The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

Status
Not open for further replies.
Hemulen said:
The arctic storm front in Texas has hit the news here too. Luckily the weather seems to settle by next week and you'll be having pleasant (Finnish summer) temperatures. Take care; I'm glad you've got psycho poodle as a (warming) companion!
Click to expand...
Just rolling outages thing is the worst part of it. Electricity for 20 minutes, then no electricity for 20 minutes, and it runs in a cycle.

i’ve lived in places like Pittsburgh. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. We got a lot of snow there, often over a foot. But 0° and 20 mph wind is just ridiculous. The turbines that generate electricity are literally freezing and shutting down. Power generating plants in Texas just weren’t designed to work in these kind of temperatures. In Minnesota, they wouldn’t lose electricity in this weather. But in Texas, nobody ever planed for this.

I am OK, mostly because I know how to deal with this kind of cold, but a lot of people don’t. Some elderly people are probably going to die. That’s what worries me the most.
 
caseydog said:
Just rolling outages thing is the worst part of it. Electricity for 20 minutes, then no electricity for 20 minutes, and it runs in a cycle.

i’ve lived in places like Pittsburgh. I’ve never seen anything quite like this. We got a lot of snow there, often over a foot. But 0° and 20 mph wind is just ridiculous. The turbines that generate electricity are literally freezing and shutting down. Power generating plants in Texas just weren’t designed to work in these kind of temperatures. In Minnesota, they wouldn’t lose electricity in this weather. But in Texas, nobody ever planed for this.

I am OK, mostly because I know how to deal with this kind of cold, but a lot of people don’t. Some elderly people are probably going to die. That’s what worries me the most.
Click to expand...
I feel bad for you. I lived in North Carolina for 7 years and they did NOT know how to handle snow at all. The thing is Southern states usually don't have the equipment needed to deal with heavy snowfalls such as big plows and salt trucks which are common here in the Midwest.

In N.C., the rule is schools close on the FORECAST of snow. The reason is several decades prior there was a huge snowfall and kids, teachers and staff were stuck in the schools. They had to bring in food and sleeping bags for them. Since then, their only preparedness is to completely shut down all schools on the forecast of snow (and their system is designed by districts several miles apart so it could be completely sunny and relatively warm in one school and they are predicting snow for other schools in the same district). It was a nightmare because they already have trailers and split schedules to accommodate all the kids moving to the state.

I hope you are able to weather (pun intended) the snow and power outages and this passes soon. ;-)
 
Thanks MJD. I am going to be just fine. Psycho poodle is loving laying by the fire.

I just finished calling my elderly friends. My 81-year-old dog sitter lives right next to the main fire station in Frisco, so her power never went off. The rolling outages don’t apply to neighborhoods where there is a hospital or fire station, or some other facility that must have power.

another elderly neighbor who lives in my neighborhood is going through the same thing I am, but she is doing OK. I am going to bring her some ham and bean soup later today, that she can heat up in the microwave when the power is on.

I have not been able to reach my parents on the landline or my dad’s cell phone. I’m a bit worried about that. My sister and I are going to keep trying to reach them. She is also going to try and reach one of their neighbors. I have a friend from college who lives a few blocks away from them, so I can always call him too.

CD
 
Looks like we got about six or seven inches of new snow/ice overnight, and it's still coming down hard.

I've gone out to start the first of many shovelings. This will have to be handled in stages. We have a top layer of about three inches of light, powdery snow, but under that, a layer of frozen snow/ice mix. It's slow going.

Temps right now are 14F/1F windchill (-10C/-17C) and we're not due to be above freezing until the beginning of next week, with two more snowfalls predicted.

This, my friends, is proper winter! :)

As to school closings...it's also more common here to cancel the night before. I have no problem with that. I have too many bad memories of getting up at 5AM, dark of winter, to stand at the bus stop to catch the 6:30AM bus to school, only to find out that they'd called school off at 6:15AM. This was before the internet, so the only way to find out was through radio or TV postings.

I do wonder if one result of the pandemic will be the virtual disappearance of snow days for school - "Class will be conducted remotely today, due to the weather." Sorry, kids! :laugh:
 
TastyReuben said:
Looks like we got about six or seven inches of new snow/ice overnight, and it's still coming down hard.

I've gone out to start the first of many shovelings. This will have to be handled in stages. We have a top layer of about three inches of light, powdery snow, but under that, a layer of frozen snow/ice mix. It's slow going.

Temps right now are 14F/1F windchill (-10C/-17C) and we're not due to be above freezing until the beginning of next week, with two more snowfalls predicted.

This, my friends, is proper winter! :)

As to school closings...it's also more common here to cancel the night before. I have no problem with that. I have too many bad memories of getting up at 5AM, dark of winter, to stand at the bus stop to catch the 6:30AM bus to school, only to find out that they'd called school off at 6:15AM. This was before the internet, so the only way to find out was through radio or TV postings.

I do wonder if one result of the pandemic will be the virtual disappearance of snow days for school - "Class will be conducted remotely today, due to the weather." Sorry, kids! :laugh:
Click to expand...
Be careful. That heavy ice sheet can be dangerous. I've heard of people having heart attacks or falling on the ice hard enough to break bones.
 
mjd said:
Be careful. That heavy ice sheet can be dangerous. I've heard of people having heart attacks or falling on the ice hard enough to break bones.
Click to expand...
That's exactly how my great-uncle died, many years ago. Shoveled his drive, went into the house, collapsed in his little entrance way, still with his coat on, and died. No one found him for a few days, either.

The snow has abated for probably the rest of the day, so I have today and tomorrow to get it cleared before it starts up again tomorrow night. As long as the power stays on...I'm enjoying this. I like a good winter now and again.
 
...and I spoke too soon - it's snowing gangbusters outside again.

I haven't cleared a spot for the ground-feeding birds, nor have I filled the hanging feeders yet, and in my imagination, I can hear all the cold, tired, hungry birds singing Randy Vanwarmer's "Just When I Needed You Most." :(

The squirrels out back are all tunneling under the snow, then popping up through the surface. Looks like they're playing, but they're probably desperately searching for food. :(
 
A whopping 10C here today...not gloating, just observing. We've had our heavy snow, at least for now. One of the things you can guarantee here is that even a tiny bit of snowfall will cause utter chaos; roads closed, trains cancelled, schools shut down, shops not getting deliveries, etc. After all, who could possibly imagine that it would ever snow in northern Europe in winter?
 
MypinchofItaly said:
Springtime today, again 🌸☀️
Click to expand...
I'm happy it's looking like springtime in Milano.

This is the view outside my front door:

dbdbd8f5-71d7-4f58-ba44-5b094c3a508e-jpeg.jpg
 
TastyReuben said:
I do wonder if one result of the pandemic will be the virtual disappearance of snow days for school - "Class will be conducted remotely today, due to the weather." Sorry, kids! :laugh:
Click to expand...
I got an automated phone call from my son's school last night, saying that classes were canceled. But, he's taking classes remotely. I did find out later that school was also canceled for remote learning. So, instead of getting up at 1:30 in the afternoon, he gets to sleep in today.
 
The Late Night Gourmet said:
I'm happy it's looking like springtime in Milano.

This is the view outside my front door:

View attachment 57492
Click to expand...

Oh it’s a lot of snow!
The weather changed again in the afternoon here, turned grey and cold... I won’t be surprised if it will snow - which it would be normal during this time here. Odd enough, it’s snowing in the border regions of Lombardy
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom