Or let’s say you’ve been blessed with glorious weather for a few days
and have chosen not to make a shelter. Invariably, the bad weather comes,
and now you’re in a desperate situation trying to keep your fire going and
stay warm in the pouring rain. The weather was coming anyway. Only your
choice not to make a shelter exposed you to the danger.
Remember that of all the hazards you’ll face in a survival situation,
it’s not the bigimpact things (such as predators and poisonous snakes)
that are most likely to get in your way. Rather, it’s the little things that you
tend to ignore but which exist in abundance that will slow you down; small
problems which can snowball if ignored for too long.
Weather
OF ALL THE POTENTIAL DANGERS YOU WILL FACE in a survival situation, none is
more formidable than the weather. People can tell all the stories they want
about dangerous animals, poisonous creatures, or getting ill from eating
the wrong plant, but for me, weather is the most frightening variable of all.
It’s the greatest foe you’ll face. I have yet to be bitten by a snake, to be stung
badly by wasps, or to succumb to starvation in my travels. But I always have
to put up with or hide from bad weather.
It could be too hot or too cold, too wet or too dry. It could be too
windy or too calm. But no matter what the weather is, it’s going to affect
you in some way, whether it’s offering you an advantage by being pleas
ant and giving you time to accomplish the survival tasks you need to do,
or coming down on you hard as something you have to endure until you
get respite.
In the Kalahari Desert, my greatest concern was the blistering heat,
which I had to escape somehow. Luckily, I found a small tree (the only
one for a few square miles), which I huddled under for hours. There was a
20degree difference between areas in the shade and those in the sun, and
that little tree helped me survive.
Ignore the weather and you radically decrease your chances of seeing
home again; acknowledge and respect it and you’ve taken the first step toward
survival. These are the weather events (in no particular order) that you should
be prepared to deal with, depending on your region and the time of year:
(^252) | Survive!