Hazards: Cold. Of wind double-dipping, clothes into water single-dipping et al.

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

I'm curious about the various nuances of cold hazards.

Fast wind forces HT checks to occur every 15 or 10 minutes instead of every 30. However, fast winds also reduce the effective temperature, which adds penalties to the HT roll. I don't get it. This looks suspiciously like double dipping. I thought that effective temperature from wind chill already includes the nastier cooling in such weathers. But it seems that as-is, -30°F real temperature at zero wind is better than -30°F effective temperature with fast wind (i.e. when the temperature is much higher, but counts as -30°F after adjustment for wind). What gives?

Cold checks start at 35°F and below. Winter clothes provide +0 to those checks, no or light clothes provide -5 to them. What's the point of 'normal' clothing as far as staying warm goes? It doesn't seem to serve any niche game-mechanically.

Wet clothing gives an additional -5 to HT checks to resist cold, which is as bad as no clothing (apparently except in the case of arctic clothing, which has an inherent +5, resulting in +0 . . . I don't think it makes sense, but maybe I'm wrong). Anyway, I did once hear in some natgeo-clone show that getting out of wet clothes is a #1 priority but . . . is it really better to strip naked after climbing onto the shore from under the ice? It seems rather dubious to me, but I know next to nothing about outdoor survival. (Yes, I do realise that getting a fire-and-shelter is a priority; I am also asking these questions on the assumption that the adventurer has the sorts of stats and/or situation that these events aren't an immediate death sentence, but still a serious threat to life and limb.)

I don't quite get frostbite: High-Tech says it's for exposed locations, but (a) wikipedia seems to say it's about mostly about reduced peripheral blood flow instead and (b) the wording in the textbox is such that I don't get when an exposed location should or shouldn't suffer frostbite damage along with FP damage.

"Recovery of FP or
HP lost to cold requires adequate shel-
ter and a heat source (flame, electric
heat, body warmth, etc.)."
What counts as 'adequate'? Judging by wording in High-Tech, tents, sleeping bags etc. count as shelters. But what about the heat source - is a fire the bare minimum for recovering cold FP? Or is one's own body heat from basic metabolism (assuming sufficient food etc.) enough if one loses FP to cold slower than once per 10 minutes (the standard cycle of FP recovery)?

Thanks in advance!