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If someone stays outside for 48-72 hours, lightly clothed, while the air temperature is from 1C to 7C and wind speed 15-20 mph.
Will he get any serious permanent cold injuries if he doesn't die from hypothermia or someone finds him before he dies?
Because i have heard frostbite ONLY happens below 0C degrees.
So will that person be physically fine without any serious injuries if he doesn't die from hypothermia?
No serious cold-related injuries, but hypothermia can catch up with you before you realize it if you're someone like me who takes a while to feel cold. Why do you ask?
It is impossible to get frostbite when the temperature is above 0C. Frostbite is tissue freezing (or the water in the tissue freezing), which cannot occur if the temperature of the tissue is above 0C. The maximum cooling of the skin possible in exposure conditions is the outdoor temperature, and if it's above freezing, you won't get frostbite. All the wind chill does is make an object cool down faster to the outside temperature. The effect on the human body is what it measures. For example, if the temperature is 0C, and the wind chill is -10C, that means the conditions will have the same effect on the body as a straight-up -10C temperature would. This mainly refers to the rate of cooling, not what you cool down to. So to get frostbite your tissue has to reach subfreezing temperatures, which, barring you putting an ice pack on it, is impossible in above-freezing conditions.
On the other hand, hypothermia is a dangerously low body temperature, and can theoretically occur at any time or at any temperature significantly below human body temperature, although in practice never higher than about 50 or 60 F for air, and 70 or 80 F for water. To get hypothermia, all that is needed is for the cold conditions outside to cool your body temperature down to a dangerous level, which can occur in above-freezing conditions.
Frostbite is (nearly) always accompanied by hypothermia, since if your skin tissue is freezing up it's probably getting chilly in your core as well. However they are not one and the same. Also, to my knowledge hypothermia alone doesn't cause any serious injuries or any injuries whatsoever; only frostbite can really injure a person. All that occurs with hypothermia is a body too cold to work, and so there is a "shutdown", but no injury per se, although one will die if the core gets cold enough.
So, assuming your hypothetical person doesn't die of hypothermia, or has impaired or disabled consciousness, he'll be fine medically speaking. Even in non-medical areas, I (and likely a lot of other people) would be just fine and not uncomfortable in those conditions even for long periods of time.
I knew someone from Spain who was visiting and bicycled in mid to high 30s and her fingers felt a bit numb and she was worried that she might have frostbit and do serious damage.
You can get trench foot if your feet are wet or sweaty, and that can potentially lead to amputation. You can also get chilblains - damage to the capillary beds in your extremities - due to cold, usually damp conditions.
I knew someone from Spain who was visiting and bicycled in mid to high 30s and her fingers felt a bit numb and she was worried that she might have frostbit and do serious damage.
As Patricius said well, frostbite is impossible in temps above freezing.
You can get trench foot if your feet are wet or sweaty, and that can potentially lead to amputation. You can also get chilblains - damage to the capillary beds in your extremities - due to cold, usually damp conditions.
I think someone from Valdez knows what they are talking about. brr
I think someone from Valdez knows what they are talking about. brr
Lol, hey we're pretty warm by Alaskan standards. A little too warm right now. Perfect weather for the conditions I mentioned: 34F (1C) and super wet and slushy.
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