Weather

[Skywagon]

In jest... sorta

[realshelby]

David, is that background pic taken in your hydroponic garden?

[Skywagon]

Ahhh no.  Just heisted off of the world wide al gore network. Heck I don’t even take aspirin 

 

I didn’t notice it until you called it out. Stupid me

[MikeRC]

2 hours ago, realshelby said:

David, is that background pic taken in your hydroponic garden?

 

That's a tricky one.   My interpretation from the colour and shape would be that it is meant to be maple leafs.  But the pattern would not be Canadian Maple.  Maybe Japanese Maple. 

 

Then again, cannabis possession and sale has been legal nationwide in Canada since Oct 2018.    

So either way you're asking for Canadians to take their weather back.  BTW, it has been -30ºC (-20ºF) for seven of the last 10 mornings here.  Daytime highs haven't broken above 0ºF for the same 10 days.  Warming trend coming tomorrow. 

 

Mike C

[Hosstage]

Yeah, Canada can have their weather back. We won't press charges, not even looking for restitution. Just come and get it out of here!

[realshelby]

4 hours ago, Skywagon said:

Ahhh no.  Just heisted off of the world wide al gore network. Heck I don’t even take aspirin 

 

I didn’t notice it until you called it out. Stupid me

Well, I couldn't miss a golden opportunity! 

 

Not an expert on cannabis leaves....but it sure passed as such well enough.

[Skywagon]

Since the snow came all the wife has done is look through the window. If it gets any worse I’ll have to let her in. 😁

[Dave_in_TX]

Six degrees this morning  south of Austin.

 

[taylor1]

You should post that in Monday's Suck

[Oldrider51]

Monday morning in NW Arkansas, -1 deg F.

[taylor1]

Southern OBX

[BobW03]

Back in 60's and 70's the local gas company coined the phrase 'Montreal Express' even made a song about it. Looks like it moved to Texas?

 

[realshelby]

Spent Saturday and much of Sunday working on securing and placing insulation on water pipes. Stupid contractors left ALL of their work fully exposed in attic after major remodel. Well, that means crawling on your F'n stomach over joists to reach some of the piping. No pipe insulation available here, so I bought the huge bundle of attic insulation and drug that through the attic fixing what needed attention. Added insulation to well head, exterior water inlet and outlet. Frost covers on spigots....but now wonder if I should have put insulation in those....17 degrees here now with 5 degrees expected overnight. That would tie an all time low temp for the area. I have a full tank of propane for the house, 3 full 20lb units to run my little heaters if needed. Most worried about power outages ( so far so good ) as it is happening from line damage AND rolling blackouts due to shutting down power plants....Working on my generator at the moment. I can run both furnaces and have power for small stuff with it. 

I see neighbors putting thin sheets of plastic over plants. They have no idea what single digit temps mean!

[ltljohn]

We are expecting freezing rain tonight into tomorrow morning, significant icing expected.  This means trees and power lines will break.  Generator is ready to go. 10 extra gallons of gas in the shed.  Hoping for the best. 

[Dave_in_TX]

We're experiencing our second blackout of the day. First one was in early am. We have already had several days of freezing precipitation.

[Rougarou]

2 hours ago, realshelby said:

Spent Saturday and much of Sunday working on securing and placing insulation on water pipes. Stupid contractors left ALL of their work fully exposed in attic after major remodel. Well, that means crawling on your F'n stomach over joists to reach some of the piping. No pipe insulation available here, so I bought the huge bundle of attic insulation and drug that through the attic fixing what needed attention. Added insulation to well head, exterior water inlet and outlet. Frost covers on spigots....but now wonder if I should have put insulation in those....17 degrees here now with 5 degrees expected overnight. That would tie an all time low temp for the area. I have a full tank of propane for the house, 3 full 20lb units to run my little heaters if needed. Most worried about power outages ( so far so good ) as it is happening from line damage AND rolling blackouts due to shutting down power plants....Working on my generator at the moment. I can run both furnaces and have power for small stuff with it. 

