How to Survive Being Trapped in Your Car During a Snowstorm

Watch the weather. If a storm is approaching and you don’t need to leave, stay put. Make sure you understand the difference between winter storm watches and warnings. A winter storm watch indicates there’s a 50-80% chance that a considerable amount of sleet, snow, ice or a combination of two or more will affect a certain area. A winter storm warning means there’s at least an 80% chance that one or more are on their way to a certain area. A blizzard warning or watch signals that significant amounts of falling snow and strong winds of at least 35 mph (56.3 km/h) that will reduce visibility to less than ¼ of a mile are highly likely or expected in the next 12-72 hours.

• Remember: While you may feel confident driving in blustery weather, plenty of people you’re sharing the road with are less experienced. And, Mother Nature hits even the most seasoned drivers with unexpected surprises.
• If you plan to drive in potentially hazardous conditions, always let a trusted friend or family member know of your plans and route.^{[15] [16] [17]}

Unclog snow from your vehicle's exhaust pipe first if stuck. If you find yourself stuck and try to dislodge your vehicle to leave, you first need to turn off your vehicle and make sure your exhaust pipe isn’t clogged with snow; if it is clogged, your vehicle can quickly fill up with poisonous carbon monoxide. To unclog it, turn off your engine, put on gloves and dig out as much snow as possible. If you don’t have gloves, use a branch or something similar.

Remove snow and ice from and around your vehicle. It you’ve been stuck for awhile and decide to try to get your vehicle out, start removing snow from the roof of your vehicle and work your way down. While you’re doing this, turn on the engine and defrost to start melting any ice on your front and back windshields. Next, take a shovel and remove as much snow as possible around the tires and the sides of your vehicle. Try to also dig a path in the direction you want your vehicle to go. Scrape your windshields last. If you don’t have a traditional scraper, use a credit card or CD case to help remove ice that hasn’t already thawed.

• If you don’t have an ice scraper with a brush to remove the snow from your car, use the branch of an evergreen tree or a newspaper (whatever you can find) to sweep it off.
• If you don’t have a shovel, use what’s available to you, such as a hubcap or a Frisbee in the trunk.^{[18] [19]}

Rock and roll your vehicle. To get your car unstuck, turn your wheels side to side a couple of times to push any remaining snow out of the way. If you have all-wheel or 4-wheel drive, make sure it’s engaged. Shift into forward (or the lowest gear possible on a standard), gently press the gas and ease forward; even a couple of inches is good. Then shift into reverse and gently press the gas to rock backward. Repeat this process until you hopefully get enough traction to pull out and keep going.

• If your tires start spinning, let up on the gas immediately because you’ll only dig yourself in deeper by spinning the tires.
• Have a passenger stand outside the vehicle, hold onto the inside of the driver’s window and help push.
• Never let anyone stand behind the vehicle and push because the car could slide back and cause serious injury.
• If you don’t get anywhere with this, look for traction elsewhere. If you have cat litter, salt or sand, spread some around either your front or back tires, depending upon whether you have a front-wheel or rear-wheel drive vehicle. If it’s an all-wheel or 4-wheel drive vehicle, spread it by all four tires.
• If you don’t have these materials, use your car mats, small rocks or pebbles, pine combs, twigs or small branches as traction.^[20]

Escape early, if you’re able. If a snowstorm is just beginning and you are unable to dislodge your vehicle, try to get help by flagging other drivers and by calling authorities. The situation will likely only get worse. Keep in mind, however, that distances are greatly distorted by blowing snow. What seems near is often much further away. Thus, leaving your vehicle is only advised if help is assured and in clear and certain sight. Otherwise, you have a much higher chance of surviving the storm by using your vehicle as your shelter.

Stay with your vehicle. It may be tempting to try to get out of your situation by walking out, but if you are in an area without a lot of human development this is often a poor decision..

• The one exception: By staying with the car you are in physical danger, such as if it catches on fire or may go into a body of water.
• A car is pretty good shelter and unless there is obviously better options in short distance, such as a house, barn, or store.
• Remember that distances become distorted by falling and blowing snow.
• Additionally, snow covers holes, sharp objects and other hazardous objects, so heading out on foot is a serious risk in the midst of a storm.^{[21] [22]}

Notify authorities with your cellphone. Typically, most people now have a cellphone that they carry with them at all times. Before your cellphone’s battery dies, pinpoint your precise location using your vehicle or phone’s GPS, call 911 and tell them where you are stuck and who is in the vehicle. Make sure to also include other relevant information, such as how much water and food you have, how much gas you have and if someone in the vehicle has a serious medical condition.^[23]

• If you have enough charge left in your phone, make one short phone call to someone you think is not also stuck and who will advocate on your behalf with authorities to ensure you are rescued, if it comes to that. Make sure you tell them your location.
• Use your phone's charge wisely. If you are in your car for days, you may have to turn off your cellphone when you are done to save any remaining battery charge for later emergency use. But turning it off also means you will not get any incoming calls or texts.
• If you turn on your vehicle periodically, you can also charge your phone as it takes relatively little drain on the battery.

