INDIANAPOLIS — Weather models and radar are predicting another round of snow and extreme cold this coming weekend.
While snow grabs a lot of attention, the cold temperatures will bring another set of potential impacts to your weekend.
Because of the cold, you'll want to get out early to shovel.
"I think your best bet is Saturday night," said Tyler Blume.
Blume started "Shovel For Seniors." He shovels driveways and sidewalks for seniors in the Butler-Tarkington neighborhood.
"Shovel with the snow. Shovel while it's still kind of puffy, and it hasn't really iced up," Blume continued.
"Stay hydrated," Blume said. "Just because it's cold doesn't mean that you don't need water."
Blume went on to remind others to take breaks while shoveling if needed.
"If you're an older person, see if you can't get a younger person to come shovel your driveway for you," Blume said. "I know pride gets in the way sometimes, but that's probably best."
The snow that falls Saturday may look tempting for kids to play in, but too much time spent in these temperatures could quickly cause frostbite or hypothermia.
"Young children, purely by body mass and total amount of insulation, have a lot higher of a risk," explained Dr. Ethan Blocher-Smith, a primary care physician at IU Health in Fishers. "The elderly have a lot less of a shock tolerance."
Taking breaks from the cold is important, but make sure your body is really ready to handle more cold.
"If they've gotten too cold, don't go back outside again for a while," Dr. Blocher-Smith continued. "We need not just to get you feeling warm, but actually back to your baseline heat generation."
A lot of protecting yourself from the cold includes what you are wearing.
"If your outfit is getting very wet, and it's very cold out, change," Dr. Blocher-Smith said. "It seems silly, but really, that air barrier between the layers that you're wearing does a lot more than people think at blocking that cold really getting in."
Dr. Blocher-Smith doesn't want to stop kids from getting out to play in the snow, but he said to do this in "measured doses."
"It's very easy for people to not recognize until they're actually symptomatic that they are getting much colder than they think they are," Dr. Blocher-Smith said. "Some major features around hypothermia: paradoxically, people start feeling excessively hot."
Dr. Blocher-Smith recommended making sure these body parts are covered in the cold, as they are particularly susceptible: fingers, nose and tips of the ears.
If you do think you have frostbite, using lukewarm water is your best remedy.
"It's better to have mildly warm temperature water to rewarm than hot water, because your ability to tell the difference between hot and too hot is so impaired that you can't do it safely," Dr. Blocher-Smith concluded.
It isn't just your body that is susceptible to the extreme cold: the pipes in your home could also freeze.
"We can get 100 people calling in in a day, telling us that the pipes are frozen," said Kevin Kubacki, General Manager of Hope Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling.
There's no real way to predict if, or when, your pipes could freeze, but temperatures dropping below 20 degrees is a good threshold.
"It depends on the home. It depends on your insulation. Do you have a drafty house? Do you have some areas where the cold wind is getting in, or the cold air is getting in?" Kubacki listed questions to consider.
What can you do to protect your home's pipes this cold weekend?
"Get the drips in the faucets, open up the cabinets, get a good hot air flow in the house," Kubacki continued.
Keeping water flowing, even just a small drip, lowers the risk of frozen pipes. Do this for both the hot and cold taps.
"The most important faucets are the ones that are near outside walls, so those are the ones that are kind of the non-negotiables," Kubacki said. "It won't hurt to do the inner faucets as well."
If you haven't already, Kubacki recommends disconnecting any outdoor garden hoses and shutting off the water flow to the outside taps.
What happens if your pipes do freeze, despite these preventative measures?
"it's important to remember to open the faucets, so that the water will have someplace to go when it does thaw out, and then we recommend shutting off your whole home," Kubacki shared, "So that you're not adding water in there as well, to lessen the likelihood that it'll actually burst."
It may be too late to do this for this weekend, Kubacki also recommended getting insulated pipes or putting heat tape on your pipes for future freezes.
Many events across Central Indiana have been canceled this weekend because of the extreme cold.
Temperatures are expected to climb above freezing again through next week's forecast.