I see neighbors putting thin sheets of plastic over plants. They have no idea what single digit temps mean!

 

Suck it up buttercup .  You could have been crawling around an attic in a Louisiana September with outside air temps in the mid-upper 90's

[TEDZ]

For once, sub zero in Iowa doesn't seem so bad.  But in  week, I'll be jealous of your weather.

[Rougarou]

[Paul De]

I always get a laugh watching folks who have never lived in snow country making a snowman on the news.  Most don't seem to figure out you start with a simple snowball and roll it around until you have a giant ball of snow.

 

snowman 101

 

[Paul De]

23 hours ago, realshelby said:

Spent Saturday and much of Sunday working on securing and placing insulation on water pipes. Stupid contractors left ALL of their work fully exposed in attic after major remodel. Well, that means crawling on your F'n stomach over joists to reach some of the piping. No pipe insulation available here, so I bought the huge bundle of attic insulation and drug that through the attic fixing what needed attention. Added insulation to well head, exterior water inlet and outlet. Frost covers on spigots....but now wonder if I should have put insulation in those....17 degrees here now with 5 degrees expected overnight. That would tie an all time low temp for the area. I have a full tank of propane for the house, 3 full 20lb units to run my little heaters if needed. Most worried about power outages ( so far so good ) as it is happening from line damage AND rolling blackouts due to shutting down power plants....Working on my generator at the moment. I can run both furnaces and have power for small stuff with it. 

I see neighbors putting thin sheets of plastic over plants. They have no idea what single digit temps mean!

if you have inside shut offs for the outdoor spigots you can shut those and open the outside to drain...if they are not frozen yet.  A trick to keep the pipes from freezing is to open all your  sink facets with a drip to slight trickle, the moving water will tend to keep things from freezing.  Fully exposed pipes as you get to zero and below do need some insulation.  The well head and the buried run into the house can be protected with bales of hay.  Good luck!

[Paul De]

Neighbor wearing his Ducati colors to beat frost bite while clearing the drive.   He complained while the view from the helmet seemed like he was going for a  fun ride was dampened because his lawn tractor is not nearly as fast as his 916!

[BrianM]

40 minutes ago, Paul De said:

I always get a laugh watching folks who have never lived in snow country making a snowman on the news.  Most don't seem to figure out you start with a simple snowball and roll it around until you have a giant ball of snow.

 

snowman 101

 

Needs to be the right kind of snow.

 

Their first face wash can be exciting.

[Rougarou]

33 minutes ago, Paul De said:

if you have inside shut offs for the outdoor spigots you can shut those and open the outside to drain...if they are not frozen yet.  A trick to keep the pipes from freezing is to open all your  sink facets with a drip to slight trickle, the moving water will tend to keep things from freezing.  Fully exposed pipes as you get to zero and below do need some insulation.  The well head and the buried run into the house can be protected with bales of hay.  Good luck!

 

Growing up in SW La, when the temps did get expected to be below freezing, mom would always drip the faucets.  Our house was built on blocks and the pipes had no protection and underside of house no insulation.  Luckily, we never dipped low enough-long enough to do any damage.

[realshelby]

21 hours ago, Rougarou said:

 

Suck it up buttercup .  You could have been crawling around an attic in a Louisiana September with outside air temps in the mid-upper 90's

Been there! AC unit main drain line plugged ( you just hate to see water dripping out the secondary drain line......) so up you go to fix that. I have been in it several times in high temps. Even changing filters is a .....mission! About 10 minutes and you have to come out!

[realshelby]

So far, so good. We have not lost power. Which is a whole other topic here, and one that will be putting some on the hot seat in the near future. 

Kitchen sink cold water....didn't come out. Cabinet is blocking heat to the backside and on the same line on a T is the outside faucet. That froze...so I got it thawed and all works and no leaks. My heat pump in the garage is NOT too good when below 20 degrees,  but done ok with my little propane heater to help it along while I am out here. Am going out now to check the outside faucets.....And try to thaw those and keep them that way. Need heat tape but none to be had....

