Just read a crazy thing…put a couple drops of hand sanitizer on your car key and gently insert/wriggle. Repeat as needed. Good luck!
Actually, here is a trick. Put a cup in the microwave and boil water. Drop you key in the water, wait a few seconds, then pour out the water. Dry key completely and work to insert it in lock. If it starts to go in, pull it out, dry it and reinsert it. Rinse and repeat.
Also, any alcohol can help lower the freezing point of water, so that bottle of vodka in your desk drawer can also be used to release a frozen lock.
Anyway, probably too late to help you. I’ve had many a car covered in ice and snow. Never ever take your car to the car wash in freezing cold temperatures. That is a guaranteed way to seal totally frozen your windows, doors and locks.
Rose - we are all waiting to hear how you got on.
On a related note, I am amazed that you had to use a key for the door. Remote operated door locks have been standard on all cars over here for at least the last 15 years, so frozen locks are a thing of the past. I am surprised the same isn’t true on the other side of the pond.
Today’s weather. 8C, misty, drizzle. YUK
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Maybe she drives an elderly Subaru Outback, like many of us do out west. Mine is 19 years strong!
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We didn’t have remote operated door locks until just a very few years ago; not because they aren’t made and sold, but because we hadn’t bought a car in 15 years. Don’t know how it is over there, but cars last a long time in our climate and there are a great many such on the road.
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And today, I get the revenge of the weather gods. We have between 1/8 and 1/4 inch of ice. It often occurs when there is a cold snap (that dreaded polar vortex) and then it rains. The rain freezes on contact. It was supposed to warm up above freezing by now but it is lingering. There are many accidents, a 25-30 car pileup on 495 (a 10-12 lane highway around DC). Then my wife who insisted she had to go into work found Route 50 (another big road) closed as a fire truck slid off the road going to an accident on I-66 I’m just going to wait it out. It seems like the perfect day for a sugar free hot toddy to nurse my cold.
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oh gosh Brian, I know all those roads and I would not want to be venturing out on them. I don’t even want to go out here, and we got several inches of the fluffy stuff. I am truly wishing for this holiday party we are supposed to be going to later to be cancelled.
(shot from our front deck)
I’m alive, fed, and replying to you from a hot bath. My colleague made it in to work the next AM and brought me some yogurt, oatmeal, cheese, and coffee cake, and I promptly exceeded a week’s worth of my carb allotment in under 15 minutes. My daughter survived alone overnight by setting a temporary decreased basal rate. (Note to self: try that earthquake app to see if that will awaken my daughter). My almost-15-year-old POS hybrid minivan/SUV has locks that are both keyed and automatic, but the whole locking system has been FUBAR for about a decade and the estimates I have gotten for repair are outrageously unaffordable.
Long story short, I survived and still love our snow. Even after living nearly a decade in Wisconsin where there are genuine, bona fide snowstorms, I still love the snow.
Stay warm and adequately fed, everyone! 
️
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We had one of those about a week back. Returning home one night, I couldn’t get more than about 4’ up the drive way without sliding back to the street. Had to park the car down the street and spend half an hour chipping ice so I could get down to bare pavement.
The one we were scheduled to attend tonight DID get cancelled, but not due to weather. I suspect the one tomorrow will be, though.
Made it to Portland okay yesterday. Only had to deal with 3-hour closure on I84 (La Grande is a very pleasant town). Best of all, we missed the 12 inch snowfall in eastern Idaho!!
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Plenty of 15+ year old cars on the roads over here too, despite the salt on the roads in winter, Cars last a lot better than they did 20 years ago - better rustproofing.
The remote central locking thing must be market differences between UK and USA. By 2000 pretty much all cars, even budget models and cheap trim packages, came with remote locking as standard. Indeed I had a 1990 Peugeot estate (wagon), that was by no means “fancy” but came with a “plip” to lock the doors.
Good to hear you made it! I didn’t realize you were in Wisconsin (for some reason I thought you were in Oregon). Lot’s of my wife’s family live in WI and I have spent the holiday period over there with them on many occasions so I know how brutal the winters can be.
The BBC TV Breakfast Show did a feature this morning on the extreme cold weather covering much of the central part of the USA. The outcome apparently will be to pump energy into the Jetstream and that will drive a series of strong Atlantic depressions over the British Isles. As a consequence we can expect storm force winds (60-80 mph) and lots of rain over the next few days.
I went to med school in Wisconsin, but I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest since the early 1990s. This will likely remain my home, although I miss San Francisco, where I was born and raised, greatly.
jjm335, may you stay well-anchored and dry during your anticipated storms!
We are used to high winds and rain over here. I have had to put a chainsaw* in the back of the 4x4 on quite a few occasions in order to get into work. We have a 5 mile drive from the house where the road basically runs through trees a lot of the way.
- WARNING!!! Always check BG before operating a chainsaw.
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I would love to see a pic of you madly wielding your chainsaw. (When your BG is within range, of course!)
Coldest night of the year in North Arkansas 6 degrees this morning with clear skies.
Saturday was quite a day 60 about noon fell to the low teens by early the next morning. Luckily not much precip, so my friends holiday party went on as planned. Big bonfire in the backyard really hit the spot. 
Got to play music with some old friends(inside). 
Life is good if a bit chilly. 
Actually I don’t think so. New cars have had them for about as long as I can easily recall. We tend to keep our cars for a very long time. Before we acquired the 2011 model, our newest car was from 1989.
shockingly cold today, about 20 degree. the lake has a solid cover of ice and when it’s freezing over it makes these eerie groaning sounds, which are hard to describe.
Hope everyone is staying warm!!