Here's a general guide to clothing at different temperatures:
| 40 to 50 | Take your wool coat or a thick fleece |
| 30 to 40 | Take a wool coat, keep a hat and gloves handy |
| 20 to 30 | Wear your coat, hat and gloves, and maybe something around your neck |
| 0 to 20 | Wear a coat that can block the wind well, some kind of long underwear under your pants, your hat and gloves, and something around your neck. You want something you can pull up over your face. |
If it's below 0, I recommend just staying home, or at least spending as little time as possible outside. At that temperature, any exposed skin gets uncomfortably cold after 10 minutes or so.
I have a wool coat and a ski parka. Most people get a wool coat eventually, since otherwise you're wearing a ski parka for 4 months straight, and the wool coat looks nicer. A wool coat won't save you from freezing rain, though, and it's not what you want if you're going to go playing in the snow.
I picked up the ski parka at Target for about $50. I wish I'd bought a 'real' coat at an outdoor shop; it seems like most people do that eventually. You want something that will keep out the wind well.
You need to have a nice warm hat. I keep one in my bag or a pocket for about 6 months out of the year. You can always shove your hands in your pockets to keep them warm, but that's not really an option for your head. You might be surprised at how much warmer you feel with a hat on. Get one that you can pull down over your ears if necessary.
I have a few different pairs of gloves. Most of the time I wear knit gloves that are neither waterproof nor windproof. They're also not velcro-proof, which is a big disadvantage. On the other hand, they're light, thin and warm.
I rode my bike to school right up until the first snow the first year I was here. You can get some great workout clothing for the cold (unfortunately I don't know much about it yet), but it can be expensive. One major downside to biking in the cold is that riding 20 miles per hour gives you a wind chill that makes everything feel 15 degrees colder.
I slid around in the snow on my bike for a couple of days, then gave up on biking. There's an excellent website on cold weather biking called Icebike that has some good tips, but honestly, it's too extreme for me. When there's snow or slush on the road, I don't bike.
Recently I took up running again, and picked up some Yaktrax for gripping the snow. They've been working great so far. Also, since I run a lot slower than I can ride my bike, wind chill is much less of a problem.
Many people end up getting a gym membership and using that during the winter. That can be a good alternative to going outside, especially when it's really cold.
If you can help it, try not to drive when it's snowing out. Let the people driving the plows do their jobs and get the roads cleared off.
I keep a kid-sized snow shovel in the car, along with a snow scraper/brush combo. Usually you'll only need the brush and scraper. Use the brush to get all the excess snow off the car, and then use the ice scraper to get the ice off the windshield.
Turn your car on before you start brushing the snow off the car. You'll want to get the car warmed up so that the heater works well when you get inside. Plus, once the heater is going, the windows will warm up, which will make ice scraping much easier.
The shovel comes in handy after a good sized snowstorm. You may find yourself stuck in a parking lot, spinning your wheels trying to get out of a snowed-in parking space. The shovel is handy here. You can clear out a few feet behind your wheels in order to get some traction. Of course, when the snow really comes down, you might need the shovel to get all the snow off your car.
Carry some lock de-icer with you when it's cold out. This stuff is just a liquid that melts ice. You squirt it in the locks on your car when they freeze. It can be a real hassle to be locked out of the car because of a frozen lock.
Once the snow starts falling, your town or city will probably put salt down on the roads to keep ice from forming. If they don't do that, they'll probably put sand down for the same reason. Sand isn't quite as effective as salt, but it doesn't kill the plants on the side of the road. Many places will salt roads except on the bridges, so the salt doesn't get in the river. This means the bridges can be much more slippery than the roads, so be careful on bridges.
Salt will get on your windshield while you're driving, and you'll need to get it off. When salt first started piling up on my windshield, I thought it was ice, and I stopped the car to scrape it off, which didn't work so well. Make sure you have cold-weather windshield washing fluid, then use the wipers to get the salt off.
The salt will get all over your car, and you'll want to get it off, because salt water leads to rust. However, you won't want to wash your car when it's too cold, because the water will just freeze to the car. I've found that if your car is relatively warm, you can get a car wash in 15 to 20 degree weather and have it work okay. You'll still get some ice on the car, but the salt will come off. If you dare to wash the car at lower temperatures, the soapy water will freeze to the car before the salt comes off (oops).
My final advice--when it is snowing or has just snowed, consider taking the bus. Driving in the snow is a hassle. You have to warm up the car, sweep the snow off the car, then scrape ice off it every time you want to go somewhere. Contrast that with just stepping onto a bus that's already warm, and that's driven by someone with considerably more snow driving experience than you.