[Rougarou]

Since they're not used to it, Louisiana has to come up with tire chains fo de sneaux

 

 

 

Happy Mardi Gras, ya'll!!!

[Rougarou]

 

 

 

 

 

[TEWKS]

You think Houston has a problem?  
I hope this comes down peacefully because I’m not gonna mess with it. Last time I thought i’d knock down some large ice sickles before they did some damage. I did some damage. 

 

[Skywagon]

We lost power Sunday at midnight. Still out. City water out too. Fireplace kept downstairs @60. Hopefully power and water soon. Local PD did door to door wellness check today. Nice. We’re ok but a wee bit smelly and cold. Signing off saving battery. Stay safe

[Dave_in_TX]

16 hours ago, Skywagon said:

We lost power Sunday at midnight. Still out. City water out too. Fireplace kept downstairs @60. Hopefully power and water soon. Local PD did door to door wellness check today. Nice. We’re ok but a wee bit smelly and cold. Signing off saving battery. Stay safe

We have had several power outages but so far, the longest outage has been 3-4 hours.

[Selden]

22 hours ago, realshelby said:

So far, so good. We have not lost power. Which is a whole other topic here, and one that will be putting some on the hot seat in the near future. 

Kitchen sink cold water....didn't come out. Cabinet is blocking heat to the backside and on the same line on a T is the outside faucet. That froze...so I got it thawed and all works and no leaks. My heat pump in the garage is NOT too good when below 20 degrees,  but done ok with my little propane heater to help it along while I am out here. Am going out now to check the outside faucets.....And try to thaw those and keep them that way. Need heat tape but none to be had....

 

North Georgia had a week-long cold snap with overnight temps in the teens in January 2018. Everything was fine until I turned on the shower on the fifth morning, and there was no water. It turned out that the water line to our house isn't buried very deeply, and had frozen. Come spring I built a planter box over it. I also placed an old floor lamp with an incandescent spotlight bulb directly under where the pipe enters the house. So far, so good. 

 

First thing I did when buying this place in 2017 was to put a gas log in the fireplace. It has a millivolt gas valve, so no external power is required. Last fall I installed a Wi-Fi controller for the switch. I worried that the controller wouldn't work if the power went out, then I realized that the female push on connectors had piggy back male connectors, so the fake rock with the toggle switch can still be used in an emergency. Our heat pump is not much help when the temperature drops below freezing, and in a pinch the gas log can keep the entire house warm.

 

 

This is one of the few IoT projects that I have found to be genuinely useful. Rather than jumping out of bed at dawn to turn the fire on, I can program the log to come on 6:30-7:00 in the morning, and I can turn it on/off from anywhere in the house using a phone or tablet. 

[Selden]

I know people are getting tired of the snow in many parts of the country, but this is not the best way to get rid of it: New Jersey man used gasoline, set lawn on fire to get rid of snow and ice, police say.

 

In other news of stupidity, a skeptic of the Gorilla Glue girl story decided to disprove her claim by putting some Gorilla Glue on the lip of a plastic cup, then putting it in his mouth. Predictably, this did not turn out well....

 

[Paul De]

On 2/16/2021 at 10:40 AM, realshelby said:

So far, so good. We have not lost power. Which is a whole other topic here, and one that will be putting some on the hot seat in the near future. 

Kitchen sink cold water....didn't come out. Cabinet is blocking heat to the backside and on the same line on a T is the outside faucet. That froze...so I got it thawed and all works and no leaks. My heat pump in the garage is NOT too good when below 20 degrees,  but done ok with my little propane heater to help it along while I am out here. Am going out now to check the outside faucets.....And try to thaw those and keep them that way. Need heat tape but none to be had....

We leave kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors open to help keep pipes in perimeter walls from freezing when we are away from our Northwoods place.  The furnace is set down to 55 so when the temp goes subzero at night during Dec & Jan it definitely helps to keep the air in the cabinets between the living space and outside walls with enough warmth to not have pipes freeze.

