As I mentioned in my minivan story, we had 78 cm (30 inches) of snow during the night on Sunday. There have been numerous cars off the road, including one car that drove right into a telephone pole. I don’t know how the driver and / or passengers were, but the front end was crushed badly.
It’s not very cold, only a few degrees minus C during the day.
We’ve have another 10 to 15 cm since Sunday, so it keeps adding up. Great skiing and snowboarding.
We’re not going to get above freezing after Saturday night until Wednesday, with a chance of snow on Sunday night. It may not sound like much to you hardier folks, but I’m a total weather weenie and think anything under 40F is damn cold. If the snow does happen, it’ll probably shut DFW down for a couple of days.
I think I’m going to go ask the wife how she feels about moving to Costa Rica.
Getting a bit chilly Chez Pipers.
From our provincial hazard alert app:
Piper Mutt was staring at me unhappily. His water bowl in the back porch had frozen over. Have relocated it to the kitchen.
I forgot to turn one of the taps in the back area to a « drip » so now will have to try a hairdryer.
Huzzah! Holding a bowl of boiling water up to the spout and dipping the spout into it melted the ice blocking the spout! I’ve set the taps to « drip » mode.
Piper Dog noisily drank half his bowl of water and seems content
Presumably along with Piper Mutt!
Stay warm, all of you –
Oh, he did that part himself. He has quite a talent for finding warm cozy spots.
Oh, my achin’ back…
Got done shoveling Wednesday’s 6", and just now got in from Round One of today’s 8-12". It’s still coming down, so it’ll be six rounds today.
But yesterday was beautiful! The first dump of snow had been wet enough to coat every branch of every tree… and then the sun came out!
Woo hoo! This boring non-weather is about to be broken by our first actual winter storm tonight. Not actually a huge deal unless we in the slightly more northern areas get more than the forecast of 5 to 10 cm, which we well might. The weather advisory sez we could see snow falling at the rate of 2 to 5 cm per hour. This here winter-loving Canuck is looking forward to it. The cold garage is stocked with all the necessities of life: bottled water, iced tea, alcoholic iced tea, Caesar mix, and Diet Coke!
I don’t understand why this stuff doesn’t freeze there.
It’s an attached garage. The front wall and doorway into the house and the whole length of the side wall are inside walls. It’s amazing how much heat seeps out through those walls, despite it being a fairly modern house with presumably good insulation. Some of those things may have lower freezing points than pure water, but even bottled water has never frozen. I keep all that stuff on shelves near the door, which also helps. On very cold days it quite likely gets below freezing out in the other end, near the garage door.
-37 here right now. -42 with the wind chill. I think we are the coldest major city in the world today. Go us!
I brought my gas generator into the house to warm up in case the power fails. The grid is in trouble with wind and solar power offline. Our average price for electricity is around $70/MW. Right now it’s at $960/MW. The peak hours from 4 to 8 are going to be scary.
If the grid goes down in this temperature, it could be a mass casualty event. And certainly do a huge amount of property damage. There would be burst water pipes everywhere.
Our back doorknob wasn’t latching properly. Deadbolt works, but doorknob alone wouldn’t keep the door closed.
Our door guy came by and looked at it.
Weatherstripping is frozen. The cold snap was so fast and hard that the soft plastic is too hard, so it doesn’t compress, so the door can’t close tightly enough for the doorknob to latch.
Year, our basement doorknob is frozen. I’m scared to force it, as some metals are very brittle at this temperature.
I snapped the door handle off a car in -30 weather once. Broke the metal right in half.
I also had to drive our humidity down to almost nothing as we were getting major frost buildup on all the windows. So now I’m sneezing and my throat is a bit sore.
Phew! Just got back from a trip to the corner store. Note that Environment Canada’s current temperature for my location is -32C, with a wind chill of -44. Thankfully, the wind is not any stronger.
It’s only about a three-block walk, and I’m glad it wasn’t any farther. However, I dressed like an astronaut, as I like to say: undershirt, warm shirt with a lining, fleece vest, and a parka over all that. Scarf, wool hat, gloves. And something I figured wouldn’t hurt and only help: a Covid mask. And it really did work to keep my face warm, so there’s a good tip for anybody who has to go out.
