Here we go again.....snow, sleet, bomb cyclone?

Have a whole house generator (Generac).
Enough to run furnace, fridge, TV, submersible pump in the well and about 1/2 the house.

Generator runs on natural gas.
Stove on natural gas (cooking no problem), microwave (maybe -- would have to turn off other things in the house to run it.)

If neighbors lose power, I might get a few knockings on my door?
They thought I was crazy for installing the Generac 8 years ago to my house.
In the 8 years I have used it six different times, from snowstorms to two tornados and three wind burst knocking down trees onto the power lines.

When the neighbors lose power, they ask me "If" they could plug into the two outside outlets I have, one in the front of the house and one in the back of the house. (I use them for my electric lawn mower in the summer)

Have one in the garage I use for my electric snow blower.

I'm going to bed tonight with not a worry about the storm.

For us all day, no snow, but near 0 F (-18 C) temps all day, windy, supposedly a new record cold for Clovis this time of year. We normally don't see this until late Jan. into Feb.

Hi All,

Erie-ly,
The calm before the storm here, NW Lake Ontario.
(Great Lakes pun, I hope you don't mind !)
All hatches battened down.
Long Johns out of mothballs...
New batteries in flashlights, radios.
Bird feeders full.
The cold front/winds hit in a few hours time.
This storm is the size of North America. Amazing.

I wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas.
If you don't need to travel, then stay put.
Unwrapping presents can be done anytime.
Also, ' It is the thought that counts ... '

Take care,
Have fun,
Dave

Hi All,
The first of the big gusts just started here.
Big temperature drop...

Stay safe my friends.
Dave

Just got back from walking a quarter mile down an ice slicked driveway and road to mail off a couple of bills and retrieve three days of mail. Temp not bad, 28 degrees. Sun coming out and winds dropping a bit. Guessing that the leading edge of the really cold air is upon us.

Just think.......in six months, sunshine and temps in the 80's....

It's headed here today. I have a hookup for my Honda EU1000 to run the furnace. Ground and neutral have to be be connected for furnace to operate.

It's sunny and clear here in western KY; we have about 2" of snow on the ground and 0° F.

Overcast and 9 Deg-F (-13 Deg-C) here in Clovis, NM (Elevation 4,300 ft. - 1311 m.).

School closed today; no newspaper thrown at the end of the drive (a no show).
Last time I saw the township plow was last night around 9:00pm
We'll see if they mail carrier shows up, if she does, I'm still not going out to get the mail (it can sit in my box for a few days?)

My mailbox is like the US Postal mailbox. Open the swinging door near the top.
Close the door, and the mail drops to the bottom of the box.
The door's opening is big enough ---- 6" high x 14" wide --- it will fit the USPS small rectangular box with no problems.
The bottom of the box will hold up to 2 weeks of mail and getting it out the 12" high x 14" wide "Locked" door isn't a problem.
Made with 10gage steel that is powered coated (not painted) so a smaller chance of it rusting.
I give it a wax job once a month to keep it looking good.
Have a very slight dent on the one side where a neighbor's box looked smashed just east of me.

I bet the perp. was surprised when he hit my box!

Have had a few neighbors ask me where I got my mailbox and directed them to the website where I got mine.

Had a problem with vandals a couple of years ago for a month until I set up my Moultrie camera to my tree just behind the mailbox.
That is also the reason I got the mailbox I have --- security reasons living in the township.
Can't call the city cops because I'm not in the city but have to call the county cops and it take a long while for them to show.
Anyway, my trail camera caught the vandals and their car plates. Haven't had too much of a problem since.




As for the weather:
It is 6° below (F) with the wind steady at 22mph with wind gusts to over 40mph.
Frostbite in less than "ten" minutes!



And I've seen no activity on my street at all today.
Even my next-door neighbor who has a plowing service is not out there and he has three Ford F350 super duty diesel truck plows and salt sprinklers on the back of each one. See the 2nd photo of the 1st of his plows as the other two are behind that one on his drive.




Bob, my neighbor, thought we were going to get 6 inches or more of snow but that didn't happen with this high wind.
More of like large drifts around the buildings and very little snow in the parking lots.

So far power stable in Central Texas, despite 12 F WX with 30 knot winds. Dodged a bullet this AM when I let water run in master shower with a shower head on exterior wall...slow drip for a few then luckily full warm water stream. Whew! My Bad I had a crew come and split most of my downed tree fire wood. Unfortunately over the years I have been chunking in a whole log at night and in the AM still enough embers left to add new logs...last two nights the dammed insert wood load is all consumed before dawn...grrrrr...Muck out semi hot coals and start over...

