It is now very cold here, but not yet particularly windy or snowy. I was surprised to see my newspaper had arrived unscathed.
Thanks for the snow plow names. Made me chuckle.
Stay warm and safe, maybe stay inside if in an affected area. Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas to you all.
I am Toasty for now. Hopefully, I am NOT one of the poor soles that end up with out electricity.
Our back porch is now littered with branches from the river birch. Every so often we hear another kerTHUMP as one comes down. We’re going to have quite a mess to clean up.
We did get a bit of icy rain (though I was up until 1:00 AM watching the possibility disappear entirely from Wunderground) and now the university is closed, my health plan is closed until 10:00 AM (I’ll guess they’ll push that out), buses aren’t running, etc. I doubt my already-late packages that are “out for delivery” will come today despite the prediction that the temperature will jump up 20 degrees.
You can always borrow those fluffy socks from Jesus. 
Yesterday was a bit insane around here. I got up, got my coffee, and started working around 8 am. At about 8:25, I heard the wind start howling, and I looked at my digital thermometer. 45 degrees. By 9:00, it was 24 degrees, and by 10, it was something like 18 degrees. Meanwhile, light snow flurries blew through until about 1 pm.
The temperature continued to fall, although at a slower rate, until it settled out at about 14 degrees during the afternoon. It lost a further 4 degrees overnight for a low of 10 degrees.
It’s in the low twenties out there now- which is cold for here, but not really unusually cold as far as the absolute temperature goes. It’s supposed to get up to 25 or so, then back down to about 21 or so overnight. So not that bad really. Barely even pipe-dripping temps now, unlike last night.
Kittens are their own reason!
So far, the Big Storm has been a Big Bust.
I live on the Eastern Wisconsin shore of Western Lake Michigan, quite exposed to North, East and South winds off the lake, but this storm’s wind directions are mostly from the West. On the West side of my house is a protective forest, so it hasn’t been windy here much today. Gusty, but not sustained winds.
The lake was expected to have 5-8 ft waves. Another Big Bust. Looking out now, the lake is almost calm; no ice or waves at all.
We were expected to get several inches of snow, but so far, less than 2. The gusty wind has created piles of drifting snow, but there are patches of bare ground in between the drifts.
We are vulnerable to falling trees, which will cut power for several hours, typically. But not yet this time. I have several beefy UPSes that can keep my routers, NASes and freezers working for hours, but if the tree falls, it may break the cable internet, then a UPS is useless. We have no reliable celphone coverage, so I may become invisible to the outside world.
Which isn’t so bad as long as my fireplace still works.
We only got 2 or 3 inches of snow so far in SW Michigan(about a mile from Lake Michigan). It’s about 3 degrees F and pretty windy.
Here in Memphis it got down to 0 degrees last night. I don’t remember it ever being this cold. It’s now 12. The snow, of course, is sticking around and the streets are hazardous. I’m not going anywhere. There were rolling blackouts this morning but I don’t think it affected me. I was in my toasty warm bed until noon. The utility company has asked everyone to conserve energy as much as possible. I’ve got the heat at 68 and am wearing three layers and I’m comfortable. The winds were not as bad as predicted but there are 10,000 outages.
The neighborhood cats are remarkably quiet at this point. I hope that’s the case for the next couple days. On the other hand, my cats keep trying to get in the spare room every time I open the door which is annoying. Last year a cat from down the street used the shelter on my porch during the ice storm. I don’t see any paw prints in the snow. Hopefully the people who feed him gave him some shelter this year. The city animal services department has asked people to report anyone who leaves a dog outside without shelter. Unfortunately with roaming cats, there’s no recourse.
My town has been fairly cold but driving is still easy. But the highways around town have been closed, mostly, with accidents due to poor visibility involving as many as fifty cars.
Houston got cold last night , about 16f and windy. Our power stayed on but there have been some outages. Worst thing that has happened to us is the laundry room pipes froze and my jalapeño and habanero plants froze up , but that’s not too big a deal .
Fortunately blue skies and sunny , if just a little chilly.
It’s a blizzard outside! Very windy white out conditions. But we have power so I’m happy so far.
My Aunt in Illinois sent me a picture of her front door. It’s frozen shut. “Feels like” -30F.
By comparison, it’s a balmy -15F wind-chill here. Michigan has seen worse.
Colorado seems to be doing fine. Couple of inches of snow. Yeah, cold and windy, but my wife and I just drove from the mountains to Denver. Was no big deal.
It was -2 this morning at 6:00 am. Tennessee doesn’t usually get this kind of weather. The horses seem to be weathering the cold fine - extra alfalfa hay, and breaking the ice on the trough several times today. My house is 175 years old and under-insulated. It’s been in the middle 50’s indoors all day, but I’m warm enough under the covers reading and with the dogs snuggling.
StG
It’s cold but not terribly cold here, 20’s - 30F, but last night left a slick layer of ice on every outdoor ground surface, even the ones I’d shoveled and salted. There’s no driving possible on my street without chains, and you can’t even walk on the sidewalks. You could skate, but it’d be bumpy. The buses throughout the city were canceled. I’ve never seen it so quiet. Seattle being built on steep hills, unless you live on a main arterial, you were stuck at home today. My daughters have been stuck since Tuesday because they’re visiting at a house on an extremely steep hill in a outlying suburban neighborhood with no public transportation.
Tomorrow everything is supposed to melt.
This is what our fake rock looks like when it’s got the light bulb under it to keep the well head from freezing.
We’re originally from Ohio so we’ve heard from my husband’s mom about what’s going on up there. Ohio Turnpike was closed for awhile due to a huge accident eastbound:
Here in Washington, the problem is frozen slush. It snowed a bit a few days ago, then that got warmed up but not melted. Then it dropped into the 20°s. The roads are skating ponds.
Rolling blackouts for us now too.
Precipitation appears to have stopped, leaving us with about an inch of snow on the ground. A very cold wind continues. Temperature hit one below zero F overnight and was only up to 4 by about 9:30 this morning; add the wind to that and even with the wood stove going full blast some help from the furnace is needed to keep it moderately warm anywhere other than right close to the stove.
– Those temperatures aren’t extraordinary for here, at least as long as they only occur occasionally; but the rapid drop, and the continuing bouncing around of temperatures (current prediction is for 52ºF on Friday), aren’t good for perennial crops. I’m glad I got the straw on the strawberries.
Power’s stayed on here so far except for repeated momentary blinks; but it’s out for a lot of people in the general area.