Margery Palay

​As temperatures drop throughout the country this winter, including a blizzard making its way across the central and eastern United States, many Americans may be dealing with frozen pipes.

But what does this mean, and how does it work?

Experts say water expands as it freezes, which puts pressure on metal or plastic pipes that can cause them to break.

Many homes, but not all, are built with water pipes nestled within a home's building insulation to protect them from freezing temperatures. However, with extreme cold temps, your house may have weak spots making it susceptible to pipes freezing and possibly bursting.

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Homes in the northern parts of the U.S. may be at less risk, but those in the east, mid-Atlantic and South could be more prone to freezing pipes. That's because the farther south you go, the more likely a home may have pipes that are not insulated.

"Water pipes in the attic, for example, would be more common in the South," Remington Brown, senior engineering director with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, previously told USA TODAY.

Also more at risk for freezing are pipes in basements, garages, crawlspaces, kitchens and other rooms with outside walls such as bathrooms.

According to Texas A&M University, water pipes can freeze and burst when the outside temperature reaches 20 degrees Fahrenheit or below.

Other pipes most likely to freeze are usually exposed to severe cold, such as:

If you discover you have a broken pipe, turn off the water at the main shutoff valve, usually found at the water meter or where the main line enters your house, said John Galeotafiore, who oversees testing of home products and power gear for Consumer Reports, which has tips for dealing with frozen pipes on its website.

After that, check all other faucets in your home to see whether you have additional frozen pipes. If one pipe freezes, others may freeze, too.

"Your older houses are going to be probably more susceptible to this because the insulation wasn’t as good back them and they might have routed some pipes in places where maybe they shouldn’t have," Galeotafiore said. "Having said that, there could be some new construction that people just didn’t do it the right way."

If water flow coming from a faucet is slower than usual, you may have a frozen pipe. If you can see the affected pipe, you can attempt to thaw it to prevent it from bursting. Here's what to do:

• Leave the faucet on and watch for water flow. Running water, even cold water, will help melt ice in the pipe.

• Use a hair dryer to warm the pipe. "It is easy to use and safe," Brown said. "You would start from the faucet and work your way along to heat that pipe up."

• You can also use a heating pad, heat lamp or space heater in the room where the pipe is. Towels soaked in water can be wrapped around the pipe, too. Apply heat on the side closest to the faucet, Galeotafiore said, "because if you start on the other end, you can build up some pressure in there and possibly cause the pipe to burst."

• Continue to apply heat until full water pressure returns.

• If you can't find the frozen pipe section or it is not reachable, call a licensed plumber.

• Do not use a blowtorch, kerosene or propane heater, or any other device with an open flame to attempt to thaw the pipe. "You don’t want to use anything that is going to ignite," Brown said.

Many homes will have exposed pipes within their homes, perhaps under the sink or in a garage or an attic. There are ways to help prevent them from freezing.

• Wrap the pipe in makeshift insulation. A quick fix is to use newspaper or towels, said Anthony Tornetta, a spokesman for the American Red Cross, which has tips to prevent and thaw frozen pipes on its website. "If you can add insulation to those areas, that’s a first line of defense,” he said. "As little as one-quarter of an inch wrapped around the pipe will help, especially if you are in areas that don't freeze for an extended period of time. This is a deep freeze, but it is going to pass."

• Open cabinets in the kitchen or bathroom that might have pipes near the exterior of the home. "That allows warmer air within the house to flow through the cabinet to stop those pipes from freezing," Tornetta said.

• Keep your home warm to help prevent pipes from freezing. Don't drop the temperature down at night in the home during frigid weather, Galeotafiore says. "That sounds counter-intuitive to what we usually say about energy conservation, but you have to do that because if you have a pipe burst it can be thousands of dollars of damage," he said.

• Use space heaters safely. If you use it to thaw a pipe or to keep a room warm, make sure it’s not near anything flammable, such as curtains, blankets or those towels you may be using on pipes. "It’s a great resource to heat your home, but you have to use it smartly," Tornetta said.

• Constantly run a small stream of water from faucets that might have pipes susceptible to freezing. "If the house is heated and you open the faucets up and you open the cabinet doors, even if you are in a really, really cold environment, it should be a pretty good fix," Brown said.

• If you are not going to be at home, ask someone to regularly check your property to ensure the heat is working and the pipes have not frozen.

This story was originally published on USA TODAY in January 2019.

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.

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How do you know if a book is a first edition? Since criteria for indicating a first edition varies from publisher to publisher, there’s no easy answer. To complicate matters, some publishers do not identify their first editions at all, or have used varying methods over the years.

That said, there are some general guidelines one can rely upon to identify many first editions. If you find yourself purchasing a certain publisher’s books very often, you would do well to familiarize yourself with the methods that publisher uses to identify its first editions.

The best guide to first edition identification is A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions” by Bill McBride. The 7th edition has just been published.

