Of snow

IT'S SNOWING!!!

[/little kid]

It is expected to climb over 100F today. Even hotter tomorrow.

Stop making me jealous with your cool temp posts.

11° F and dropping here Ali choose your poison.

Amazing planet we live on

Have to go to va on Monday. 1st app at 11am, but the wind is suppose to be around 20 mph. So I can leave here at 5:30am and pick my parking place or wait till later and hope for a parking place maybe 1/2 mile away. Notice the last nights temp. 14 is ruff for here.

It's not often you see a 100 degrees difference in temps on a map.
But from +63 to -40 is on this map around 9 pm EST.

Canadians in Quebec and Ontario may think us Yanks are a bunch of whooses.
All across these 2 provinces last night, they had temps of lower than -25, down to -40
... and will again tonight.

Snow is almost done here. I just cleaned off the car. I'm all proud of myself. It would have been one inch of pretty solid ice in the morning, coating the whole car. It took a minute or two just now, and would have been a huge job in the morning. I remembered!

-2F up from -10F.

Actual: 6", but some places reported 9", so broadly everyone was right and wrong. As usual!

The weather on this side of the Atlantic has been nothing but high winds and torrential rain for the past couple of weeks. A mighty storm hit the UK on Monday of last week which resulted in floods and damage to overhead power lines. Thousands of homes were without electricity for several days, including Christmas Day. Another storm hit us on the Friday and inflicted more damage. Tuesday was nothing but driving rain all day and today (Fri 3rd Jan) we've had thunderstorms and hail.

As I type, yet another deep area of low pressure is out in the Atlantic and winding itself up to visit storm and tempest upon this sceptered isle.

The weather chap on the TV explained that our current problems are another manifestation of what is happening in the north east United States. Where the dense Arctic air is meeting the warm air mass from the south, it is creating an extremely strong jetstream which is heading our way and creating the mighty atmospheric turbulence we are seeing at the moment.
He showed a graphic of the two air masses and the daytime high in Quebec was -22C and in Florida +19C. Well, there was never going to be a happy ending to that, was there?

As we British would say, 'mustn't grumble'. But we do;)

13° here last night. That's pretty damn chilly for my neck o' the woods. Warming all the way to Tuesday or Wednesday [ETA: Moved up to Monday, now] when our hi/lo is forecast as 8°/4°. The previous day to those numbers will be 45°.

8" Heavy, fine powder. With a nice layer of slush at the bottom so it sticks to your shovel. What fun.

Gonna be ugly Sunday night/Monday morning.

Attachment 46388

All powder here. Good snowblower weather. Currently 0°F at about sunset, cover your tucas.

9.30am and 100f already.

We are taking the kids to the science centre.

The cost and transporting electricity is typically between $20 and $40 per megawatt hour. To put that into perspective, you might pay 13 cents per kilowatt hour or $130 per megawatt hour retail. These costs mean utilities make a small and consistent profit.

However utilities buy electricity on the spot market. Sometimes demand and other factors cause their purchase prices to increase.

I rarely see costs this high. For example, instead of paying maybe $30 on the spot market, the cost of electricity in Wellsboro PA is currently $283.90 per megawatt hour. Other prices are $310 in Vineland NJ, $376 in Chalk Point MD, and $309 on an undersea connection from New Jersey to Long Island. $478 in Quakertown PA.

Average Chicago price is about $144. Ohio about $195. $326 in the Richmond VA area. $310 in the Lexington KY area. Ironically, where electricity is produced and transmission facilities are restricted, prices are significantly lower such as $30 in Mount Storm MD near the West Virginia border.

Do so many consumers in this day and age still use electricity for heat?

All heat pump users use electricity "emergency heat" when the outdoor air is too cold to exchange heat, or the outdoor unit is under a foot of snow and won't operate normally.

Unless they are ignorant, like we were in our first apartment.

My early experiences with heat pumps went to to 'emergency heat' when outside air was below 40 degrees (5 degrees C). At what temperature do today's heat pumps switch over?

They casually mentioned on TV the 9" reading for Philadelphia Airport was actually taken across the river in Gloucester City, NJ.
WTF?
At the same time all the local NJ measurements they were giving, were less than 9".

But don't leave your car windows open.

That is just so fucked up. I'd pay the fine. I guess I'd have to, here, you don't pay a fine, they take your license. But, there'd be cop cars showing up with missing windows for months, if not years.

You have any idea how far away you can be and still break windows with the right pellet rifle?

I guess they execute your children if you leave your convertible top down...

Its just bullshit. Many many people leave their windows down a bit. I do all the time. The copper obviously had nothing better to do that day. I would guess his sarge had a talk with him, but it was legal for him to write the ticket, so they cant censure him.

Or, you know, get a better law.

He was parked on the pavement. I don't care about the window being open (he can take all the risks he likes with his own property as far as I'm concerned) but he deserves £22-ish fine for parking where people are trying to walk. So there.

