Man survives two months in a car...

[Captain Seafort]

...at -30deg C

How the fuck did he manage that?

[JPaganel]

The car seems to be a Volvo. Volvos are magic.

Given his condition he might not be exactly clear on the dates.

[Captain Seafort]

The car seems to be a Volvo. Volvos are magic.

No they're not. They're proof against anything short of Death Stars and idiots, but they're not quite magic.

Given his condition he might not be exactly clear on the dates.

True.

[FSTargetDrone]

2 months, with no food, at those low temperatures? I don't think so. Besides, the story says, "Police say the temperature in the area had recently dropped to -30C (-22F)." Bolding mine. I'd be surprised if he lasted a few weeks like that. And that seems a stretch.

EDIT: Here is another story with more details:

'Igloo effect' helped snowed-in driver survive for two months

February 20, 2012 - 9:02AM

A Swedish man who spent two months snowed inside his car as temperatures outside dropped to -30C is "awake and able to communicate", according to the hospital treating him, where stunned doctors believe he was kept alive by the "igloo effect" of his vehicle.

The man, believed to be Peter Skyllberg, 44, who was found near the north-eastern town of Umea on Friday by passers-by, told police he had been in the car since December 19 without food, surviving only by eating snow and staying inside his warm clothes and sleeping bag.

Dr Ulf Segerberg, the chief medical officer at Noorland's University Hospital, said he had never seen a case like it. The man had probably been kept alive, he said, by the natural warming properties of his snowed-in car which would have acted as "the equivalent of an igloo".

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"This man obviously had good clothes; he's had a sleeping bag and he's been in a car that's been snowed over," said Segerberg. "Igloos usually have a temperature of a couple of degrees below 0C and if you have good clothes you would survive in those temperatures and be able to preserve your body temperature. Obviously he has managed to preserve his body temperature or he wouldn't have made it because us humans can't really stand being cooled down like reptiles, for instance, which can change the body temperature."

Two months was at the "upper limit" of what a person would be able to survive without food, added Segerberg.

Skyllberg was found emaciated and very weak by a pair of snowmobilers who thought they had found a crashed car. They dug down through about a metre of snow to see its driver lying on the back seat in his sleeping bag, according to Ebbe Nyberg, a local police officer.

"They were amazed at what they found: a man in his mid-40s huddled inside in a sleeping bag, starving and barely able to move or speak," Nyberg, working in Vaesterbotten county, was quoted saying.

A rescuer told the local newspaper Vasterbottens-Kuriren: "It's just incredible that he's alive, considering that he had no food, but also since it's been really cold for some time after Christmas."

Police said temperatures around Umea had fallen to -30C. One doctor, Stefan Branth, said Skyllberg may have survived by going into hibernation mode. "A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that. He probably had a body temperature of around 31C which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up."

It was unclear how Skyllberg had come to be stranded in the deserted lane.

Segerberg said that, even in a part of the world where sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow are the norm, this case was unusual.

"There have been cases of people caught out in the mountains and if they can dig themselves down in the snow they are able to survive and be found. But there must be something special in this case."

Well, I still find it hard to believe it really was that long, but I suppose it's possible.

[Lord Relvenous]

Maybe 2 months is too much, but I know that if I was stuck in a car for more than 2 weeks without food my will to fight and survive would probably slack. The fact that he just continued surviving is crazy.

I've read a bit about human starvation mode (which he most certainly would have been in). It's crazy what the human body can do in extreme situations. Looking over the steps of starvation, could they determine how long he had been in the car just based on skeletal muscle damage?

[The Duchess of Zeon]

He said he hadn't eaten food since December. That implies he may have in fact had food for the first 15 days before he ran out; maybe he was driving around with groceries in the back, for instance. If he was somewhat fat so lots of stored calories and had plenty of water, didn't move at all and just slept alot, then surviving six weeks starts to enter the bounds of probability.

[Spoonist]

Couple of points:
1) Police confirm the date since the car stood on the ground with no snow under the tires, so it must have been there before it started snowing back in dec. So at least 48 days.
2) The man had a sleeping bag and some supplies with him.
3) There was no problem with the car itself, it started fine when tried.
4) The man had had no contact with any relatives for years according to one newspaper.
5) He was really lucky that they found him at all, it was a very remote road even in ordinary weather it sees almost no traffic - the snowscooteers that found him said they had some time to kill and got curious about the snow heap.

So all of this makes it a very sad story behind it. He probably put himself into this situation deliberately without realising the consequences. So some mental condition is expected.

[LaCroix]

He said he hadn't eaten food since December. That implies he may have in fact had food for the first 15 days before he ran out; maybe he was driving around with groceries in the back, for instance. If he was somewhat fat so lots of stored calories and had plenty of water, didn't move at all and just slept alot, then surviving six weeks starts to enter the bounds of probability.

All he had to do to get water is to lower one window a bit and eat the snow, so I call this plausible.

[His Divine Shadow]

So all of this makes it a very sad story behind it. He probably put himself into this situation deliberately without realising the consequences. So some mental condition is expected.

Radio reported that it was a weird type of suicide attempt.

[Sky Captain]

Radio reported that it was a weird type of suicide attempt.

That would explain at least part of the story because I have no idea how somenone could accidentaly get traped in a car that way. It's not like his car was suddenly burried by avalanche, just regular snowfall falling on a parked car. 2 feet of snow is not that much. Even if all that snow fell while he was sleeping blocking the door, he could still get out through window.

[His Divine Shadow]

Yeah well at the time he would've parked the car in that place there was no snow at all in that region (as someone living 20km from the area pointed out).

[Skgoa]

But then why did he have supplies? And why did he park the car there before there was snow?

[Spoonist]

But then why did he have supplies? And why did he park the car there before there was snow?

He lived out of his car. Before this he had lived for months in a hotel parking lot. So he always stored supplies in the car.
Why he parked there was because "he wanted to get away" from everything. So probably specifically because there was no humans around. Then when the snow fell he just didn't have enough initiative to get out.