Arctic dipping south

[tulip]

Put on a hat, Catrin. That will help. You can put all your laundry on your bed for more warmth. Of course, I hope your power stays on and you don't need to do that. I have my wood stove ready to fire up if our power goes out. It won't be as cold here (only 8F), but that's cold enough.

[Catrin]

Put on a hat, Catrin. That will help. You can put all your laundry on your bed for more warmth. Of course, I hope your power stays on and you don't need to do that. I have my wood stove ready to fire up if our power goes out. It won't be as cold here (only 8F), but that's cold enough.

Good idea Tulip, at this point I am hoping power won't be a problem. I HOPE that if it were going to go out that it would have. I shouldn't be surprised that it is so cold even though my thermostat is convinced it is 69 degrees in my apartment, the wind is howling outside... I am currently debating between a nice glass of red wine or a hot cup of chocolate peppermint tea...and the latter is winning

[skhill]

Woke up this morning to find the pipes had frozen. Went down to the crawl space to turn water off, and the valve is frozen. Waiting from a call-back from the plumber. If we can shut off water to the house, I'll be fine waiting until the pipes thaw on their own to see if anything breaks... Very glad I keep a jug of water by the pets' water bowl, at least I could make some coffee and brush my teeth.

It's very very cold in the house, upper 30s. Yes the furnace is on but it can't keep up with this. So I decided to go over to the gym for a shower, then take my dog down to my church to warm up (the cats seem to be doing fine, but the dog wasn't). But when I went to start the car it wouldn't... Got a ride to church and we spent 4 hrs there, got a ride back home to find that the outlet that one of the space heaters (and the fridge) was on has died. Just glad there's no fire. What a day!

[OakLeaf]

Be safe, everyone. Hope no one has any busted pipes!

Catrin, don't start your car unless you intend to drive it. Running it for less time than it takes to fully warm up will cause moisture to accumulate in the exhaust system, and it will deplete the battery so there'll be less charge available when you need it.

[ny biker]

It's not as bad in the DC area as it is in the midwest, but we are experiencing record temps for our area and my heat pump is not dealing well with it. Around 10:00 last night it started turning the auxiliary heater on and off repeatedly. The thermostat is programmed for 71 in the evening, 68 overnight and during the day, and 70 in the morning when I'm getting ready for work. I reset it to 65 across the board, and that helped, but it still went straight to stage 2 + aux heat every time it clicked on. This morning I called the HVAC guys to ask if I should be worried, and they said it was normal behavior for this kind of weather.

It went down to about 5 last night in my yard (air temp, not wind chill). I already have insulated thermal drapes or shades on all the windows and a clear vinyl shower curtain covering the balcony door. Last night I tacked a fleece blanket across the balcony door for added insulation. This morning when I woke up I turned on the small space heater that I keep for emergencies and that helped a lot in the main room where the thermostat is.

And then the electricity went out!! Apparently it was "a widespread outage due to a circuit breaker." I was worried about the pipes freezing if the heat was off for too long. Happily, they had it fixed in about an hour.

I am very glad that this little adventure will not last much longer!! And in the meantime, I'm making good use of my wool base layers.

[Catrin]

It is an entire 5 degrees above zero this afternoon - yayyyyyyyy! I do still have multiple upper body layers, but just my jeans for my legs. Am nervous about getting to work tomorrow morning, everything is ribbons of ice, very rough ice, and I figure that as the temps rise tomorrow things will get even more slippery. Frankly I don't want to go out tomorrow either, but I do need to get to the office and my boss wouldn't understand. At this point I am thinking that perhaps an earlier start so I can leave before the evening rush hour would be the best approach. Assuming my car starts in the morning...

[tulip]

It was 8F this morning when I walked the dog, with a windchill of -7F. But a dog's gotta walk. Thankfully I had that balacava from my cold bike commuting days, along with a hat, my bike tights, goretex pants, Nova Scotia fisherman's sweater, Ibex, and my winter jacket. Oh and lobster gloves. My electric heat pump is having a hard time keeping up, like nybiker's. I usually have it at 68 when I'm working here during the day, and 63 at night but I've switched it to 65 in the day and 60 at night and just bundled up. It's not so bad, actually. Pots of peppermint tea really help. I do have a wood stove and I used it on Sunday before it got too cold, but I'm saving the wood for an electrical outage. I don't have too much wood left since I didn't get an order in. So far, the power has stayed on and the pipes haven't frozen. My dog does curl up in surprisingly small ball for a 45-lb beast, though, so you know it's cold.

