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[TwoBears]

I posted this in the "DF Gameplay Questions" board, but I got a bunch of guesses and shrugs, so I'm gonna post it here, too...  I know there's alot of science that goes on in this board, sooo...

So I'm preparing to embark into a "freezing" biome and I have a few questions that I couldn't find answers to on the wiki:

Just how long can a dwarf be outside before he dies of exposure?  What about livestock?  Do clothes help keep them warm?  Just how far into my fort does the "cold" go?

Whew.  Thanks in advance for any help from anyone that knows the cold!

[edit]
So cold just "stops" in a line at any entrance to the underground?  What about "indoors"?  If a make a building on the surface and put a roof on it, does that warm it up inside?

[NecroRebel]

Dwarves do not die of exposure from any but insanely cold environments. The normal range in a world goes ranges from 25 to 75. What that means, precisely, I don't know, but you don't start seeing temperature-based damage from the environment until <0 or >100. Some creatures, especially polar ones, are more resistant to cold, so on a modded world gen they'd be able to survive more extreme environments than dwarves, but in vanilla, again, that's a moot point.

Clothes do appear to help against cold environs.

The surface temperature affects the entire surface and nothing below. Every tile marked subterranean has a fixed temperature unless adjacent to magma, which gives a second, different and higher, fixed temperature. Every tile marked as above ground - including those indoors - are affected by the surface's weather.

[TwoBears]

This is good information!  Thank you!  How can I tell exactly how cold the environment is, though?

[wierd]

Cheating tools, like dfhack.

[krenshala]

I can confirm NecroRebel's comments about outdoor temps.  If you dig a tunnel right below the surface between a stream/river and a cistern, the entire length will be liquid year round, even when the stream/river freezes.  If you dig a channel, an then put a floor over it, it will still freeze.  I discovered this when I dug a ramp by the river, then floored it over to keep beasties out.  That section froze, none of the natural ceiling tiled areas froze.

The interesting thing with this is you don't need a door to "keep out the cold".  A tunnel opening into a hill side will stay warm, as long as the tiles are not marked as aboveground.  This is actually pretty close to accurate for real life, as most cave systems are about 54 degrees F year round (with some variation due to local geothermal levels) once you get far enough inside.

I haven't embarked in a glacier biome, but tundra areas don't kill your livestock even if they are left outdoors all the time. Everything else I've embarked on has been warmer.

[TwoBears]

Wow.  You guys have been SO much more helpful then the other board!  Thanks!