The Weather Thread

[Thumper]

-8F with -35F wind chill (whatever the heck that means). Buddy in Orlando FL said they were expecting near freezing today.

[brite]

39* at 0530... with a high expected today of 65*, here in NorCal...






Sorry....

[Thumper]

Heard that the only state that didn't have someplace reporting sub freezing temps yesterday was Hawaii.

[pumpkinpi]

My heart goes out to everyone experiencing this frigid weather. I'm not being sarcastic! Living in MN I expect outbreaks like this one or two times a year so I have no right to complain. But everyone else actively chose not to live in MN so they shouldn't be subjected to our weather--especially those in the southeast!

What I can complain about, though, is this. Since before winter began (3 weeks now) we've had about 5 days when we've gotten out of the single digits. That many days so cold is not common for MN. Again, I should be tough enough to bear it. But I have a toddler who doesn't keep her gloves on when we go outside, so spending more than a few minutes playing in the snow is not an option. We're getting cabin fever!

I've heard some people use duct tape to keep kiddie gloves on. I have to try that!

[FZR1KG]

We hit 3F last night and this morning. That's about -18C for you metric people.
The local river is starting to freeze. The rapids aren't so rapid and all the rocks in the river have ice around and trailing down stream.
The slower sections are frozen over.
Going to the rubbish dump today I had to drive over a frozen puddle. A 5 ton vehicle and it didn't even budge the ice.
Left what is best described as a rubber stamp type track over the ice. No deformation at all. Just dirt coming off the tire staining the white of the ice.
At least it's expected to warm up over the weekend.

[Swift]

-8F with -35F wind chill (whatever the heck that means). Buddy in Orlando FL said they were expecting near freezing today.

That's what was happening at our end of the state. I think it was generally -10 to -12F with wind chills around -35F to -40F (or -40C).

The drive home last night and back to work this morning, the car showed around -8F outside. But when I got into the car this morning in the garage (an attached, unheated garage) it was a balmy +17F in the garage.

At lunch time today it was around 0F.

But then tomorrow it is supposed to be in the 20s (F) and in the 40s by this weekened.

[brite]

60s and 70s all week for a high...

Fisher asked where Canandaigua New York was... when I told him, he said he wasn't going to apply for the job there, if this is what winter was going to be like... LOL






sorry....

[FZR1KG]

60s and 70s all week for a high...

Fisher asked where Canandaigua New York was... when I told him, he said he wasn't going to apply for the job there, if this is what winter was going to be like... LOL






sorry....

Eh, it's no biggie.
After about 30 minutes in shorts and a t-shirt, you get used to it and feel warm.
Warm and toasty. Makes you want to take a nap really.

[brite]

No... no it doesn't... just the thought makes me hurt... and I don't have enough pain killers to make it all go away....

[Thumper]

Heatwave. It was 6F this morning. Never fear, before long it will be 40 and rainy and muddy and gloomy like normal. Yesterday afternoon, once the wind died down, it really wasn't that bad at all.
What got me this morning was listening to the news about how many people have died "because of the cold." I'm thinking in this day and age the temps drop temporarily 15 or so degrees below normal and it kills people? I really couldn't understand it.

[pumpkinpi]

What got me this morning was listening to the news about how many people have died "because of the cold." I'm thinking in this day and age the temps drop temporarily 15 or so degrees below normal and it kills people? I really couldn't understand it.

My first thought is that it's homeless people dying who don't go to shelters. There have been a couple recent deaths here of people who have been out all night. One was a college student who passed out after drinking, and though his official cause of death hasn't been released, there was no sign of foul play and he had hypothermia and frostbite. And there was another similar death, by a woman in her 30's, just yesterday.
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/239186761.html

They could also be correlating general winter weather-related deaths with the "cold," like car accidents in the snow and caused by snow and ice. Again examples here--we've had a couple cars run off the road and into ponds/lakes which have resulted in deaths. The passengers are more likely to die when submerged in cold water than when it is warmer.

I have the same thought as you do when I hear reports of people dying in a heat wave. But in 2003, a heat wave in Europe killed 17,000 people. We are fortunate to have shelter that moderates our temperatures, so it's hard for us to imagine what our bodies would go through when exposed to such extreme conditions.

[brite]

As for the homeless and shelters... it's not so much that they won't go, it's that there isn't always enough room in the shelters for all the homeless, in the shelters, and people get turned away.


That's American Exceptionalism, right there....

[Thumper]

Yeah, I read more specific article after I posted. A bunch of people dropped dead while shoveling. So they were ticking time bombs and could go under any circumstances. Several auto accidents: A mother drove herself and daughter into a plow truck, another spun out and wound up in front of a tractor trailer. So, while winter related, it wasn't because of the cold. The rest were pretty much homeless people that didn't or couldn't get to shelters. I know several cities around here that made more warm shelter available during the cold snap and aggressively went out trying to bring people in.

[pumpkinpi]

Yeah, I read more specific article after I posted. A bunch of people dropped dead while shoveling. So they were ticking time bombs and could go under any circumstances.