It got up to 19F today, which felt pretty normal. Funny how quickly we adapt (lots of layers helps).

[Catrin]

Be safe, everyone. Hope no one has any busted pipes!

Catrin, don't start your car unless you intend to drive it. Running it for less time than it takes to fully warm up will cause moisture to accumulate in the exhaust system, and it will deplete the battery so there'll be less charge available when you need it.

Thanks Oakleaf, I didn't see this until just now. I did resist the urge to go out and start it these last two days, and it should be in the mid-teens when I finally go out to start it in the morning. As all of the roads are now a thick layer of rough ice/snow pack I am a bit conflicted in if I WANT it to start...but I have come up with an alternate route to work with as few hills as I can come up with. Schools are still out tomorrow so at least I won't be competing with school traffic. This morning it was -13 at 8, it is now 8 above. Tomorrow it is supposed to hit 24, 32 Thursday, and then 40's and RAIN this weekend. Floods are in our future I think. No power problems came, thankfully. Now if I can just avoid sliding into a ditch or someone else the next two days I will be a happy woman

[Crankin]

We are now having a small taste of your weather. It was a high of 15 today, which doesn't bother me, but by the time I left my last client at 6 PM, the wind was howling and it was 8 degrees. It felt awful. It should be a little warmer tomorrow, but the wind will still be around. Will be warming up big time over the weekend, and am hoping for an outdoor ride on Sunday.

[emily_in_nc]

Wow, everyone who is dealing with the worst of this arctic blast has my soundest sympathies! We got the heck outta dodge (aka Kansas City) and are in Corpus Christi, TX right now, where we've had some very cold wind (windchills in the low 20s) but nothing below freezing -- the coldest temp was 33. It still feels bitter cold to to this former Belizean expat!

Today the wind shifted from the north to the south, over the water, so our after-dinner walk felt downright balmy at 53 degrees. We are supposed to hit 60s and gradually warming to 70s over the next few days, and I am thanking the weather gods for that.

Everyone please stay safe, bundle up, and don't risk driving (not to mention cycling) if the roads are bad!

[marni]

woke up this am to ice covered trees. This is Houston! The last ice storm I was in was in Massachusetts years back and we were without power for 10 days. Fortunately this one was nothing like that but still, ice storm, Houston, really? And to think global warming is a myth. It may bebut something tells me mother nature is not happy.

[ny biker]

Temps finally rose above 32F today after 54 hours below freezing. Fortunately the sun is high enough to melt the snow on its own in some spots. I cleared the snow off my car the other day and left the layer of ice that was beneath it, and the sun melted all that away yesterday. (It's a rental while my car is being repaired, and after watching my neighbors spin their wheels as they left for work yesterday morning I decided not to risk trying to drive anywhere yesterday.)

I woke up this morning to find the water pressure down to a trickle again, due to yet another water main break in our area. It often takes more than a week to complete the repairs and get pressure back to normal.

Before I left for work today I reprogrammed the thermostat to a lower temperature for this evening. In order to ride my bike comfortably on the indoor trainer, I need to have the heat off and the room temp at 68 or lower. I've found that when I come home from work to a toasty warm room, I'm reluctant to turn the heat off and let the toastiness cool down. If I arrive to a chilly room, I hope I'll have the incentive to spin for an hour or so tonight.

p.s. Ice in Houston is nuts. If you have to put up with such hot summers, you should not also have ice storms in March.

[Helene2013]

Worst and coldest winter Canada has since in probably over 20 years. Welcome SPRING!!!! Altough we still have another 10-15cm of snow in forecast this Saturday. beurk.

This was taken from our local weather website.

Click to enlarge.

[Helene2013]

We had another 6-7 inches of snow today. I'm fed up....my yard won't see grass for a long time! But I think the dogs don't really mind as you can see.

Click to enlarge pic


My little one (Kooza) loves the birds (probably more chasing them is the right word!). He was fascinated by the one on the feeder. I was getting to clear their trails when I saw this through my patio door so I grabbed the camera and shot this one. Too cute.


So for them, winter is good, real good! I can't wait to see green now. I'm done with white.

[Blueberry]

I'm in the southern US, and we have rain/snow in our forecast again. It's pretty much unheard of here this late. It shouldn't accumulate, but I am SO tired of cold, wet weather! We keep getting 70 degree teases, and then back to cold. I think the long range is for us to go straight to very hot. Bleh. I want spring, not summer!