Your Weather, 2024

[flowerbug]

we filled up a few buckets for water to flush the toilets and i had drinking water and more water for flushing in storage if needed.

we'd just started brushing our teeth and the power went out. it was fairly warm out (around freezing) so i didn't light the propane fireplace thinking that perhaps in a few hours the power would be back on again.

woke up to a slightly chilly house and got the propane fireplace going and that held the temperature steady for the rest of the day until the power did come back on (almost 24hrs later).

a lot of of people got knocked out besides us, a friend had his place get down to 37F. that would have been tough, but since he had to be at work the next morning he could not come up this way and visit his sister at her place which did have power.

so, we camped, told stories, warmed things up in the fake fireplace, i got out the guitar and went to restring it (a string had broken while it was stored - wondered what that strange sound was but never figured it out until that day) and then broke a new string in the process so that was a failure, but i tried.

snow was enough to shovel and it was wet and heavy underneath. which is why it took down so many trees and wires. i took it in stages and didn't finish all of it until this afternoon when the end of the driveway got cleared at last. i hate having it all cleared and then the snowplows come along and fill it all in again so i leave that as much as i can. unless it is going to get really cold and freeze it all solid. breaking it up with a heavy shovel will work - i have an old cracked one just for that reason... it's a good use for an already broken shovel. i have two other broken snow shovels too. only one left that does what it is supposed to do. the others i use for heavy pushing to move the snow to where it should go. just pushing. not too much lifting...

then the next evening the power went out again and so i fired up the fake fireplace again, but at least the power came on a few hours later so we didn't get very cold.

wind chills were pretty brr! internet was out until 5pm today.

 

[ducks4you]

We have a boiler for our heat. One winter our boiler went out, and we didn't notice it right away bc it took hours for the temperature to really plummet.
SO SORRY for your power outages!!
Didn't get to it, but DH and I will be changing oil in our generator this weekend. We ran it for 3 days straight in June when we had a derechio (which the state didn't recognize). DH had to have AC and power to run his CPAP machine. We went barebones with anything else that wanted electricity, just turned off circuits.
We are an island of light while the rest of the town stays dark.
We now have a new LED photoelectric barn light, a dusk-til-dawn encased light above the entry door to the garage, and 2 photoelectric light bulbs in the front of the garage. They pull so little wattage.
Really, it's only a bad summer storm or bad winter storm when we lose our power. I feel for the folks on the coasts, who lose theirs 3 weeks at a time.

 

[Alasgun]

I hear you @ducks4you, i like to think we’re more prepared than most sane people. Sometimes i feel guilty when we’re that “island of light” as i have 3 families with small kids in the culdisac.

@flowerbug, this is my fireplace which i built before Y2K! Since then i’ve fired it less than a dozen times but it’s more than capable for anything id need.

 

[digitS']

i built before Y2K!

Very nice looking fireplace.

Steve

 

[GottaGo]

East Tennessee is just not prepared for 8-10" of snow in 24 hours, much less negative Temps (plus wind chill, or is that minus?). Dug out the steps and sidewalk and to the RAV doors with the dust pan!! No shovel here, the snow was too wet for the broom, so I got it done with that.

Making a run for home today, wish me well!

 

[ducks4you]

We can handle that much snow what with a HD Snowblower and tractor.
We may have that much snow tomorrow morning.
Everybody local is ignoring the storm coming in tonight and Thursday night.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Ice Ice Baby.

Everything is covered in ice. But it is 10 degrees warmer than yesterday!

 

[Branching Out]

Our deep freeze is coming to an end with temperatures hovering at the freezing mark, and now snow is added to the mix. About 8" has fallen since I woke up several hours ago, and it is supposed to continue for another six hours or so. Then colder and more snow and ice pellets forecast for tomorrow, and a week of fairly heavy rain after that.

The other night we had the most beautiful sunset; the colours are often very saturated when the temperature is low. Now all we see is snow, which is pretty in its own way too.

 

[flowerbug]

very cold and blowing snow, but nothing major for new accumulation so far. not expecting too much, but we'll see what tomorrow brings. we're ready any way. food, water, heat...

been out driving the past few days for various errands/appts, but the roads are not clear and so it is worth being patient and not being silly on the gas/zippy pedal.

 

[digitS']

@Branching Out ,

The Reuters News Service is providing news to their international audience about your weather, school closures and air traffic problems.

We have had about 7" of snow so far but are supposed to have a break tomorrow and then another storm that night. I have been out 4 times to move around the light stuff. It was 14°f (-10°C) here this morning. So ... it was warmer by 1° than @baymule 's farm in Texas!

Nice to have some warming. That's supposed to continue but I hope that the change doesn't happen quickly with the soil frozen to a good depth. The ag people have a couple of stations measuring soil temp at about 4" and it is 19 & 20 °f (-7 & -6 °C). The soil was frozen before but absolutely plunged beginning the 11th, to even lower.

Steve