What to do if there is snow, ice or extreme cold

Official updatesLU-Alert · RTL, 100.7 · 112

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Stay at home if you can during a red warning. In extreme cold, avoid going out in the evening, at night and early in the morning.
Dress in several layers with a windproof, waterproof layer on top, and cover your head and hands. Change out of wet clothes straight away.
Leave the car at home if you can and take public transport. If you must drive, check the roads on the CITA traffic site, slow right down, and tell someone your route.
Keep one room warm. Close shutters and curtains at night and stop draughts, but still air each room for a few minutes a day. Never heat with a barbecue, camping stove or generator indoors.
Stop the pipes freezing: keep some heat in rooms with water pipes, wrap pipes that run along outside walls, and let a tap drip now and then during a hard frost.
Have hot drinks and regular meals, and skip alcohol. Walk slowly on icy ground and wear shoes with a good grip.
Call or visit neighbours who are older, ill or alone. Call Status: Verified if someone has become very cold and is not warming up: a body temperature below Status: Verified is an emergency.

Snow: an orange warning means Status: Verified of snow, or up to Status: Verified of freezing rain, within Status: Verified. A red warning means more than Status: Verified of snow, or more freezing rain than that. Freezing rain turns every surface to ice.
Cold: an orange warning means temperatures of Status: Verified. A red warning means below Status: Verified. The levels are explained on Alerts and sirens.

Have the chimney swept and the heating serviced every autumn, and fit a carbon monoxide alarm on every level where people sleep.
Know where the main water valve is, and wrap pipes in the garage, the cellar and along outside walls.
Keep a shovel, grit or salt and ice grips for your shoes by the door. Clear and salt the pavement without blocking the drains.
Plan how you would keep warm if the heating stops. No heating has the steps.

Carry snow chains, a small shovel, an ice scraper and brush, a blanket, gloves, warm boots, food and a hot drink, and a charged phone.
Fill the tank before a cold spell and never let it drop below Status: Verified. Park off the road so the snowploughs can pass.

Blankets or sleeping bags and warm clothes for everyone, Status: Verified torch per person, a battery or wind-up radio, and medicines for at least Status: Verified.
Water: Status: Verified per person per day, for Status: Verified. See the emergency kit checklist.

Clear snow a little at a time and take breaks. If you have a heart condition, leave the shovelling to someone else.
Watch for black ice after a thaw, when water freezes again overnight.
If a pipe has frozen or burst, turn off the water at the main valve and call a plumber.
If the power went out, follow Power is out. Restock blankets, food, batteries and grit.

Dress them in layers with a hat and gloves, and check that they are dry and warm after playing in the snow.

Do the shopping and move appointments before the warning starts. Ask a neighbour to clear your path, and keep your phone charged so people can reach you.

If you have to leave for days with the heating off, switch off the main breaker and the water, drain the pipes from the top of the house down, open the taps, flush the toilets, and empty the water heater and the washing-machine hoses.