[Paul De]

I’m actually wanting it to stay cold and not warm too quickly.  We have 2 feet of snowpack that fell in about a month and it would be best to have that melt slowly.  We’re lucky 30 miles to the south they have 3 feet of snowpack, almost 20 inches of it came yesterday!

[BrianM]

1 hour ago, Paul De said:

I’m actually wanting it to stay cold and not warm too quickly.  We have 2 feet of snowpack that fell in about a month and it would be best to have that melt slowly.  We’re lucky 30 miles to the south they have 3 feet of snowpack, almost 20 inches of it came yesterday!

Not so much the warmer temperatures, rain will melt snow much faster.

[BobW03]

 

[Skywagon]

Well....went outside to go into garage.  Was I surprised when I looked down and water was flowing out of the garage.  Opened the door and the ceiling was hanging, the walls soaked and several inches of water in the garage.  We had no idea we even had water in the garage.  The garage is separated from the house.  Cars below and about 500sq feet of decking above. It was built to make it a room someday but we never did build it out.  Apparently between the floor above and he ceiling below the builder put a water pipe in the floor joist area.  That space is about 12 inched tall.  No insulation at all.  Cant see the pipe but no doubt that is where it came from.  I dug around in there and found a cut off I didn't know was there.  We bought this house new in 2007.  We had temperatures of 8 degrees with sustained temps below 20 for 3 days.  Its about 28 now.

 

I filed a claim with insurance.  Of course they can't get to it or tell me when but said just fix it and send us the bill.  We have a plumbing contract with a local and of course cant reach him.  I had the cover on my RT so it did not get wet, otherwise it would have been soaked.  Texas is not built for cold weather and down south here we never get cold weather like this.  The state is a train wreck right now with the effects of the weather.  There are 3Million without power and most of Houston is not pumping water.  We have just a trickle of water in the house, which is interesting because the water in the garage was flowing at a pretty good clip.  Our house including the attic never got below 40 so not expecting any damage to the house.  Ugh...what a day.

[TEWKS]

A big PITA, sorry to hear!

[Paul De]

Skywagon sorry to hear your plight.  Tough to deal with frozen pipes and no electricity.  
 

Hoping that the low water pressure in the house because it was gushing out in the garage.  Water pies near/in exterior walls remain vulnerable .  If it still is a trickle that points to a frozen section elsewhere.  If you are lucky enough to not have any more split pipes from freezing,  open your faucets to trickle water from all of them.  Including hot side!  Dripping fast to a slight trickle is enough to fight off pipe freezing.  Keep under sink cabinet doors open

[Selden]

It's tough to read stories here and in the news. North Georgia dodged a bullet. Ice storms to the north, ice storms to the west. We had a light dusting of snow Monday morning, but rain Monday afternoon washed it away. Cold temps overnight created some black ice, but by the time we needed to go out for groceries Tuesday, it was (barely) above freezing. 

 

We have had a few power outages in the past, but so far, not this time. This too will pass.

[Rougarou]

We 'sposed to get some yuck tonight.  Expected 1/2" of ice.  I've got my little generator full with another couple of cans of fuel in case the power dies.  Up here, we've only gone a few days without power, no biggie.  My sis-in-law went several weeks, that convinced me that a whole house generator has moved higher on the priority list for us.  Hopefully I fund it soon and never need it for an extended amount of time.  So for now, my little 6500watt will do for the essentials.  I also have propane logs in the fireplace and a propane fireplace in the basement.

 

But we ain't gettin' nothing like Texas has right now.

[Skywagon]

Well I managed to get a plumber here.  There were two breaks in the copper.  One was in the wall and one was above the ceiling in the garage.  He cut them out and spliced in Pex.  A mere $500 later.  Now I need to find a good sheet rocker next week.  Most of the garage walls and ceiling will have to be replaced.  Here is a picture of the culprit.

 

Paul De...the slow water in our house is a city issue.  Everyone in our community has the same issue.  The water department is updating us ever so often as they have some issue.  We are under boil warning too.  We have left every faucet in the house at trickle since before the temp drops.  They are still on trickle.  We have all the cablinet doors open.  

