Settling a small HP argument

[ffutures]

 I've seen quite a few stories which suggest that Harry Potter could have frozen to death after being left on the Dursley doorstep. This always seemed a bit unlikely to me, since Britain rarely has sub-zero temperatures at the beginning of November - nights at that time of year are usually pretty mild.

So I finally got round to asking the Meteorological Office, who sent me some data, and it turns out that night temperatures on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of November 1981 were all above freezing in Bracknell (Berkshire) which was apparently the nearest recording point. Surrey is further south so I'd expect it to be slightly warmer there if not the same. London weather seems to have been much the same but I don't have the same level of detail.

Date	Daily Maximum Temperature (0900-0900) (°C)	Daily Minimum Temperature (0900-0900) (°C)	Maximum Night Temperature (2100-0900) (°C)	Minimum Night Temperature (2100-0900) (°C)
01/11/1981	15.8	3.9	14.0	7.0
02/11/1981	15.5	13.3	13.9	13.3
03/11/1981	13.6	12.0	12.9	12.0
04/11/1981	10.5	7.9	12.6	7.9
05/11/1981	9.8	-1.5	2.5	-1.5
06/11/1981	8.1	-3.3	-0.9	-3.3
07/11/1981	7.7	-2.1	1.3	-2.1
08/11/1981	7.8	0.6	5.2	0.9
09/11/1981	8.5	-1.5	2.3	0.5
10/11/1981	8.6	-2.5	4.1	-2.5

So the night of the first was fairly mild - there were no sub-zero night temperatures until the 5th. I don't know enough about babies to say how temperatures of 7-14 degrees would affect one, except to think that they're probably less than ideal, but I get the impression we're talking exposure-related illness rather than literally freezing to death.

I pass this on in case anyone finds it useful.

Comments

[eledonecirrhosa]

Babies and kids suffer worse than adults from hypothermia because of surface to volume ratio.
Not knowing HP canon, I don't know Harry's age when dropped on the doorstep. But below 6 months, babies can't shiver to generate heat. Instead they rely on burning brown fat (brown adipose tissue) or screaming their heads off until an adult sorts it out.

Also, was it raining? Water leaches away body heat like it is going out of fashion.

[ffutures]

No idea - I'm not denying this is potentially a dangerous situation, I'm just saying that the literal "frozen to death" version I've seen in some fic is definitely not going to happen.

[kedamono]

After a quick google on hypothermia and leaving babies outside in the cold (Hello CIA Watchlist) as long as the child's internal temperature stays above 30°C, they should be okay. So the little sausage might be a bit stressed, he'd be right as rain when the loving Dursley's found him...

[ffutures]

Hopefully. But the three adult wizards involved have to be out of their minds to leave him there like that, even though it turned out OK.

[eledonecirrhosa]

Maybe they cast an "electric blanket and hot water bottle" spell before they left?
Though I'm thinking we ought to call Social Services down on Hogwarts...

[lilfluff]

So it's been years since I read the opening and I don't have the books handy, but I'd there a canon figure given for how long he was on the doorstep? Did the Dursleys hear a baby crying and being him in soon after or was he there until someone bothered to look outside for the morning paper?

Although on the doorstep all night allows for all those fun AUs in which someone passing by sees him and intervenes. Such as the crackfic I read years ago in which a wandering Deadpool sees Harry in the basket and decides what he really needs is a kid to corrupt^H^H^H raise.

[ffutures]

Left there well after midnight, found when the Dursleys got up the following morning, so probably six to eight hours.