My eyes were watering by the time I got halfway there, but I made it and got what I needed. And I made it safely home also. But it was a while before I could untie my shoes, because in spite of the heavy gloves, my fingers didn’t want to work so well. They’re fine now; after all, I’m typing this.
Phew, again. Folks, if you don’t have to go out, don’t. Stay warm!
Also, be prepared for an emergency.
If you go out in your car, dress for the weather, not for the heated car. And carry blankets. Lots of people wear light jackets in their cars even in very cold weather especially if the gar is garaged. They’re the ones who die when they slide into the snowbank and have to wait for hours, or try to walk out.
Fill your car with gas, both for emergency reasons and because in this temperature any air in the tank will condense out the water into the gas.
If the power goes out, first fill lots of containers with drinking water. Then shut off your city water and open up the highest and lowest faucets in the house to drain the pipes. Don’t want them freezing and bursting. This is also a good idea if you are leaving for a few days and the weather is this cold.
If you have natural gas heating and water heating, you might think you’ll be okay if the electricity goes out. You’re not, because both need power. The furnace needs power for the blowers and the igniters, and the heaters need power for the igniters. So a really good investment is a small gas or propane generator. I paid $500 for one. I have an extension cord to run from the generator to the furnace room. Something like a Bluetti power pack with 110V out will also keep your furnace going for a while.
Stay safe, everyone.
A bust here in Detroit so far., I have about 1. 1/2 inches on one sidewalk, 1/2/2* an inch on the other. (Never underestimate the added bullshit of a corner lot). and the forecast is for rain to melt most a;; of the rest of it.
*Some newbie in the neighborhood. Bundled up like He/she was climbing Everest , cleaned half the sidewalk one side with a less than impressive Amazon-cheap Chinese snowblower after one inch (admittedly very wet heavy snow, the worst case for cheap blowers but there was reason to start at all), then had to push it home after a 5 minute effort to get it restarted.
Ohh wow a thundersnow strike. Second event in two years after none for 20+
Like @Sam_Stone, I’m freakin’ cold here. It’s getting down to -40 tonight… that’s both Celsius and Fahrenheit. I work from home so I’m not out in it too much, but I did have to go to the gym this morning. It’s so cold it’s painful.
Amazing! As a resident of southern Ontario, these are the sorts of things you mostly only read about – and they’re usually happening on Mars or Pluto! 
I just took a peek outside since a winter storm was predicted, and to this winter lover – who enjoys this sort of thing as long as he doesn’t have to go out – it looks quite lovely and white. Sadly, in this continuing non-winter, temperatures are supposed to rise tonight and tomorrow and the snowfall may actually turn to rain. We’ll see what happens as colder weather is coming tomorrow night, but this winter storm may turn out to be a bust.
Story, not that cold but it would have been cold enough:
When I was around 30, and long before cell phones: I had friends who lived way down a back road with very little traffic even in the middle of the day. I went to visit them, and headed home around 11:00 at night. (I had a good flashlight in the car, and more importantly all the clothes I wore to prune grapes in on a really cold day, just in case; I wasn’t wearing all of them, they were too bulky to drive in.) Temperature was somewhere around 0F (roughly minus 18 C), a good bit of snow on the ground and some of it, here and there, on the road.
Some distance down that road, well out of sight of and at least a couple of miles from the main road and any house, I came across a car stuck in a snowbank in the ditch, with two teenagers trying unsuccessfully to get it out. Light jackets, suitable in that weather maybe for dashing across the street. No hats. The boy hadn’t even zipped up his jacket.
I got them out of there, and they were very grateful – but because they were worried about not getting the girl home in time for her curfew. (Yes, I’m using “boy” and “girl” intentionally.) I was entirely unable to convince them that they might have been in any danger.
The chances must have been really good that no other car would have come down that road that night.
Even if it’s not -40: if you have to drive in the winter, especially down back roads: make sure you have the clothes with you to survive it!