**Hypothermia means losing heat faster than your body can produce it.
**For most of the year, water in Minnesota lakes is cold enough to kill you.
**Alcohol doesn't make you warmer, but it does impair balance, coordination and judgment.
**Hypothermia kills by eliminating your ability to swim and stay afloat.
**Hypothermia symptoms include continual shivering, numbness, poor coordination, slurred speech and personality changes.
**A strong swimmer has only about a 50/50 chance of reaching shore one-half mile away in 50 degree water.
**Most hypothermia deaths involve non-PFD wearing victims who had no intention of entering the water.
Photo by Dick K.
