Winter Water Procurement Methods
Water supplies normally available during spring summer and fall may not be accessible or useable during the winter months. It may be harder to get water during the winter or may be easier depending on your location. No matter where you are though water is needed for our survival and thus is important to understand how to gather it.
- Winter Water Procurement Methods
When people think of water and where to get it they think lakes, rivers, streams and swamps but you can also get water from branches, brush, snow, ice, and solar stills. (Before I get nasty e-mails I’m sure there are tons more places to get water from. This article will concentrate on water procurement methods for winter.)
Depending on the climate where you live it may be possible to procure water from snow or ice. Keep in mind that the water that makes up snow or ice may not be safe to drink so it’s best to boil, filter or purify the water before consuming it.
Drinking/eating snow before melting it is also a bad idea as it will drastically drop your body temperature and will allow hypothermia to set in quicker. This is definitely something you don’t want to deal with in a survival situation. Also depending on the snow type you may be working a lot to melt the snow but only be getting very small amounts of water due to the air pockets in the snow.
The best way to melt snow is to start with a small amount of water and to heat it up and slowly start adding snow to the container as the water will heat up and melt the snow quicker. Another way to melt snow is to put it in a nalgene bottle and put it in your jacket pocket or inside pocket so your body heat will melt the now. This could drop your temperature some but not nearly as much or as rapidly as eating/drinking snow you pickup as you go.
For some people water procurement in winter is easier than summer because of all these now available to them for others the winter brings no snow and they must resort to summer water procurement methods.
If you live in an area with mild winters you may use a tarp or other containers to catch rain water. Be sure to filter or purify your water by boiling it or running it through a water filter or chemical solution. Be sure not to let your rain water catch device buildup bird feces or dead creatures as the water wont taste good and will make you very ill.
From mild to extreme winters you may have access to lakes, streams or other sources of largish bodies of water so don’t forget about the basics.
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