Igloo Effect Saves Man's Life Trapped for 60 Days

A Swiss man was lucky to survive in a snow-covered car for two months during a harsh winter thanks to the igloo effect.

Skyllberg's car was covered in snow for 60 days. (Photo: Reuters).

Peter Skyllberg , then 44, was trapped in his car on December 19, 2011, near the city of Umeå in northeastern Switzerland. Outside temperatures dropped to -30 degrees Celsius (-32 Fahrenheit) and heavy snowfall almost completely covered the car, preventing him from getting out. Skyllberg was discovered on February 17, 2012, 60 days after he went missing, when two snowmobile drivers came across the buried car, thinking it had been abandoned. When they cleared snow from the windows and peered inside, they quickly realized someone was in trouble and called the emergency services.

Ebbe Nyberg, a local police officer who was at the scene, found Skyllberg in a sleeping bag and able to talk a little, but his condition was dire. The man survived by drinking melted snow, but there was no evidence of food. All that was found in the car was a bottle of soda, cigarettes, and a few comic books.

Peter Skyllberg survived inside this frozen car for two months by eating handfuls of snow when temperatures dropped as low as -30C. (Photo: Dailymail).

After treating the victim, Dr. Ulf Segerberg, medical director at Norrland University Hospital, said he had never seen anything like it. Skyllberg's survival was likely due to the "igloo" effect created by his snow-covered car . Even in sub-zero temperatures, igloos can be extremely warm on the inside thanks to internal heat (either from your body or from a fire or heater), which is retained by the insulation of the walls. Skyllberg's car was covered in a thick layer of snow, which acted as a blanket.

The source of heat here is Skyllberg's metabolism, albeit a very small one. 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 it still generated enough heat to keep him alive , like a candle in the dark. "Igloos are usually close to 0 degrees Celsius. If you are well-prepared, you can survive at that temperature and preserve your body temperature ," said Dr. Segerberg.

Despite being protected from the cold outside, Skyllberg's body temperature dropped to a worryingly low 31 degrees Celsius. A healthy human body temperature is normally 37 degrees Celsius, and hypothermia has been recorded at 35 degrees Celsius. The lowest known human body temperature was 11.8 degrees Celsius, recorded by a 27-month-old boy who wandered barefoot outside his grandmother's house in Poland when temperatures were as low as -7 degrees Celsius. The child recovered without serious brain damage, but required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Skyllberg was fortunate to only require routine hospital treatment. However, his story is truly remarkable not only for the extremely low temperatures but also for the length of time his body endured.