Another reason to be prepared is you can be stranded in a snow and or ice event through no fault of your own. Even if you have a vehicle that is equipped to can handle the conditions--roads can be blocked from accidents or storm damage--- and there you sit. As soon as the weather broke enough here after the recent storm--for the state patrol to fly-- they were up in the air with some sort of heat seeking camera checking stranded vehicles for occupants that might be in trouble. And it was only luck they had a break in the weather to do that. Even in a vehicle exposure can be brutal or even deadly without proper cold weather gear and supplies. So far this fall/winter season the PNW has been hit with two storms (one wind and the snow/ice) that came in much more severe than the weather service had predicted. So one can’t just depend on weather reports!

One more piece of equipment that I always carry in my SUV is a small battery powered radio (along with extra batteries) which would give me the ability to keep up on news and weather reports without constantly running the engine or risking running the vehicle battery down.

And most importantly keep those gas tanks topped off in the winter months. During the recent storm here many vehicles ran out of gas when stuck in the jam on I-5.