My husband and I had an argument about whether it’s too cold to shovel today. -10F wind-chill. I went out and shoveled, fortunately lot of the snow drifted conveniently to the side of our driveway. It was not too cold. In fact, I think I could run in this weather. Though in retrospect I would have worn thermals instead of two pairs of running tights.
Since I didn’t grow up with wind chill, it sometimes seems melodramatic. It is not warm here today. But it does not remotely feel like it is thirty degrees below, as advertised.
The people who lost power or had a scheduled flight cancelled are the ones who merit more sympathy.
Still, at those temps you can get frostbite in just a few minutes. You might go out and feel fine until the wind kicks up. It’s deceptively dangerous.
Went from -40 to +40F in 36 hours. Not a record change or anything, but kind of crazy.
The record: " Montana holds the U.S. (and perhaps world) record for the fastest rise in temperature over a 24-hour period. A downslope chinook wind event pushed the temperature at the town of Loma from -54°F at 9 am on January 14, 1972, to 49°F by 8 am on January 15th. The 103°F (57.2°C) rise is the greatest change in temperature ever officially measured on earth within a 24-hour period."
Well, now that the winds have started to drop, and I only recall 3 or four gusts that got my attention even at the height on Friday, I can safely declare this was a big nothing in SE Michigan. At least for those of us able to just stay indoors for a few days. The Maillady trudging by may have a different opinion.
Extreme cold warning has been ended. Now it’s just a snow advisory.
It’s a whopping 5F out there right now and a big improvement over the last couple of days. I’m still layered up as I have leaky windows and the wind can be felt inside. Next week, we may see high temps above freezing. Winters sure aren’t what they used to be.
At the current location (across the river from DC) had some “whoa”-inducing gusts of wind in the wee predawn and near midday Friday, then the big temp drop in the afternoon, was seeing ice glare on bits of road from my window before sunset as the light angled down. Over concerns for flash freezes on the streets the few of us still doing presence work went remote that day. Temp went down to 9F and -4F windchill in the evening. Overall not as horrible as feared but still pretty sucktastic for this place and now it looks like just damn cold for the next few days.
Drove across WI today, some sketchy spots but overall roads were OK, high temp I saw was a whopping 10F.
Brian
Everything is mostly melted now.
Did you try standing out in the wind for a while? Neither I, nor the cats, nor the young dog, wanted to be out for more than about ten minutes at a time today. Two of the cats, the dog, and I can all stay out a good bit longer at single digit temperatures with no wind.
– if I’m going to be able to work at the main computer, two rooms away from the wood stove, in the weather we’re having today, I need the furnace to assist the wood stove. From my experience, at the same temperatures on a day with little or no wind, the wood stove will do the job just fine, and go through less wood while it’s doing it.
I do have a leaky old house. Spent part of the morning plugging gaps with rope caulk. Helped a little.
– it’s currently supposed to be 52ºF on Friday. The high today was 9. (I think I already said here, the low was minus 1.)
So the 6 pm news weather dude told us that the last time it was this cold in our area on Christmas Eve was in 1943.
I feed the birds and there was a massive amount of activity out there today. I kept all three bird baths clear of ice since so many natural water sources freeze when it gets this cold. The bluebirds in particular appreciate having fresh water sources to drink from. We still have robins, who were probably regretting their choice to stick around this winter.
Long range forecast says it’s supposed to be 70F on January 1. Crazy.
To illustrate (Warning: Instagram with semi-annoying audio).
Memphis is under a boil water advisory for the second time in history. The first was last year during the ice storm. The water system just can’t handle prolonged freezing. Like the electrical system (there were rolling blackouts again today and thousands of outages) everybody wants to bitch about it but they don’t want to pay higher taxes to fix it. I would since I don’t relish spending my golden years worrying about these things. And it’s not going to get better. But, hey, I bought a case of bottled water a few weeks ago to have on hand for an emergency. And here we are.
Now that it’s warmed up to -18C, conditions are ripe for snow. Sure enough we’ve got s nice blizzard going, with snow and high winds. Supposed to dump 20 to 25 cm by nightfall tomorrow.
I saw this thread and wanted to participate several days ago, but only now have enough “under control” that I can sit and type. (Christmas happened 2 days ago for us – now just relaxing with coffee)
I had to make an 800 mile road trip to be with a grieving relative, and drove through the southern version of the storm. Normally I’m very well prepared, in my truck with auxiliary tanks, extra supplies, food, water, bathroom-ability, chains for all wheels, shovels, and even a temp-driven hi-idle feature to keep the cab warm in the cold. I could easily camp out in a parking lot for a week and keep myself warm and fed.
But, this season I lost* yet another pickup to an iPhone, and was forced into an ill-equipped and inadequate rental car for this journey – at the worst possible time. Not only inadequate for ground clearance, space and range, but a rear-wheel-drive sedan. I did manage to find tire chains that fit and loaded as much water, food, clothing, and gear as it could hold – but was very stressed as the weather worsened driving toward the cold front. I finally decided to camp out in a restaurant for a few hours and let most of the stuff pass before trying the roads again. Luckily the aftermath was sleet so frozen it had little effect on traction and the roads were OK.
Somehow power has remained steady here (Texas), and we’ve only had a few frozen pipes that were easily solved by some redneck engineering. So everything’s working and no real problems here. One of my kids is stuck in Singapore, trying to get home. The massive flight interruptions have effects far beyond the US, so both he and SO are spending Christmas in hotels, in separate countries, awaiting flights.
*Lost = rear-ended by someone effing around with their phone. This is the third time.
Glad to hear you made it through okay. Good for you for helping your relative at a sad time. Car with low clearance isn’t fun during a blizzard. Hope you can relax a bit now. Merry Christmas!
The Alberta Clipper has been dumping a lot of snow on us. We were opening presents and suddenly heard a grader going by. City crews working for us on Christmas Day - thanks !
I misread this at first as “pants” and was going to ask where you could obtain such a garment!
Here you go. A little late for Christmas but maybe for New Years Eve.