Make yourself visible to rescuers. When a major storm hits, sometimes thousands of people can no longer get anywhere in their vehicles. Some choose to abandon their vehicles; others stay. Since emergency personnel will make rescuing people from occupied cars their priority, you need to make it clear that you are still in your vehicle. First put on your tall, waterproof boots over your pants, and put on a hat, scarf, gloves, and heavy coat so you don’t get wet, which you want to avoid at all costs if possible. Getting wet in freezing temperatures will drop your body temperature quickly and put you at risk of hypothermia.

• Tie the red piece of fabric to your vehicle’s antenna as a sign to rescuers. If you don't have an antenna, find a spot high on your vehicle where it can blow in the wind or tie it to the door handle facing the direction from which help is most likely to arrive.
• If you don’t have a red piece of fabric, find something in your vehicle to use. Responders will recognize this as a sign that you’re in need of assistance.
• If stranded in a remote area, stomp out “HELP” or “SOS” very largely in the snow to make yourself visible to those searching by air. If you have access to sticks or tree branches, use them to fill in your letters. You may need to do this again when it stops snowing.
• Honk your horn using Morse code for SOS, but ONLY when your vehicle is running to conserve your battery. Do three short honks, three long honks, three short honks, pause for 10-15 seconds and repeat.
• Raise the hood of your vehicle after the snow has stopped falling to indicate to rescuers that you need help.
• Take turns staying awake to be on the lookout for help!^{[24] [25]}

Clear the exhaust pipe regularly. Even if you’ve already unclogged your exhaust pipe while trying to get your vehicle unstuck, you’ll need to do it more than once if it continues to snow and you are able to periodically run your vehicle’s engine. Carbon monoxide poisoning can make a person sick or cause a person to die through both prolonged and shorter but intense periods of exposure. The early symptoms are nausea, headaches and dizziness.^{[26] [27]}

Use gas sparingly. The length of time you might be trapped in your vehicle depends upon a number of factors, such as the severity of the storm, where you’re located, the capabilities of emergency responders and how many others are stranded. It’s extremely important, therefore, to use your vehicle’s gas as little as possible. If help does not arrive and you are in a remote area, you may need gas to evacuate when the storm passes.

• If you have a relatively full tank of gas, run the engine every hour for 10 minutes. While you’re doing this, crack one window to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
• If you don’t have much gas, only run your engine 1-2 times per day for 10 minutes so your battery doesn’t die and your fuel line doesn’t freeze. Use the sun’s heat to your advantage in this instance and run your engine at night, which will also help warm you.^[28]

Use energy wisely. You’ll have a limited amount of energy and will need to balance your needs with your supply. Your primary source of energy will be your vehicle’s gas, which then provides the energy for your interior lights, headlights, flashers, etc. If prepared, you’ll also have flashlights, matches, candles, batteries and a radio. To conserve, use one, possibly two, energy sources at a time. For example, don’t use a flashlight while a candle is lit to melt snow for water. Make sure you always turn off anything using a battery after you’re done with it.

Pull out the clothes and blankets. To preserve the heat your body produces, you want to layer up as much as possible, trapping in the heat. Ideally, each person will have an extra dry layer of clothes and socks to put under a warm coat, with a hat, scarf and gloves. If not, tuck your socks into your pants and your shirt into your gloves, if you have them. Trap in heat however you can. If you have a knife or another instrument like a screwdriver, sharp pen, or a piece of plastic or metal ripped from your car, cut the cloth from your seats, floorboard or roof and wrap up in it for insulation. Utilize the floor mats however you can, too.

• Crumble up and put road maps, paperwork from your glove compartment, newspaper, paper towels or napkins, etc. under your clothes for insulation.
• Use the wool blankets you stocked up on to warm yourself.
• Ration your hand warmers, but use them strategically. Put them in your gloves and pockets when needed, but also put them in your socks, under your hat by your ears and so forth.^[29]

Block off unused space and insulate windows. Remember, your vehicle is your shelter, or home. Just as you insulate your home to protect you from winter weather and close the doors in your den when you get a roaring fire going, you want to keep the cold out and keep the heat in your vehicle. First, reducing the size of the space inside your vehicle will help with this. If you have an extra blanket and a large SUV, for example, tape the blanket from the roof down behind the backseat to seal off the area behind it. Tape newspaper to the windows to insulate them.

• If you don’t have a blanket to block unused space, use whatever material is at your disposal. You could cut out the seat cushions, for example, and lodge them in strategic locations to reduce the space in your vehicle.
• If you don’t have newspaper to insulate the windows, look around you. Do you have magazines, paper towels or napkins, your child’s textbook? You could also use the floor mats. If you don’t have tape, do you have band-aids, gum, nail glue?

