Today the windchill was about MINUS 27 F. We have gotten about 37 inches of snow so far since late October, twice our normal for this time of year [I am hoping this is NOT an indicator of the rest of the winter.... I have survived a 2-inches-short-of-the-alltime-record snow year here and would really prefer not to go there again... the snow in our front yard was piled *above my head* that winter - makes it hard to clear the driveway!!).
Dress in layers and have appropriate cold weather gear (parka, boots, hat/gloves/scarf). You can always add more layers. In this regard I prefer cold to heat -- I can always add layers, but there is only so much one can take off and be considered decent and presentable !
Outdoor faucets are turned off before or at first frost and drained of their water (there is a purpose-designed shutoff in the basement that helpd with this); we then cover ours with an insulating cover made for that purpose (Home Depot etc sells them).
Indoor pipes are not a problem because the house is designed for it (in terms of pipe location) and well-insulated (required by building code, and then our as many others are insulated to above code). The only time I would worry about indoor pipes freezing is if I was going to be away from the house for a long period and the risk would be failure of the furnace causing an interior temp drop into freezing temps (which would take multiple days to happen.... we have had power failures that have lasted >24 hours and the indoor temp only dropped a couple degrees in the middle of winter). This is in sharp contrast to when I lived in Texas -- insulation in the right places was apparently next to non-existant and indoor pipe freezing was a serious risk once it went below 40 F -- our apartment complexes always had signs reminding us to let the taps drip during freezing temps. having lived all my life in the North, that just made no sense to me. But it is how the buildings are built there. Not at all a problem up here.
Well-maintained cars for the most part start just fine till around -40 then they sometimes get unhappy. The oil they use is formulated for the weather here and is a different "weight" than the oil you would use in say Texas. Likewise the gasoline has a "winter formula" that is different than summer. Many people here have engine block heaters in their car, which lets them plug the block eater in (e.g. overnight) to keep the engine block warm so it starts properly. Only needed when it is really cold, but here if you park your car outside at night it is pretty much essential in the worst of winter. When I first moved here I lived in an apartment and each assigned parking spot in the lot had a pole with a plug in it to plug in your block heater in the winter. I don't have a block heater in my current car, and we have a garage that is integral into the house -- the coldest it gets inside the garage overnight is about 40 degrees on really cold days like today. In the dead of winter when the outside temp itself is -40 or below, parking the car for an 8 hour day at work sometimes means it doesn't like starting at the end of the day. It usually will, but you may have to try a couple times. Some people, especially if they have an older car, will go out at lunch and breaks and run their car for a few minutes so it doesn't get/stay as cold. New cars here often are sold with "winter" packages included, which are some additional modifications to help the car survive winter. If you go to some parts of the country that are even colder for longer than here you will often find engine block heater plugs at businesses and workplaces.
Some people have remote starters for their cars. I have one. when it was working properly, I could stand across the parking lot and turn on the car -- so it would start heating up and melting the snow on the windows. One of my co-workers can stand at the office window and remote start his car far away in the parking lot. Some manufacturers have remote starters as an option, some don't or don't for all models. But there are plenty of after market remote starters.
Also, of course, lots of people here get proper winter tires for our cars. So we have all season tires for the rest of the year, and then winters for winter. My rule is winters go on by or shortly after hallowe'en and then they stay on until late April (easter-ish if it is in late April) or longer if the weather warrants it. Studded tires are not allowed here. Winter tires are not mandatory (they are elsewhere), but are highly recommended: below about 45 F the rubber in all seasons becomes too hard and does not grip the road properly; winter tires have mushier rubber that grip much better in cold temps even if there is no snow on the ground. Much safer. I have my winters on their own rims (less expensive black steele rims, not the expensive aluminum fancy rims the car came with that the all seasons are on) and for a fee the car dealership will store the off-season tires [we don't have room in our garage for them].
SW
Bless their "below the 49th parallel" little hearts, they do tend to exaggerate...