What's more: what is the deal with the whole "FATHER" thing? So, a FATHER left his car window down. The FATHER of a child got a ticket. The cop gave this FATHER a ticket. What does being a FATHER have to do with anything?

Anyway, it's minus 5 degrees here, not including wind chill, and it's about 50 in my house. :(

Cold weather sucks. We're next. We're getting it tonight.

I wish our walls had some insulation in them.

A really hot bath sounds good but then I'd have to get out.

THIS SUCKS!

Well, took the hot bath. It helped. Water in bathroom is fine. However, I just tried the kitchen sink (which worked fine about half an hour ago) and there is no water coming out. Burst pipe somewhere I guess.

I wonder if I will ever get anything close to a break. Maybe one month where everything on earth doesn't suck. I've been holding it together all this time, but it never ends. :mecry:

I'm so freaking tired of everything.

Open your kitchen cabinets if they aren't already open. Let some "warm" air into them so the pipes thaw a little.

Yeah, they're open. I put a little heater near it. I wonder if the loud POP I heard was a pipe, though. I've been hearing cracking poppy noises all day: just figured it was the elements trying to break everything into pieces outside. But then I realized: Oh yeah, it's me. Why the hell would I be immune to any crap that wants to cruise on into my world? [/self-pity]

This cold weather really sucks. (And it hasn't even hit here yet.) I hope you don't have a burst pipe somewhere.

Schools are closed for tomorrow due to COLD. I have a meeting that is still on I believe.

So windy. The lights flickered a couple times. I'd prefer it if the power doesn't go out. It's kind of important for heat.

Yeah, with the wind this cold could be a killer. The Binghamton District only transports kids who are more than 2 miles from their school so this closing was a no-brainer.


Event: Wind Chill Warning
Alert:

...WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO
7 PM EST TUESDAY...

* LOCATIONS...ALL OF NORTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA AND CENTRAL NEW YORK.

* HAZARDS...DANGEROUSLY COLD WIND CHILL VALUES AND STRONG GUSTY
WINDS.

* WIND CHILL READINGS...BETWEEN 25 AND 35 BELOW ZERO.

* WINDS...WEST 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH POSSIBLE.

* TIMING...LATE TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY. THE COLDEST WIND CHILL
VALUES WILL OCCUR TUESDAY MORNING. THE STRONGEST WINDS WILL
BEGIN THIS EVENING AND CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY BEFORE
SUBSIDING TUESDAY EVENING.

* TEMPERATURES...BETWEEN 0 AND 10 BELOW ZERO TUESDAY MORNING...
RISING INTO THE SINGLE DIGITS FOR HIGHS TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

* IMPACTS...DANGEROUSLY COLD WIND CHILLS WILL POSE A RISK FOR
FROST BITE AND HYPOTHERMIA FOR ANYONE OUTSIDE, EVEN FOR A SHORT
PERIOD OF TIME. THIS IS LIFE-THREATENING COLD FOR THOSE NOT IN
SHELTER. IN ADDITION, STRONG WINDS COULD DOWN TREE LIMBS, CAUSING
ISOLATED POWER OUTAGES AND ALSO MAKE TRAVEL DIFFICULT FOR HIGH
PROFILE VEHICLES.

Instructions: A WIND CHILL WARNING IS ISSUED WHEN WINDS COMBINE WITH BITTERLY COLD TEMPERATURES TO CREATE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CONDITIONS FOR EXPOSED SKIN. THE WIND CHILL WILL BE COLD ENOUGH TO CAUSE FROSTBITE IN ABOUT 15 MINUTES OR LESS...AND COULD LEAD TO HYPOTHERMIA IF PROPER PRECAUTIONS ARE NOT TAKEN. IF YOU MUST GO OUTSIDE...REMEMBER THAT SEVERAL LAYERS OF CLOTHING WILL KEEP YOU WARMER THAN A SINGLE HEAVY COAT. A HAT IS ALSO IMPORTANT AS MORE BODY HEAT IS LOST THROUGH THE HEAD THAN ANY OTHER PART OF THE BODY. IT IS ALSO VERY IMPORTANT TO COVER ALL EXPOSED FLESH TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM FROSTBITE.

Our schools are getting a 2 hour delay tomorrow. Not sure what that's supposed to do. So instead of walking to school in 5 degree weather, the kids can wait a bit and go in 10 or 15 degree weather. Wind chill will be something like 0 then. At least it will be sunny.

We had a storm go through last night. We only got a bit of rain, so no damage. We did lose power for about 4 hours or so though. That was annoying, specially since it was during the dinner/bathtime period. :/

I heard how eyeballs can freeze it's so cold.

Terrible time to be homeless.

The local shelters tend to run at about 80% capacity. They are over-full now so they've opened overflow facilities. There is room, unfortunately getting the word out is difficult.

glatt, was your kids' schhol cancelled yet? all schools, including colleges, cancelled areound here. if the cold front stays how it was here, 10-15 degrees is optimistic.

still minus 7 here, sans wind chill from high gusts. i can't wait for the big warmup...24 degrees tomorrow. up to 40 by friday. maybe pipes will thaw? maybe not burst? no water coming out of bathroom when i turn the hot water thingy. cold water comes out when i turn the cold water thingy.

