Just over a decade ago, a story did the rounds about a man who was stranded in his snow-covered car for two months during a desperately harsh Swedish winter. He was only able to survive, his doctor said, thanks to the "igloo effect".
Peter Skyllberg, 44 years old at the time, became trapped in his car on December 19, 2011, near the city of Umeå in the northeast of the country, Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet reported at the time.
Temperatures outside dropped to around -30°C (-22°F) and heavy snow had almost totally encased the vehicle, seemingly preventing him from getting out.
He was reportedly discovered on February 17, 2012 – 60 days after he went missing – when two people on snowmobiles passed the buried car, thinking it was abandoned. When they cleared the window and looked inside, they saw something moving and alerted the emergency services.
Ebbe Nyberg, a local police officer who reported to the scene, said the man was in a sleeping bag and “could talk a little, but he was very bad.” He added that the man appeared to have survived by drinking handfuls of melted snow, but there was no evidence of any food. All that was found in the vehicle was a bottle of soft drink, cigarettes, and some comic books.
After treating the man, Dr Ulf Segerberg, the chief medical officer at Norrland University Hospital, said he had never seen a case like it. He noted that it was likely the only way he managed to survive was thanks to the “igloo effect” created by his snowed-capped car.
Even in the midst of sub-zero temperatures, igloos can be surprisingly cozy inside because the internal heat (provided by body heat and, if you’re lucky, a fire or heater) is retained thanks to the insulation provided by walls. The man’s car, covered in a hefty layer of snow, was effectively acting like a blanket.
The source of heat was his metabolism, though it must have been minimal. Body heat is produced through metabolic processes whereby the body converts food into energy, and as a byproduct, heat is generated. Since the man hadn’t eaten properly for weeks, his metabolism would have been very “slow,” yet it clearly pumped out enough heat to keep him alive, like a tiny candle in the dark.
"Igloos usually have a temperature of a couple of degrees below 0°C [32°F] and if you have good clothes you would survive in those temperatures and be able to preserve your body temperature,” said Dr Segerberg, according to the Guardian.
“He has managed to preserve his body temperature or he wouldn't have made it because us humans can't really stand being cooled down like reptiles, for instance, which can change the body temperature,” he added.
Although somewhat protected from the wintry outside, his body temperature had plummeted to around 31°C (87.8°F) – which is worrying low. A healthy person’s body temperature is usually around 37°C (98.6°F) and hypothermia is typically seen at around 35°C (95°F).
The man's condition was extreme, although human body temperatures can drop lower in very unusual circumstances. The lowest recorded body temperature was 11.8°C (53.2°F), documented in a 27-month-old boy who wandered barefoot outside his grandmother’s home in Poland when temperatures dipped to -7°C (19.4°F). The toddler managed to recover without significant damage to his brain, but only thanks to some intense therapy called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
Skyllberg was fortunate and only required treatment in an ordinary ward at the hospital. Nevertheless, his story is truly remarkable, not only because of the exceptionally low temperatures but also due to the extraordinary amount of time his body managed to endure them.