McBride’s book “Points of Issue : A Compendium of Points of Issue of Books by 19th-20th Century Authors,” is also well worth buying. Both books are softcover, inexpensive, and small enough to fit in your pocket. You can buy them directly from Bill McBride or buy it at Amazon.com.

There are many ways that publishers identify their books as a first edition. Some common ones are:

Number lines have been commonly used in the post-World War II era. The line commonly is a series of numbers (ex: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 or 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2. Occasionally a letter line is used (ex: a b c d e).

Generally speaking, if the “1” is present, the book is a first edition (first edition, first printing).

For the second printing, the “1” is removed, so the “2” is the lowest number present. For example, a number line that reads 5 6 7 8 9 indicates a fifth printing.

Occasionally a number line will be accompanied by a date line. Example: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 80 81 82 83 84 indicates a third printing, published in 1980.

Confusion enters the situation when one encounters both a “First Edition” designation and a number line. For example, the copyright page may read “First Edition” and be accompanied by the number line 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2. In this case, one of two situations may apply:

In these two situations it is best to consult a guide to first editions, or a bibliography.

Though these guidelines serve as a good rule of thumb, each publisher has their own way of designating their first editions, and I strongly recommend purchasing a guide to first editions, such as Bill McBride’s.

If you find that the date on a book’s copyright page matches the date on the title page, it is likely that it is a first edition. Very occasionally these dates may differ – for example, if the book was copyrighted late in the year and published early the next year. But generally you want to find dates that match.

Sometimes you may see a series of dates on the copyright page. This is usually because some of the work appeared at an earlier time in a different publication. For example, a poem or chapter may have been published in a literary journal or anthology. In this case, if the latest date on the copyright line matches the title page, then you likely have a first edition.

Small press publishers print books in relatively small press runs, from just a dozen or so on up to a few thousand. For reasons such as budget and demand, most small press publications do not go into second or later printings. As a general rule of thumb, if you have a small press book and there is no indication of a later printing, there’s a high likelihood of it being a first edition. Most small press publishers do designate later printings on the copyright page. Also, check the back of the book to see if there’s a colophon page that explains the details of the printing history.

For an accurate, up-to-date guide on publishers’ current – and previous – methods of identifying first editions, I strongly recommend finding a copy of A Pocket Guide to the Identification of First Editions. It is inexpensive, and small enough to fit in your pocket or bag to take along on book shopping expeditions.

There are several ways to identify book club editions (BCE). Different book clubs use different criteria for identifying their books. But, here are some rules of thumb:

If in doubt, do a web search for a bibliography of the author in question. If you still can’t find the answer, the folks at rec.collecting.books newsgroup may be able to help you out.

Some book club editions are sought by collectors; most are not. But there are easy ways to research your book’s possible value.

They are both the same thing. Printing is the more commonly used term.

When a particular book is printed for the first time by a particular publisher, that’s the first printing, or impression. (The first printing is also what book collectors call a “first edition.” Subsequent printings would be, for example, a “2nd printing” – but not a first edition.)

When the supply of the first printing (or impression) runs low, and the publisher needs more copies a second printing is done. (Some popular books go through many printings or impressions.)

Have you ever seen the statement “second printing before publication” on the copyright page? In a nutshell, it’s just a second printing, printed before the date the book went on sale.

Each book that is published has a planned publication (release) date. The publisher estimates about how many books will be needed to fulfill orders from book sellers, and prints that many.

Sometimes a book receives so many advance orders that the publisher needs to order a second printing to meet the demand. That’s what’s known as the “second printing before publication.”

A second printing before publication is no more or less desirable than any other second printing. Generally, book collectors are interested in the first printing of the first edition.

Another note here on the use of the term “first edition:” To a publisher, all printings within an edition are the “first edition.” But publishers are the only ones who use the term that way.

In common usage – the way book collectors & booksellers intend it – a “first edition” is only the first printing of the first edition. If an advertised book is referred to as a first edition, “first printing of first edition” is always what’s meant.

Some are; many are not. (Every book has a first edition, but not every book is desired by collectors.) Please see our article on the value of first editions.

Often, books are published in various countries by the same publisher on the same day. How do you know which one is the “true first edition”?

For books published in multiple countries simultaneously, the general rule amongst book collectors is to “follow the flag.” This means that book published in the author’s own country is considered the “true first.” So, for instance, if the books are released on the same day & the author is American, the American first would be most desired.

However, if the Canadian edition were released on a date before the American edition, in most instances it would have priority with collectors, since it is the earliest publication of the book (the “true first”).

I say “in most instances,” because if the author is American, some collectors will still prefer to have the American book, even if it was published slightly earlier in another country. Collectors are funny like that; although there are generally accepted customs & trends – such as “follow the flag” – each collector will still have his own preferences.

And, a completist collector (one who wants to collect everything by a particular author) will want to have both the American and Canadian editions, even though only one will be considered the “true first.”

To sum up – as a general rule, if you have a choice between two books or more books, published at the same time in different countries, you’ll want to buy the one published in the author’s native country.

These books can be found at your local bookshop, library, or Amazon.