets, a torch, water and snacks, and hand warmers or heated gloves can help in extreme cold.