 

 

[Rougarou]

4 minutes ago, Skywagon said:

 Now I need to find a good sheet rocker next week.  Most of the garage walls and ceiling will have to be replaced.

 

 

I'd send my wife down there, but she probably wouldn't want to go.  She does all our sheetrock work.

[Hosstage]

Skywagon, I'm really sorry to hear about the damage and pia you're dealing with. I'm glad you were able to find a plumber, at least that's one thing good to go.

Good luck man, wish I could be there to help.

[Skywagon]

Thanks Hosstage.. very nice of you to say. As of this morning we have power and we are warm. Still no water in our city. We will likely be in brownout rotation sometime today. As humans do there has been a big run on food and water. Shelve empty especially bottle water which is crucial right now. I already have 4 cases that I keep for boating so we will be ok for a couple more days. Sure would like a shower

The city shut down restaurants from selling food that requires water to prepare or dishes to be washed due to the contaminated water. If you don’t have food at home your screwed. We are ok here too as we keep enough on hand due to Covid

 

Even if they get water flowing, the chemical lines that treat water are broken due to Wx. We may see water flow on Friday and safe water by Saturday 

 

Feels like deja Harvey but won’t last as long and recovery will be pretty quick and not nearly as bad. Many many homes have bursted pipes and water coming out of the ceilings. 
 

Regards,

David

 

 

 

[Paul De]

Skywagon,  glad to hear you had only a few pipe splits to fix, power and heat back on.  What a terrible event for the folks who typically don't need to deal with temperatures that low and for as long as it lasted.  I am hoping you and the region are on the backside of all this with temps returning to your winter normal.  Busted pipes and property damage are a huge PITA and I am sure some more vulnerable families in the region faired worse and lost a loved one to this frigid weather.  Hopefully when this all settles down and you can look back with some sense of humor about it all we can list all the positives of living in cold weather.

[Sonor]

Sorry to hear it for all that have suffered through.  I hope it gets better for everyone soon.  Here in central Carolina we have had a colder than normal winter.  Last week an ice storm that took out my windshield and another one hitting us today.  But thankfully, no sub zero stuff.  I just can't imagine what Texans are going through. They aren't used to it and not sure if all houses are built to take it.  Stay safe everyone, it will be over soon.

[Rougarou]

8 minutes ago, Sonor said:

Sorry to hear it for all that have suffered through.  I hope it gets better for everyone soon.  Here in central Carolina we have had a colder than normal winter.  Last week an ice storm that took out my windshield and another one hitting us today.  But thankfully, no sub zero stuff.  I just can't imagine what Texans are going through. They aren't used to it and not sure if all houses are built to take it.  Stay safe everyone, it will be over soon.

 

Last week was worse than this week.  Last Saturday morning, I had to get my covid shot, and encountered a tree being pulled off the road.  This morning, a sheen of ice on my windshield, but none on the roads, it was nothing but wet roads on my commute from Walnut Cove to the east side of Greensboro.  The expected 1/2" of icing did not happen, but the weather Nostradamus's' are still saying that it's coming.  

 

I actually coulda rode one of the bikes, but my tow truck driver has already warned me that she will not come get me if I fall a third time due to ice.

[Dave_in_TX]

1 hour ago, Sonor said:

Sorry to hear it for all that have suffered through.  I hope it gets better for everyone soon.  Here in central Carolina we have had a colder than normal winter.  Last week an ice storm that took out my windshield and another one hitting us today.  But thankfully, no sub zero stuff.  I just can't imagine what Texans are going through. They aren't used to it and not sure if all houses are built to take it.  Stay safe everyone, it will be over soon.

This weather is so unusual that most homes and just about everything else is not designed/built for these conditions.

[Selden]

2 hours ago, Skywagon said:

As of this morning we have power and we are warm.

 

That is a marked improvement. 

 

I am curious as to why you had the water line in the garage repaired, rather than just leaving it shut off, since previously you didn't even know that it existed.