So according to the experts this could be the BIG ONE again. Or it could be just another winter storm. So pretty much winter in the great lakes area. It is a little strange to have absolute nothing from winter so far here in Detroit then, supposedly overnight Thursday a flip will switch and in 4 hours we will be in winter hell.
The wind is the concerning thing really. My neighborhood has a massive problem with big old trees that are all the right age to lose branches in the wind, leading to several days long power outages. I finally last summer bought one of the fairly cheep, fairly quiet Chinese made 2500w generators. It won’t come close to running the whole house, but should be able to keep the fridge running, and power and a little electric heater that will stave off frozen pipes( I hope).
Hopefully I won’t find out, but I did go and get 5 gallons of gas this morning. I considered running into Meijer, but looking at the parking lot, the holiday rush + storm looks really ugly from now on.
Personally, I’m not worried. At worst, it might turn the 20 minute bike ride to my mom’s house into a 40 minute bike ride, or if it’s too bad even for that, turn the 40-minute walk into an hour’s walk. Or a bit longer, if I stop on the way to help a stuck motorist, which has happened in past years. And I don’t have any plans to go any further than that, anyway.
Looks like a non-event in the Colorado mountains. Might see 10 below zero F. No big deal.
No snow coming down, but it kinda flurried earlier. Meh.
My Wife and I will play chess tonight like we usually do. Then maybe watch some TV.
I don’t walk the dogs unless it’s above 10 F, that’s about it. The dogs probably appreciate that. They have a fenced yard where they can do their business.
Why keep the fridge running when its cold enough to just put frozen stuff in the trunk of your car and other stuff in a cold room? I’d keep the heat going first and then the internet connection.
I’m just outside of Detroit and I think you are right, the wind is more of a worry than the snow. So I’ve filled up the tank and stocked up on various beverages and snacks. Should be over come Christmas morning. I’ll be surprised if we get more than 4 inches, which is nothing.
That is what we have done in the winter before - I really miss my wood stove but the propane heater we have in the studio here is one that does not require any electricity [the starter is a quartz sparker, and it has a pilot light. In an absolute emergency, one can light it with a long match.]
I have enough food that I can eat that doesn’t require any sort of heat source [I have an entire case of MREs with flameless ration heaters if I really feel the need to torment my taste buds =) Though I suppose I could reheat the selection of beef bourguinon, chicken fricasse and ricert that got sealed in retort plastic bags in a FRH instead of the MRE main entrees. [I normally toss them into the sous vide to reheat]
Normally mrAru would go out and kick on the generator so I could just use the microwave and the oven but he is currently working out of the Rochester NY home and am physically not able to go out and deal with it. He did pick up a battery bank that he is hooking up this weekend that will run the ‘entertainment stack’ for 24 hours if I run everything, 72 if I go with modem, router and charging stuff [modem, router, TV, laptop, charging station for assorted electronic stuffs and a light source] as honestly, I have enough canned goods that am willing to eat cold out of the can to live for a few weeks [mmm pickled beets =), baby taters turned into tater salad, mixed bean salad with extra garbanzos]
The most snow we are expected to get is 6 inches, and that’s over several hours. We’ve coped with a lot more than that before. Winds may get up to 55mph; I’ve been pretty lucky with the power staying on, though, because I live about 1/2 a mile from the Indy 500 racetrack, which means that the electric grid where I live is set up to serve the area the times when huge race crowds are here. When they are not here, there’s plenty of “grid” to go around.
Here in Baltimore they’re calling for a high near 50F on Thursday, during which there’ll be lots of rain. But then it’s going to get really cold. That could cause power failures if trees get icy and fall on power lines, especially if it gets windy. Icy roads can also make for nasty driving, at least until they’re treated.
Another thing you can do, if you fear loss of power/heat and frozen pipes - turn off the water in your residence at the main, open the lowest tap in the home, and drain the plumbing system. It’s a bit drastic, but the pipes won’t freeze if there’s no water in them. When you get heat again you can turn the water back on and refill the system.
Holy crap, the way people are acting in the store! A most this would be a couple days, how much freakin’ bread do you plan to eat over the weekend? How much milk to drink? It’s not the zombie apocalypse, people!
In my little corner of the world (Oregon), we’re getting an ice storm. Ice storm + many big trees almost invariably = Several-Days-Power-Outage. I’m used to them and I’m ready. Wood is stacked, water stored, coffee is ground ahead (I hate to, but it’s better than no coffee at all!), Kindle is charged.
The ice storm is predicted to start tomorrow night and be over by early Friday morning. If the power goes? Who knows?
If I’m not around for a few days, you’ll know why.
I went to the grocery about two hours ago and you should have seen how crowded it was. Some could have been the upcoming holidays, but here in NE Kansas we are suppposed to be getting bitter temps and snow.
Here in front range Colorado, we’re planning for bitter cold, but that’s about it. Some precipitation, but not much, which combined with the overnight low of -10 Failunits should be a bit unpleasant. As for the forecast for tomorrow (Thursday) we expect a high of 0 'murrican, and a low of -15. Friday will be 9 and 4. But back to the 30s and 40s for the holiday itself.
So darn cold, but within normal Coloradan expectations, just everyone who can is planning to stay home on Thursday and Friday as much as possible. My plan is to do the same, bake fresh bread (my wife) and make a big batch of stock in the pressure cooker for homemade maztoh ball soup in addition.
I’m not at home to enjoy this, but checkout this graph from my outdoor thermometer. It dropped 15 degrees in 2 minutes from 5:16 to 5:18. It took another 15 minutes to drop 15 more degrees, and then another 1.5 hours or so to go negative.
According to the local TV weather critter we can expect 6-10" of snow over the next couple days. Doesn’t sound all that bad. But then you add the 50 mph winds forecasted and you end up with huge drifts. There’s something about the way our house and outbuildings are aligned that we will likely get a 4-5’ high drift down the entire length of our 200’ driveway. There is no place to correctly locate a snow fence to try to ameliorate the situation.
And for you city folks, yes, snow fence really is a thing.
Fortunately we have a neighbor with a skid steer. And if the drifts are too deep for that we have another neighbor with a big 4WD articulated front loader. We try to be nice to our neighbors
