Carry two armor sets. Wear your Fur/Skaal gear for overworld travel. When you see a dragon land outside a ruin, pause the game, equip your Daedric armor for the 2-minute fight, then immediately swap back to your furs before you freeze to death looting the corpse.

Survival Mode does not display warmth numbers in the vanilla UI without a mod. However, the game calculates temperature change every few seconds using this logic:

Armor warmth is generally assigned based on hidden keywords rather than its physical protection (Armor Rating).

Stendarr's Armor and scaled armors also offer great protection without completely gutting your Stamina regeneration. 2. The Worst Warmth: Light & Mage Gear

These items are heavily padded, lined with fur, or crafted from thick insulating materials. Wearing a full set of high-warmth gear is mandatory for exploring the northern coast or climbing High Hrothgar.

Your armor’s acts as a defensive shield against this environmental hazard. It does not completely stop you from getting cold, but it drastically slows down the rate at which your Cold meter fills.

Even with 150+ Warmth, these conditions will still freeze you:

Eating Hot Soup (made with fire salts) temporarily boosts your resistance to cold.