BTW back in 94 when we bought here, I slowly got rid of all our Army and usual northern climate cold weather clothing. This time of year , Here< I am usually in flip flopps and Grilling out side most Christmases. Not today....brrrrrr 21 F and dropping

Hi All,
Not much snow here yet.
Wind is very strong.
Strong Gusts, that top 80km/hr. Seem to be increasing.
Not a day to go outside.
Stay safe.
My friends,
Dave
Near Toronto, Canada

Forecast for the Chicago area is by Wednesday it will be in the lower 40's with light rain and this snow will melt by the Thursday as it will be in the upper 40's and heavy rain.

So, should I go out and shovel the drifted areas of the drive and sidewalk? Or just wait and have the rain take care of it?
I don't really need to go anywhere, even on Christmas day as I gave the kids their presents last Wednesday (early) ahead of this snowstorm/ artic blast!

Hang in there you guys in the south. The warm air is coming your way (sounds like not soon enough?)

Front came through here last night, mid 40s night 50s now. Not cold enough for falling lizards LOL.
My family went to Orlando and I stayed behind to care for the pets 3 dogs and a cat.
Let the dogs out some time in the night and fell back asleep, woke up to them scratching the door.
I don't know how long they were out but they are still in bed under covers LOL.


https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/54729/20221223/raining-iguanas-christmas-artic-chill-brings-hard-freeze-florida-invasive.htm

getback wrote:-7 here this morn........ Lost my hot water at about 13 F w/wind chill yesterday , left the cold running till it stopped...................They say 39 F Hi Monday I guess thats when I will get water ????................

You may get water, unfortunately, it may not be in places you want. After these kind of cold snaps, I go through the house and place my ear against the spigots, or use a screwdriver tip against the pipe and ear against the handle. If there is a problem, you can often "hear" a leak running.

I was working in Center City Philadelphia yesterday and on the way home, the weather took a miserable turn. Winds were very bad yesterday and I'm working on a 30 story building. The hoist that takes us to the higher floors refused to go past the 10th floor which I was on the 20th. There was at least a hour where they wouldn't operate at all. I completely understand as I've been in them when the winds are high. Essentially a big rectangular box mounted on the exterior of the building. You get up in the winds and this thing starts flopping back and forth. The hoist holds about 35 of us and were all jammed in there. When you get to your floor, you certainly wished you brought new undies with you. Driving home, the snow was to the point you couldn't see a block in front of you. Large wet flakes which blanketed your windshield in between wiper swipes. Thankfully, it wasn't sticking to the road enough to make things bad.

getback wrote:Bob !! wondering if the power is out !! Still no water here ,, basement was flooding (well 7" anyway )  I think I got a leak !  Drain pipe from basement was frozen  Not a happy camper been COLD for 4 days no shower 5 days

Ha, power back but internet wasn't. Just turned on the computer and noticed I had a message. This one.

Spent the morning trying to get Frontier to give me back the net. They said Thursday. A little early I guess.

I know the flooded basement thing. Maryland, fourteen inches of rain in about 6 hours.

Because the land here in Clovis is so flat, (tallest terrain feature are the parking lot speed bumps in front of Hobby Lobby),    we have various detention ponds throughout the town and area. (That kind of pond is designed not to retain water, just capture the rain runoff, so we don't get flooded.)

About 8 years ago, we got 4 inches of rain in an hour. The one by Wal-Mart covering an area about 15 acres and at least 20 feet deep was filled within 4 feet of the top, took about a week to drain down. If we got more rain, we would have probably been flooded.

Others have told me it happened about 50 years ago, town sustained heavy flooding. Army Corps of Engineers came in, and installed detention ponds, installed runoff drainage in streets. Downtown every other cross street on Main Street and a good number of other streets throughout the town, there's a concrete channel crossing it, sort of like an inverse speed bump requiring slowing down, to channel water away.

Behind our house, used to be a roughly 30 acre field with only buffalo grass growing dotted with prairie dog holes. West part of our acre lot was a flowing river with a couple inches deep water emptying into the drainage ditch in front of our house. Now it is filled with about 30 or 40 houses. The developer was required to build a detention pond on the 3 acres behind our next door neighbors. It is about 5 feet deep. We no longer have that flowing river through our yard during heavy rains any more.