After a beautiful day of snowshoeing on Red Mountain Pass near Ouray, Colorado, I felt awful. By the time we returned to the car, the underside of my nose was sunburned, my skin was cold and clammy with sweat, and my shoulders were cramped from hunching them against the wind biting through my fleece. To add insult to injury, my husband kept making jokes about my chattering teeth. The good news is that such winter consequences are easily avoided once you understand how cold affects your body. In a house, radiators get hot and warm the air around them.
Insulated walls hold in the heat and prevent the warm air from drifting off into the cold night.
Just remember, if you wear the wrong kind of clothing or expose your skin, you'll lose more heat through radiation as the temperature drops. You've probably heard that up to 70 percent of your body heat can be lost through an uncovered noggin. While this of course depends on lots of variables, including your hairline and the clothing you're wearing, the point is worth stressing. The scalp is well supplied with lots of heat-shedding blood vessels, and it lacks insulating layers of fat to keep that heat inside. Put on a hat when you start to feel chilled.