Any time our body is forced to make an effort to keep warm or cool, it distracts our minds from other thoughts. Fortunately, shelter shields us from the extremes of weather, and air temperature control enables us to forget our body's temperature needs and focus on other things. The curves of the earth are a natural shelter from the wind. Early humans took advantage of this by locating their homes in protected areas such as caves or beneath cliff overhangs.
Insulation is another tried and true method of keeping out wintry blasts of icy wind.
People all over the world have used natural materials for insulation include thatch, brushwood, straw, sod, and soil. Inuit houses of the far north utilize ice itself as insulation and construction material for igloos. Positioning a building by excavating into a hillside or streamlining the profile of a house to divert winds are time-tested methods of reducing wind exposure. Clustering buildings, a feature of Medieval feudal compounds as well as contemporary farms, is another technique. Planting rows of windbreaker trees also protects dwellings from blizzards and winds that sweep across plains.