IAh, good point. It is around, or possibly below 0F, and its going to be very windy. If they even think about going outside during the blizzard I'll throw damage at them. 1hp per round aught to do it.
Well, that's a bit off from what I meant.
Blizzards are just big snow falls, in simple terms. Kind of like a really long rain storm. There's some wind, but the temperature is around freezing (32F) because that's what allows snow to fall.
I don't recall any blizzards when it was really freaking cold (sub-zero).
As far as damage, the cold would be more like 1 HP per hour if you didn't have proper clothing or shelter.
The blizzard ain't gonna kill you any more than standing around in 31F weather looking for a christmas tree will kill you. The blizzard hurts movement and visibility. Which is bad when you're travelling, but not when you are hunkered down. But if I got my winter coat on, I'm just fine playing in the snow in the backyard during a blizzard.
Blizzards usually happen between October-December in MN, by my recollection. January-February, is when it gets bloody cold, -20F is the standard. That's when the world sits still. Ain't nothing moving, and the land is covered in crusty/icey snow. if a wind does come up, that's where you get wind chill effects, that lower the effective temperature. Thus, a really cold -40 day with a wind, can make it feel like -80.
I have, on the coldest day of the year, with classes canceled because of it, walked to the pharmacy for my then fiance. I suffered no ill effects. I wore 2 pairs of socks, sweat pants under jeans, tennis shoes, a sweatshirt, winter gloves, hat, scarf and winter coat. It was about 2 miles round trip.
I'd want winter boots to round out the outfit if I was an "adventurer", but it was sufficient for daily college life and travel between buildings. The act of walking was enough to prevent frost bite (providing I had the extra layers I wore).
Ice storms are really rare in my experience. I only recall 2 in my lifetime. This is basically, a rainstorm in the winter. Which means the rain falls as rain, and freezes as it lands. This coats everything in ice.
In cities, this is a actually more dangerous, as roads and sidewalks are inherently smooth surfaced. This means cars slip and slide, and people fall down on their arse every 3 steps. I know this because I walked 6 blocks to campus after such a storm, and my tail bone hurt.
On rougher ground, it ain't so bad, because the ice forms a rough surface over the natural rough surface of grass and gravel. Walking on such is much easier.
Obviously, you wouldn't want ot be out in it, because, unlike a blizzard where you can keep the snow on the outside, it's rain, that will soak into you clothes and tent and other less sound structures before freezing.
Ice storms are likely rare because it requires a warm enough upper rain cloud region in an area that also has a lower cold region. The North is generally cold above and below, so rain doesn't happen.
I shoudl note, the 2nd ice storm was in Houston, where such a combination is more feasible.
To reiterate, I have generally never seen snow do damage. It's the cold, particularly on a stationary or unprotected human. Obviously, water/freezing rain would cause a protected human to be unprotected, thus, they'd take damage.
But it's always the cold that is doing the damage.
So look at as:
guy with winter clothes = OK
guy with non-winter clothes = gonna take cold damage per hour (you ain't gonna get frostbit racing from the house to the barn in your pajamas)
guy with wet winter clothes = as if he didn't have those winter clothes.
So, to keep it abstract, figure it this way for a guy in summer clothes:
human suffers cold damage from 50F or lower. The colder it is, the more damage he should take. The more active he is, it will neutralize the cold damage because he is raising his body heat.
This is why I can chop would in a sweat shirt in -20F weather and suffer no ill effect (though i will be wearing boots and gloves for my extremities, my core body temp is really hot)
So, a dude just sitting around in his summer clothes (sleeping, because he's drunk/lost, etc), should take 1HP damage per 10 degrees below 60F per hour. Just do (60 - Current Temp)/10. If it's positive, that's how many HP to deduct per hour as the body loses heat.
Having the right clothing, or being active will neutralize that, though clothing should help more than activity. You gotta be hustling your arse in -20F weather, namely chopping wood quickly. And once you stop, 10 minutes later, you need to be buttoning up, or the cold effect will resume.
That's my guesstimate of rules, based on actually living in northern Minnesota and doing things in it without ever suffering damage.
