How to spend a week in Spain as if it were Moscow and have an (almost) normal life

The rides and snowmen were fun on Saturday morning, when the snow was still virgin. It didn't take long for them to lose appeal. When the ice blocks began to fall from the ledges and the laden branches of the trees began to crumble, the danger of the meteorological phenomenon became clear. Now, from the unusual picture that the storm Filomena painted this weekend in Spain, only ice remains and an urgent need to exercise caution ; With the storm off the radar, a wave of Siberian cold arrives that will affect a good part of the peninsula this week and promises to break records for minimum temperatures, with a plateau that will emulate the winter of the Russian steppes. The frosts will be severe the first nights of the week, and "the snow that could not be cleared last night will remain at least until Wednesday or Thursday -in the form of ice-, and until the beginning of next week where the accumulation exceeds 15 centimeters”, calculates Luz Cepeda, Meteoplay meteorologist. If you are going to clear the sidewalk, think carefully about where you make the pile; If you don't want your life to come to a complete standstill, pay attention to the advice of those who know how cold it is.

Cepeda mainly mentions two risks that must be taken into account: “The danger of the central hours of the day, which from 12:00 to 18:00, there will be landslides —the sun will heat the ice accumulated on roofs, windowsills, trees, signs, air conditioning units... and it may fall onto the street—. At night, the danger is in the frosts”, which carry the risk of frostbite, traffic accidents and falls that, to a lesser extent, will remain for the rest of the day. In towns where it has snowed over the weekend, Cepeda recommends not going out from 8:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m., and until 10:00 a.m. the following day, as well as taking the utmost precaution until 12:00 a.m. if you have to walk on surfaces in which salt has not been added. Slips will be the order of the day.

Much of the danger is due to the fact that most of the Spanish authorities and citizens do not know how to act in situations like the one experienced last weekend, the heaviest snowfall in 50 years. We are not accustomed. However, for Carmen Estevan, who has worked at the European Agency for Chemical Substances and Mixtures since 2014, in Helsinki, the situation is usual. "Two years ago there was a snowfall that reached the middle of my thigh and even so I managed to lead a normal life," he recalls. Of course, normal life in southern Finland has nothing to do with Spanish. On the one hand, because the country is prepared so that the snow does not collapse its activity: the first thing that attracts the attention of the tourist who lands in Helsinki is the sensation of always stepping on sand that, in Actually, it is salt, and that the central streets of the city are heated to prevent them from freezing. On the other, because there is a culture of protection against the cold that Estevan has learned over the last seven years, and that we should now embrace if we want to lead a life worthy of being called normal next week.

You'll need three layers of clothing and a phone charger

Let's start with the clothes. Everything there is to know about how to dress in extreme cold is included in the three-layer strategy. Estevan explains that she wears an inner layer "close to the body, warmer, a thermal shirt, although it can also be made of wool -he points out merino as a good choice-", an intermediate layer "looser, which you can leave on when you're indoors ”, and a third, exterior, which can be a feather, which is hot but, above all, which cuts the wind (good news: with the anticyclone that affects the peninsula this week there will be no wind).

No more is needed. “I think more than three layers would be too much, especially since when you go into places you roast,” she says. And you sweat, which is also a good reason to avoid cotton, a fabric that is not suitable for coping with the cold. The problem is that it absorbs moisture and doesn't dry easily, so opting for it can leave you spending the day soaked, with all that that entails. Estevan, a fan of running even if it's cold, adds that this fabric is totally incompatible with sport, although she warns that, despite the fact that she can do it in the Finnish city down to more or less -10ºC (the locals don't miss a even with -15ºC), to run you need winter shoes equipped with studs...

To provide them with the best possible warmth, the hands are also layered. In this case, two are enough: gloves covered with mitts create a kind of indoor microclimate that is most pleasant. In addition, the strategy helps to have a dry surface to manipulate objects such as the mobile phone. This operation only requires removing the mitten, but the gloves must have a fabric specifically developed to interact with touch screens. And, even if you have this type of clothing, you should consider restricting the use of the device in moments of intense cold: Estevan warns that it is best to keep them in the inside pockets because a freezing environment causes the battery to discharge quickly (half an hour removing the cover). accumulated snow on the car, with the mobile in an outside pocket, it can be paid with 30% battery when you don't take it out for a moment). “In Helsinki it is common to carry a charger and some people even have extra batteries,” he says.