Seek warmth from another person’s body heat. If you’re not alone, the person next to you is far warmer than anything around! He or she may be madly shivering, but 97 or 98 degrees is still dozens of degrees higher than everything around you. And together, particularly in smaller spaces, you can actually increase the amount of heat in that area by huddling together. Create a cocoon around yourselves with your blankets, coats or whatever it is you’ve found to stay warm.

Move your body. Movement increases your circulation, which creates energy that helps keep you warm. In fact, your body puts out 5-10 times more heat when it’s actively exerting itself. In a situation such as this, particularly if you don’t have food to replenish your system, too much exercise is both impractical and unwise. Nonetheless, you still need to keep moving some. When you’re sitting, move your hands and feet in circles, flex your fingers and toes and do arm and leg stretches.^[30]

Ration your food and water supplies. You need to drink about 5 ounces of fluids an hour to avoid dehydration. That’s roughly equivalent to filling a standard coffee mug half full, or about one third of a water bottle. You should also eat a small snack every hour or so to help supply your body with energy to produce heat. Use your watch, rather than your cellphone or a clock in your vehicle that relies on your vehicle’s battery, to keep track of the time. If you don’t have a watch, try to gauge the time by observing the sun as it moves through the sky.

• Avoid caffeine and alcohol. They both, in their own ways, speed up the bad effects cold weather has on your body even if one or the other may seem to help.
• Your goal is to regulate your body’s temperature, fluid levels and blood sugar levels as much as possible and to make your supplies last.

Melt snow to make water. Because you have a limited number of water bottles or do not have fluids at all, you’ll need to melt snow. First, however, never eat snow, no matter how thirsty you are. It can lower your body temperature to dangerous levels. If you’ve prepared in advance, you have a coffee can, waterproof matches and a couple of candles. To melt snow, fill the can loosely about ½ to ¾ full and light either a couple of matches or a candle to hold underneath the can. Don’t pack the snow into the can.

• Make sure to crack a window while you’re doing this because even small candles and matches can produce carbon monoxide.
• If you don’t have these supplies, look around you. What’s metal or plastic that can be emptied or pried apart and used to collect and put snow in, such as a plastic bag from the grocery store or even your glove compartment?
• When you turn your vehicle on, direct the vents toward the snow to melt it. If you’re out of gas, put smaller amounts of snow in your container and set it in the sun or a warmer spot in the car to melt.

Store your water properly. Water bottles can be stored in your cooler. If you don’t have a cooler but do have bottles, wrap them in a blanket or another kind of material for insulation. Extra melted snow can be stored in empty water bottles, or whatever you have on hand. If your water gets too slushy, place it in the sun or near a heating vent when you turn on the engine. You can also store water in an airtight container and bury it about a foot beneath the snow. Even when the air above ground is freezing, the air trapped in the snow provides insulation and will help prevent the water from freezing.

Find food where you can. Remember, you can survive in freezing temperatures without food for up to three weeks as long as you’re adequately hydrated and have proper shelter. It won’t be fun, but you can only survive three hours in freezing temperatures without shelter. Check your vehicle thoroughly for food you might not think you have, such as an old breakfast bar that might have become stuck between the seats or sugar packets you might have in your purse from lunch last week.

• If you find something, don’t devour it no matter how hungry you are. Eat only a small amount at a time and chew it slowly. This will make it feel as if you’ve eaten more.
• If you suspect someone with you has hypothermia and isn’t thinking clearly, take extra precautions if he or she is also hungry. Don’t let them leave the vehicle in search of food.

Determine the road conditions. If you’re still stranded when the storm clears, you’ll need to make a decision about when and how you will leave. Much of this will depend upon your location, how long you’ve been trapped and how well you’re doing physically. If you have a wind-up or transistor radio or enough gas left to listen to the radio, try to determine the road conditions and if certain roads are blocked.

• Talk to others if you’ve been stranded on a highway, for instance. If you still have charge on your cellphone, call a friend or relative to seek assistance and to ask what’s being done to clear the roads and/or find you.^[31]

Decide whether to leave if stranded near others. If you’re in a city or on a highway where others are stranded, you have a high chance of being rescued once the weather settles and emergency personnel are able to maneuver more easily. Nonetheless, if there are a lot of people also stranded, it could take a long time, time you may not have. If you decide to walk in search of safety, go with others if possible. Leave a note in your vehicle stating where you are going and stick to the plan, so rescuers or loved ones will be able to find you if they locate your vehicle first. Wear multiple layers and bring as many supplies as you can without becoming overloaded.

• If you have enough gas left and think you can avoid becoming stuck again, try to dislodge your vehicle.
• If you choose to stay with your vehicle, make sure it’s obvious to rescuers that you are still with your vehicle.