Snow, snow, snow. A couple of days where I almost couldn’t get the car out to go anywhere.
Moderately cold, plugging in the car every night and running it before I drive it. But not the mind-numbingly cold temperatures where breathing hurts.
So yeah, typical Saskatchewan winter.
Plugging it in? Is that to stop the fuel freezing?
Why can’t I have any snow?
Current weather…
69°F |
Current: Sunny
Wind: W at 7 mph
Humidity: 29%
And a snow thunderstorm sounds awesome. We don’t even get real thunderstorms here. We get the weak boom boom variety. Never a CRACK! BOOM!!! with windows shaking and all.
To keep the oil and the battery warm. Most cars in Canada are equipped with a block heater - a small heating element in the engine block which keeps the oil and the battery warmer than the ambient temperature. Colder batteries don’t have as much oomph, and cold oil is more viscous, so the block heater helps when starting the car in the morning.
It is possible in real cold weather (-30 C) for the gas in the fuel line to freeze, but that’s not helped by the block heater. To prevent that, you can add gas-line anti-freeze (i.e. - ethanol) to your tank every now and again. However, most gas outlets around here now sell gas in the winter with some ethanol added, to lower the freezing point.
Winnipeg, Canada
According to the local paper, we have already received 2/3 of last winter’s entire snowfall.
To add to the conversations about weather, we were also told that since we had so much rain last summer, the ground is pretty well saturated. So, campers, when the snow melts in the spring, we’re probably looking at another good flood, mebbe like the one in 1997.
How nice of the Winnipeg Free Press to forwarn us.
High around 35 during the day, in the 20’s at night. Snow showers for the next week. About 2 inches of snow on the grass, roads are a little slick… I live east of Buffalo and south of Oswego, NY, infamous for ridiculous amounts of snow. They had so much snow this week that bus service was suspended for a day or so. So I feel like I’m in the eye of the hurricane here…
We got eight inches of snow yesterday. Temperature was in the teens.
It took Darlin’ Companion three hours this morning to take care of his snowy weather chores. And that was with the help of a snowblower.
I was sweating last night, because we did not have the air-con set down low enough. I had to get up and set the thermostat to colder. Usually we like to sleep at night with the windows wide open and an electric fan running, but we had the air-cons serviced yesterday and like to run it the first night afterward just to make sure there are no problems.
Florida Keys here. Present temp is about 70F. Had the A/C on all day. Coldest yet has been 58F. Doesn’t do much for the Christmas spirit. I do envy those of you that get snow.
Snow on the ground here. We’ve had about ten to twelve inches since mid-November. Lots of shovelling, even after the snow stopped, because of the winds blowing it around. Today, about -10C (14F).
I’ll also gripe about the local city’s reluctance to clear snow from roads. I hate to sound like a Torontonian, but in that city, all roads (even residential ones) were plowed and salted. Why won’t this city do the same? My little cul-de-sac has snow/ice on the road that is actually higher than the bare sidewalk–I go up out of my driveway, in other words, instead of down, as I do in summer. Not that that matters really, but get rid of the snow and ice so we can get safely from one place to another. As a lawyer, I’m thinking of the liability the city incurs when it doesn’t have a bare-pavement policy in winter. Hey, maybe there’s some business there… 
I was wondering about the City of Calgary’s liability just today, as I walked to Safeway on a multi-use path that is “maintained” by the city, and I slipped a little on some of the ubiquitous ice on it. Homeowner’s are expected by a (poorly-enforced) bylaw to have their sidewalks cleaned within 24 hours of a snowfall, but the city doesn’t have the same responsibility?
5 inches of snow which isn’t too bad, if a bit more than normal for early December. Slightly colder than normal too at -11 C, though the second half of November was mostly colder than that - something like once in 10 years -cold. Still more or less business as usual.
What really gets my spirit down is the fact daylight hours just fell below 6 hours: dawn at 8:59 am, sunset at 2:56 pm. Happens every year of course, but I never really get used to that, and it’s the one thing where putting on more clothes doesn’t really help. Unless you start wearing light therapy lamps, of course …
Northeastern Washington. More snow (20" fell - 14" on the ground today) than we had all last winter (record low snowfall). We normally get snow in November, but it is gone in a few days. This year the ground disappeared, not to be seen again until spring, a month early. We also had record cold of -10 last week. Temps not normally seen til late Dec/ Jan.
Thank goodness we are prepared. -6 last week at 6:30pm the power went out, and stayed out for 14 hours. Wood heat kept us warm, generator ran the TV and a light to read by, and the plow truck had just been repaired.
We were very happy the pressure tanks and/or pump sheds managed to not freeze up during the time without heat lamps and thermocubes working.
I’m not about to crack the books and dive into the legal research, but I seem to recall that, very generally speaking, the Crown cannot be sued in negligence. (Note that cities are incorporated under provincial legislation, which makes them “the Crown” for the purposes of this discussion.)
However. That does not mean that the Crown can neglect its duty of care towards the citizenry. A slip-and-fall incident in front of a provincial or municipal building puts the province–or the municipality, and by municipal legislation, the province–at risk of being liable. This we all understand, much as we are individually liable if we do not clear snow and ice from our front walks. So why is the municipality/province not liable when car accidents occur when the municipality does not clear snow and ice on public roads?
I think it would take one good lawsuit on the part of an accident victim, and the province/municipality would be scraping and salting the roads down to bare pavement, even if a dusting of snow appeared. They do this in eastern Canada, why not in western Canada?
Lots of snow in Göteborg, Sweden. Pretty mild today, just -1 C. Last week it was -12 C. Took a picture from my kitchen window http://tinypic.com/r/2v1n5ow/7
The ultimate lock-in: Seven trapped in Yorkshire pub for last NINE days
Seven people have been trapped inside a pub for nine days after the building was engulfed by 16ft snow drifts.
The five staff and two local residents have enjoyed the ultimate lock-in at The Lion Inn in Blakey Ridge, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire.
They have been cut off since last Friday when heavy snow blocked the windows and doors of the isolated Lion – the fourth-highest pub in England – and made surrounding roads too treacherous for any vehicles to pass.
===
ETA When I walked out (in Stockholm) yesterday at 7 PM it was -11 C. 6 hours later when I walked back home it was -1 and now at noon it is 0.
Fourth coldest Spring and early Summer in history here in Australia. Many parts of the country have had there lowest ever temperatures for Spring. And now we are having floods.
What, you had something better to do for the next couple months? 
Jim, having spent a good chunk of his school years in Waterloo, wonders the same thing. We don’t even get a lot of snow here; just a couple of dumps per year that could easily be taken care of, if there was the will to actually do that.
Okay. NOW I’m jealous.
We had the perfect amount of snow here in NC this weekend - it started falling Saturday afternoon, put a white cover on everything except the roads, and was all melted by Sunday afternoon. It didn’t actually affect anything (except my son’s golf lesson) and it made everything look very wintery. Almost made me want to decorate a Christmas tree!