Yeah, forgot about that risk. Not surprising misinformation from the media--deaths due to storms are different than deaths due to cold. That happens every winter, Polar Vortex or no.

Several auto accidents: A mother drove herself and daughter into a plow truck, another spun out and wound up in front of a tractor trailer. So, while winter related, it wasn't because of the cold. The rest were pretty much homeless people that didn't or couldn't get to shelters. I know several cities around here that made more warm shelter available during the cold snap and aggressively went out trying to bring people in.

[Swift]

What got me this morning was listening to the news about how many people have died "because of the cold." I'm thinking in this day and age the temps drop temporarily 15 or so degrees below normal and it kills people? I really couldn't understand it.

I know I complained recently somewhere on FWIS about the number of people I know who die in the winter. Most recently it was my wife's cousin, last winter it was her mom, before that... father-in-law, my dad, one of my brother-in-laws, my mom was like early Novemeber.... it just seems disproportional. None of them died directly because of cold exposure (my brother-in-law was a heart attach, possible influenced by snow shoveling earlier in the day), but it does seem like there is something going on here.

[pumpkinpi]

What got me this morning was listening to the news about how many people have died "because of the cold." I'm thinking in this day and age the temps drop temporarily 15 or so degrees below normal and it kills people? I really couldn't understand it.

I know I complained recently somewhere on FWIS about the number of people I know who die in the winter. Most recently it was my wife's cousin, last winter it was her mom, before that... father-in-law, my dad, one of my brother-in-laws, my mom was like early Novemeber.... it just seems disproportional. None of them died directly because of cold exposure (my brother-in-law was a heart attach, possible influenced by snow shoveling earlier in the day), but it does seem like there is something going on here.

Since yesterday I've had two friends post on facebook about a relative passing away. One's was from a fall--she wasn't elderly, but I don't know if it was a fall outside. I don't know the circumstances for the other one, except that she as 56 years old.

[cid]

As of this posting (8 Jan; 1807 EST) it is 25F. Expected to get to the mid 40's and rain for a few days starting Friday.
Monday was -5. Tuesday was -9. I was only out of the house long enough to start me and Mom's cars and let them run long enough to warm up
and move a few feet back and forth so they weren't frozen into the street. Other than that, we're talking TV, potato soup, and the BA's "Death From
The Skies"...too effin' cold to do anything else...

[squ1d]

Saturday is forecasted as 44C (111F) here

[Swift]

Saturday is forecasted as 44C (111F) here

For all those people who say that the 10F (-12C) weather "proves" there is no global warming, I guess this proves there is.

[FZR1KG]

I could do 44C for a day. Ok, maybe half a day.

[Thumper]

As of this posting (8 Jan; 1807 EST) it is 25F. Expected to get to the mid 40's and rain for a few days starting Friday.
Monday was -5. Tuesday was -9. I was only out of the house long enough to start me and Mom's cars and let them run long enough to warm up
and move a few feet back and forth so they weren't frozen into the street. Other than that, we're talking TV, potato soup, and the BA's "Death From
The Skies"...too effin' cold to do anything else...

It was business as usual around here for me. Except that the gym was full of kids who's schools were closed and had nowhere to hang.

[cid]

This is gonna go down as the coldest winter around here in a looooooooooooooooooong time...

We had the Polar Vortex (sounds like a car from a Tom Slick race) at the start of the month -- down to -10 or so for a couple of nights, then we got up to almost 50 for a week and winter melted...

Here we go again...the last few days have been below 20 (usually highs this time of year are 35 or so), and nights have been dropping to around 0.

Just saw the local weather channel...Monday evening, we are due for at least 36 hours of 5 (highs) down to anywhere between -10 to -15. It's getting tough to stay warm around here. I'm gonna check if my little brother in Pahoenix will rent out his couch for a couple weeks...

hell...it's approaching cold...

[FZR1KG]

It's been getting cold here, not as bad as Cid but we've had -3F the other morning.
Where I went to do some work for the boat about 10min drive from us it was -6F this morning.
We worked in an enclosed workshop with a 175,000BTU/hr kerosene heater and couldn't get the place up past 45F according to the gauge which was about 7 feet off ground level.
Worked inside for 6 hours then looked at my shoes and they still had snow on them from the walk into the garage.
We had to heat each tool in front of the heater before using it as they were like holding ice.
Thankfully tomorrow we'll be done.

[geonuc]

Yeah, it's back to being a wee bit nippy here in Atlanta, too. 14 F (-10 C).

[Thumper]

This has been a great winter so far, just wish it wouldn't keep cycling back to warm every couple weeks. We keep losing our snow. Had a power outage through the night a couple days ago. It was -3F when I got up at 4:30am, and down to 58F inside. I got dressed up, went out and got the generator going. Son of a gun if it wasn't strong enough to run the furnace. Never tried before. Most outages are in summer after a thunderstorm. Got the house warmed up, checked on my nearest neighbor and went back to bed. Expecting 3"-5" tonight and some more on Sunday. I approve.