It’s getting cooler in Doha, but not alarmingly so. Not like it is in other parts of the globe. In Vikhorevka, Siberia, for example, the maximum temperature at the moment is approximately minus 15C (5F). If that sounds cold, then perhaps I shouldn’t tell you that the night time temperature is a bitter minus 22C (-8F). You might think that they should be used to the cold and shouldn’t be too disturbed by the usual frigid conditions, except unfortunately the heating station has just packed in.
The locals are huddled in their homes, wrapped up in as many layers as they can wear, and understandably have taken to plugging in their own individual radiators and heaters. This doesn’t come without its own risks, however, because the surge in demand could overload the fragile electricity system. According to the locals, this is something that has happened many times in the past.
The city’s heating system also operates the hot water, so the lack of heat also means that many of the 20,000 residents are trying to cope without heating or hot water. Unfortunately, the problem probably doesn’t have a quick fix. Work started on the boilers in the summer, but as the technicians started to repair one problem, they found many more and these have proved more complicated to address.
By the time we are talking about temperatures of minus 15C, the cold has reached silly extremes. However, this bone-chattering weather is definitely not the lowest temperature ever reached on Earth. That award goes to Antarctica, which dropped to a staggering minus 94.7C (-135.8F) in 2010. Fortunately for scientists this temperature wasn’t measured directly, so no-one risked frostbite, instead it was measured by a satellite. That does mean that it won’t be found in the Guinness Book of Records, but it does show just how cold it can get on Earth.  
These ridiculous temperatures got me thinking about the extremes of weather which a human can endure. At the other end of the spectrum, the hotter end, if the weather is a humid 60C (140F), humans will probably last only about ten minutes. The lower end, however, is a little more subjective and it also depends on how slowly the environmental conditions change. If someone is suddenly transported into a freezing environment, they will fare less well than someone who has gradually seen the conditions change over a matter of days and weeks.
Studies have shown that it takes six weeks to fully acclimatise to a new type of environment, the first two weeks being the most important. That’s not to say that you will ever be as good as the locals at enduring the weather, but after about six weeks, you reach your own peak. There are always going to be some people who can tolerate hotter weather better, and others who can withstand colder conditions more easily, that’s thanks to your ancestry and cannot be altered just by exposure alone.
A person can usually survive until their body temperature drops to 21C (70F), but how it takes for this to happen depends on many things, not only on the temperature. It is also determined by the humidity and the wind, and varies dramatically from person to person. Long before a person’s body temperature drops this low there will be clear signs that someone is suffering from exposure. A person will obviously feel cold, and in order to protect their vital organs, their bodies will start to restrict their blood flow to their extremities. One of the organs which is most sensitive to cold weather is the brain and as the temperature drops the electrical activity in the brain slows, meaning a person will often start to feel confused and disorientated.
Peculiarly, just before a person succumbs to the cold, they often try to take all of their clothes off. This seems to be completely absurd given the situation, but it is thought to be caused by a sudden rush of blood to the vital organs. As a person’s body becomes weaker, the muscles become exhausted, allowing the blood to suddenly flow back to the extremities. This makes a person feel incredibly hot.
Whilst a person of sane mind may rationally conclude that, considering the situation, they cannot really be hot, a person who is suffering this much from the cold will already be in a confused state thanks to hypothermia. Therefore they sometimes try to remove their clothes, even if they are surrounded by snow.
In one study of hypothermia by the Institute of Legal Medicine in Berlin, Germany, it was found that all the people who had started to take their clothes off had then tried to find a safe place to curl up. Generally the people chose somewhere more accessible, like under a bed or on a shelf.
As the temperature continues to drop in Qatar, we, too, may feel like hibernating. However, it’s reassuring to know that the winter temperatures here are rarely ever life-threatening. Temperatures of minus 22C are something we only have to imagine, if we choose to.



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