A Swiss man was lucky to survive in a snow-covered car for two months in the middle of a harsh winter thanks to the igloo effect.
Peter Skyllberg, then 44 years old, was trapped in his car on December 19, 2011, near the city of Umeå in northeastern Switzerland. The outdoor temperature dropped to -30 degrees Celsius and heavy snow almost completely covered the car, preventing him from escaping. Skyllberg was discovered on February 17, 2012, 60 days after his disappearance, when two snowmobilers passed by the buried car and thought someone had left it behind. When they cleared the snow from the car window and looked inside, they quickly discovered someone was in distress and called the emergency line.
Ebbe Nyberg, a local police officer at the scene, said Skyllberg was in a sleeping bag and could talk a little, but his condition was very bad. The man survived by drinking melted snow, but there was no evidence of any food. All that was found in the car was a bottle of soft drink, cigarettes and some comic books.
Peter Skyllberg survived inside this freezing car for two months by eating handfuls of snow when temperatures dropped as low as -30C. Image: Dailymail
After treating the victim, Dr. Ulf Segerberg, medical director at Norrland University Hospital, said he had never encountered such a case. Most likely, the only way Skyllberg survived was thanks to the “igloo” effect created by his snow-covered car. Even in sub-zero temperatures, igloos can be extremely warm inside thanks to internal heat (body heat or a fire or heater), which is retained by the insulation of the walls. Skyllberg’s car was covered in a thick layer of snow, acting like a blanket.
The heat source here is Skyllberg’s metabolism, albeit at a very small level. Body heat is produced through metabolism, in which the body converts food into energy and produces heat as a byproduct. Because the man had not eaten properly for weeks, his metabolism was very slow, but still emitted enough heat to keep him alive, similar to a candle in the dark. “Igloos often have temperatures close to 0 degrees Celsius. If you prepare good clothes, you will survive at that temperature and can preserve your body temperature,” said Dr. Segerberg.
Even though he was protected from the cold outside environment, Skyllberg’s body temperature still dropped to about 31 degrees Celsius, a worryingly low level. The body temperature of a healthy person is usually at 37 degrees Celsius and hypothermia has been recorded at 35 degrees Celsius. The lowest known human body temperature is 11.8 degrees Celsius in a 27-month-old wandering boy barefoot outside her grandmother’s house in Poland when the temperature was as cold as -7 degrees Celsius. The child recovered without serious brain damage, but required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation therapy.
Luckily Skyllberg only needed conventional hospital treatment. However, his story is truly remarkable not only because of the extremely low temperatures but also because of the length of time his body endured.