School's only delayed. Mrs. Glatt will drive them and pick them up. She subs at one of the schools, so it works with her schedule. Normally, one would have a 1 mile walk and the other would have a 1.95 mile walk.

I walked 1 mile to the subway this morning. I bundled up, so was fine. 6 degrees when I left the house. But the long johns and hat and scarf and hood of my puffy ass down coat helped a lot.

Attachment 46407
Significant delays on the Metro. Our stop is the first one underground. The trains have about 10 miles above ground before they get to our stop. And when I got to the station, what would have been my train was disabled and off-loaded. Maybe you can see the thousand or so people standing on the platform next to the train. I stayed on the upper balcony with a bunch of other people until things got sorted out down there. The platform to the right was empty because there was a medical emergency on that side of the track at the next station. (An above ground station.) And traffic had been stopped.

Waited around for a half hour while it got more and more crowded. Then they made an announcement that they would be single tracking trains (sharing the same track, and taking turns) to go around the disabled train. Huge stroke of luck for me, because I was one of the first people down onto that empty platform, and I got onto the first train to come into the station. It was packed like sardines, but I made it in to work.

Anyway, it's not normally like this on Metro. And I blame the severe cold. At least I was inside for all my waiting.

Keep the cold water one open a teensy bit, and also open the hot water a teensy bit.

Don't open them all the way and leave. I had a friend do that. They were not producing any water, so he opened them all the way and went to work. He figured it was fine because nothing was coming out. Came home hours later to an overflowing sink and a waterfall coming down his hall steps. Oops. The drain couldn't carry the water away fast enough.

Last night, I took the sensor from one of our indoor/outdoor radio thermometers and put it on top of one of the pipes in the basement right next to the uninsulated concrete block exterior wall. And put the reader on my bedside table. I peeked at it during the night a couple times. It hovered around 45, but I was letting the basement sink quickly drip anyway, just to be safe. We had set the heat a few degrees higher than usual, and it ran frequently. I think that kept the basement "warm," even though there are no radiators down there.

The temp is rising! It's minus 6!

Now that I've had some coffee and some help with the anxiety, I'm feeling a bit more optimistic. Also, I did some creative heater placement, and it's already warmer in here. I should teach a class: The Modern Pioneer: Getting By With Inconvenient Crap. It would be designed to appeal to people like me: afraid of being a consumer, tired of being ripped off, living alone or with others who also have these irrational fears of 'calling' someone to come to my home...so we deal with crap because it seems easier.

Mostly, I want to move. I'm just not happy here anymore. Like, hardly ever.

Auntiedigr called from Indianapolis, she casually mentioned the -36 windchill...

that is too fucking cold. good luck to all of you. im, I hope your pipes are ok.

Sheesh. That's crazy cold.

-8F no wind, they say 33F Friday. I can't wait.

It's 11 degrees above zero! My house is at a normal temperature. The hot water came back to the bathroom. I'm hoping with the increasing warmup that other pipes thaw too, that nothing is busted, but we'll see.

SUCH a relief. After creative heatering yesterday, and with the wind down, I was much more comfortable yesterday but Monday was brutal. Really brutal. I forget to respect the dangers (and pains) of cold.

That's good news. I hope as it continues to warm a little today, everything in the infinite monkey abode returns to normal.

Thanks. I feel so much better today. My friend is going to start replacing my bathroom floor today, though. Since it's winter his construction work is scarce and he's going buggy sitting at home, and also only having his wife's income...so I may be scooting out a day or two anyway. Not convenient but maybe this all has been the catalyst for me to finally get this crap done.

Now if I could only channel a neat-freak-home-decorator persona...maybe I could stand it here a while longer.

If you could move, where would you move to?

Oh, just the town south of here, probably. Where I was born and grew up. It's about the same size as this town only it's SO much nicer. I would love a condo, or an apartment downtown, in an old building. IT would be so cool to walk to the nice stores and restaurants.But this is all wishful thinking for now.

Well, it can be good to have a goal to work to. Tell yourself that someday you will live there, and then make it happen.

It's amazing how important location can be. My MIL has a nicer house than us on a bigger piece of property, but she's in the middle of a tobacco field way on the outskirts of her little town with cars that zoom by in front of her house at 60 mph on that lonely country road. She can't walk anywhere.

Glad you're OK!

Hypothermia is dangerous, can be life threatening in some conditions. One of the first effects of Hypothermia is to affect one's judgment. Respect, and training, and proper action and all keep you safe.

Thanks! This 17 degrees feels like a tropical heatwave!

It was -70 degree C on Mars. Anyone who so wants to be a first man on Mars should be quite happy (or complaining) that it is so warm here on earth.

This cold snap is really improving now. It was 28 when I walked to the Metro this morning. Positively balmy.

And I just read a nice little article that puts a positive spin on this frigid week we've had.


I just hope it kills off the ticks.