Tow-truck driver Adam Kenworthy relies heavily on his Samsung Galaxy smartphone's GPS application to quickly get to emergencies across the Hudson Valley.

"My phone is my lifeline," Kenworthy, a longtime employee of Pat's Towing said, "so when it doesn't work, I don't work."

His phone has been letting him down lately.

"It says -4 [degrees] for tonight," he said as he looked at the forecast on his phone for Wednesday. "This thing's going to have some hard times tonight. I'll tell you that."

Once the weather knocks out a phone, it can take the processor up to ten minutes to fully function again. In Kenworthy's field, minutes matter.

"I have a lot of police calls for people who are in dire need, in accidents or other things. If my phone freezes, I can't get to those people in time," Kenworthy said.

Both Apple and Samsung recommend using their smartphones when the ambient temperature is between 32 and 95 degrees, and the phones will fully shut down at -4 degrees.

Mary Harris, a Wallkill commuter, says her Android starts throwing fits long before the temperature gets anywhere near -4 degrees.

"You don't have anywhere [to call] for services or anything, because it breaks down," Harris said.

In addition to the processor automatically shutting down, experts say smartphone users should expect their lithium-ion batteries to drain more quickly in the cold temperatures, and for the phone's performance to improve only when warmed up.

"In the event your phone does shut down, do not restart until you are inside and give time for your phone to warm up," Jeremy Kwaterski of CPR Cell Phone Repair told CNN. "Restarting your phone immediately could cause more harm to your phone and actually shorten your battery life."