As a Nordic country, Sweden withstands winters that are long, cold, and dark every year. Umeå, a city in northeastern Sweden, is no exception: its mean minimum temperature in January hovers at a frigid -10.7°F. It’s incredible, then, that a 44-year-old man managed to survive in these kinds of conditions while stranded in a snowed-in car for two months.
On December 19, 2011, Peter Skyllberg was trapped in his car outside of Umeå, only a few kilometers away from the country’s largest highway. Heavy snow draped itself around the car, preventing Skyllberg from escaping, and temperatures plummeted to around -30°C (-22°F) outside.
On February 17, 2012, two men on snowmobiles were traveling across a small forest path, blanketed by a meter of snow. At the very end of the path stood a car that they believed to have been scrapped and abandoned, but they still decided to approach it. As they peered into the vehicle, they suddenly saw something move.
Skyllberg was ultimately rescued 60 days after his disappearance. The two men had discovered him huddling inside a sleeping bag, where he was emaciated, disoriented, and could barely speak or move. Other than Skyllberg himself, the only things inside the car were cigarettes, comic books, and a soda bottle.
“He said that he hadn’t eaten any food since December 19, other than a little snow,” Ebbe Nyberg, a local police officer who responded to the scene, told Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet. “He could speak a little bit, but was doing really badly.”
Given these extraordinary circumstances, how could Skyllberg have survived? Dr. Ulf Segerberg, the chief medical officer at Norrland University Hospital, believed it was due to the natural warming properties of the snow packed up against his car, which effectively functioned as an igloo would.
“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,” Segerberg told The Guardian.
Another doctor, Stefan Branth, hypothesized that an additional factor in Skyllberg’s survival was his body shifting into a sort of “hibernation mode.”
“A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that. He probably had a body temperature of around 31°C (87.8°F) which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up,” Branth explained.
Luckily, Skyllberg only needed treatment at a regular hospital ward and eventually recovered. His case, however, remains unusual, even in a country accustomed to heavy snow and freezing temperatures.
“There have been cases of people caught out in the mountains, and if they can dig themselves down in the snow they are able to survive and be found,” Segerberg noted. “But there must be something special in this case.”
Umeå, located in northeastern Sweden, is known for its frigid winters, with temperatures often dipping into negative numbers.
In 2011, a man was trapped in his snowed-in car just outside of Umeå, where he remained for 60 days.
The man managed to survive due to the “igloo effect,” wherein the snow packed around his car effectively protected him like an igloo would.
Sources: Fast i snön – i 60 dagar; Swedish man survived in snowed-in car for two months
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