Winter Car Emergency Kit Checklist 2026: What Three Official Lists Say, Plus a Printable

Ready.gov’s “Car Safety” page, last updated March 12, 2026, lists seven items for a car emergency kit, and a flashlight, water, food and warm clothes are not among them. Ready.gov’s “Winter Weather” page, updated Nov. 3, 2026, names those four but has no flares and no ice scraper. The National Weather Service (NWS) winter storm kit covers more, including a shovel and a tow rope. The table lines up all three lists, and a one-page checklist built from them is below.

Which items do the three official lists name?

Each cell shows the wording the page uses. A dash means that list’s kit line does not name the item.

Item	Ready.gov car page	Ready.gov winter page	NWS winter storm kit
Jumper cables	Jumper cables	Jumper cables	Battery booster cables
Sand or cat litter	Cat litter or sand (for better tire traction)	Sand	Sack of sand or cat litter for traction
Blanket	Blanket	Blankets	Blankets/sleeping bags
Ice or windshield scraper	Ice scraper	-	Windshield scraper and brush
Flares or reflective triangle	Flares or reflective triangle	-	-
Phone charger	Car cell phone charger	-	Mobile phone, charger, batteries
Map	Map	-	Compass and road maps
Flashlight	-	Flashlight	Flashlight with extra batteries
Warm clothes	-	Warm clothes	-
Water	-	Bottled water	Water container
Food	-	Non-perishable snacks	High-calorie, non-perishable food
Shovel	-	-	Shovel
Tow rope	-	-	Tow rope
First-aid kit	-	-	First-aid kit
Candle and matches	-	-	Candle and matches

Ready.gov’s car list has seven kit items and its winter sentence has seven, but only jumper cables, sand and blankets appear on both. The NWS page, “Prepare! Don’t Let a Winter Storm Take You by Surprise,” is a general winter storm kit, not a car list; the rows above are items you can add to the car. It also lists “Candle and matches to provide light and in an emergency, lifesaving heat.” The NWS page carries no date.

What else do the pages say to do before driving?

Two items are not things to pack. The car page says: “Keep your gas tank full in case of evacuation or power outages.” The winter page says: “Keep a full tank of gas.” The car page also says to “Install good winter tires and make sure they have enough tread, or any chains or studs required in your local area.” Local studded-tire rules are in our studded tire legal dates story, and city snow-emergency rules are in the winter parking bans story.

What should you do if you are stuck in your car in snow?

Ready.gov’s Winter Weather page says: “Stay off roads if at all possible. If trapped in your car, then stay inside.” The NWS Baltimore/Washington office in Sterling, Virginia, gives more steps on its “Winter Preparedness on the Road” page, which is written for that office’s area:

1. “Stay in your vehicle unless you can see shelter nearby.”
2. “Run the motor about ten minutes each hour for heat.”
3. “make sure that the exhaust pipe is not blocked.”
4. “tie a colored cloth (preferably red) to your antenna or door.”

The same Sterling page lists a kit of “a shovel, flash light and batteries, ice scraper and brush, tow rope, booster cables,” plus “road maps, water-proof matches, and drinking water.” Those engine and exhaust steps come from the NWS page only; the Ready.gov pages we cite do not give them.

Winter car kit checklist to print

The printable groups the items by use: getting unstuck, staying warm, food and water, light and signals, and before you drive. Each box names the page that lists the item, and two write-in lines hold a roadside help number. It leaves off the candle and matches. For shelter rules in cold snaps, see our Code Blue shelter story for four cities. Mark the weeks you will drive in snow on the December 2026 and January 2027 printable calendars.