I've given tremendous thought to the David Decareaux tragedy in the Ozarks where he and his two sons expired from hypothermia in January 2013 on a dayhike.
Here's a telling quote from the article---
As the three hikers were making their way home that afternoon and evening, heavy rain set in, and when night arrived, the temperature plummeted into the 20s.
From
https://www.rockmnation.com/2013/2/5...he-ozark-trail
1) Day starts out warm in 50Fs.
2) Rainstorm hits at around 35F.
3) Rain usually stops and temps drop drastically to 20F or 10F or 0F
4) Temps rise in clear weather back to 50Fs.
I've always known about this cycle but put his name to it as a sort of homage.
The "tremendous thought" part comes in when I envision what I would do in a similar scenario with little gear (they were dayhikers). Some considerations and options:
1) Bail out of the wind (off a ridge etc).
2) Find a rock overhang or big blowdown.
3) Stuff a crawlspace with bushels of dead leaves (wet leaves---doesn't matter)
4) Crawl into leaves and place bushels of dead leaves on top of you/group to survive the night. ETC ETC