But if there is one piece of clothing that should be carefully thought about, it is footwear, the most important item of clothing in the opinion of the Spanish woman. Obviously, the ideal is that it be waterproof and that its sole is not smooth. In Helsinki, according to the Spanish, they wear hiking boots a lot and there are people who put studs on the soles of their shoes. In the Canadian city of Montreal, to give another example, crampons are sold in pharmacies to overcome the ice sheets that form with melted snow, according to what journalist Irene Serrano has told EL PAÍS.

In Spain, access to this type of clothing requires going to a sports store (only mountaineering fans are familiar with this spiked piece of metal that is attached to the sole of the boot), but there is a custom that we can copy from the Finns, even if only this week: "At first it seemed strange to me, but it's good because it prevents you from having to carry spare shoes, which, apart from being uncomfortable, can cause falls." Estevan is referring to the custom of leaving your shoes and some socks (also merino wool, if possible) at work or other places you have to go frequently, and wearing hiking boots or similar footwear for commuting. This strategy helps to always wear the right footwear and saves falls, especially if you internalize that the routes on slippery surfaces, in which the Spanish recommends taking very short steps, last about twice as long as usual with icy conditions like the ones we are experiencing. are waiting.

Cold is normal, padding and lack of sensitivity are not

There are things that do not attract attention until you see them with a new perspective. For Estevan, a clear example is wearing a hat leaving the ears exposed. It may be that those who have not left Spain (with the exception of some mountainous regions) see it as something tolerable, but in Helsinki it is an invitation to freeze, a risk that should not be ignored. Above all, it will be possible the first nights of this week (the risk is low with 1ºC or 2ºC, but from -4ºC it is considerable, and the minimum is expected to reach -10ºC this week…).

Covering your ears is essential because it's a part of the body that freezes easily, but it's not the only one. The body regions that are especially sensitive to cold are known as acral zones, and are the nose, ears, chin, cheeks, hands and feet, as published on Instagram this weekend by the dermatologist Ana Molina. “Today I have seen very ‘cute’ people but some of them are very little prepared for the cold. With the one that comes our way, we have to wrap up well to avoid damaging the skin ”, he warned.

The dermatologist has also shared the signs that allow us to distinguish a frostbite situation and the way to deal with it: “At first we will feel very cold, with tingling or padding, then the temperature will drop. sensitivity of that area and it will turn white or bluish, as if it were 'rubber'. When this happens, it is important not to start rubbing the affected area against clothing or other materials, nor bring it directly to a source of intense heat, since since we do not feel that skin, we can damage it even more without realizing it. To recover the temperature, the ideal is immersion in warm water, not hot, between 38º and 40º. And if we can't do it, keep her warm with dry clothes and go home as soon as possible. If, despite this, the skin does not improve or blisters and other serious signs appear, you should consult a health professional, after all, frostbite is a cold burn and it is important to treat it.

That you stay home? Well, you also have homework

Taking into account the context in which we received the cold wave, you may be thinking that none of this is for you because you have food, encouragement and permission from your company to telework from home all week... You're wrong, there are also things you can put into practice. Start by not staying locked up for seven days without opening the windows. Aside from the feeling of constantly stepping on sand and the heated walkways of the central streets, one of the things that strikes you about Helsinki on first visit is that its inhabitants understandably seem to rarely open their windows to clean them. The reality is that they are not opened for almost nothing, since, as Estevan explains, they have a grill in the frame that allows air to enter from the outside little by little but continuously. In this way, the homes, perfectly sealed, have clean and renewed air without giving up vital heating.

It is a ventilation technique (so important while the coronavirus pandemic lasts) that, according to Mercedes Jiménez, an architect from the JYM Arquitectos studio, is already being contemplated in the Spanish Technical Building Code for newly built homes. As, obviously, these buildings are a minority, Jiménez does not rule out replacing this week the classic Spanish system of opening the windows wide for a few minutes with another in which they only open a little, but for a longer time. The architect also emphasizes removing all snow or ice that may remain on roofs, terraces and other surfaces to prevent homes from cooling down and damp from appearing. Not to mention the danger of collapse that involves maintaining snow thicknesses above those that a large part of the structures in cities like Madrid are prepared to support.

“Uncovering radiators from sofas, curtains and other elements is a good idea, as it allows air to circulate around the radiator, which improves the room temperature”, he adds. "It is also important to clean the solar panels so that they do not get damaged." Keep in mind that they will work perfectly, since, once Filomena has disappeared, what she is playing now is an anticyclone with a lot of cold, but also with sun. And with hot water, the cold is better. "A sauna on a cold day gives a thousand turns to a shower, you stay relaxed and you come out feeling like new," says Estevan, but you can't have everything...