The Jotul stove that Ron had was connected to a natural gas line.

I never did the calculations to determine how cost effective (or not) the portable propane heaters are.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt G.:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Miller:
Is this a thing?

Certainly not in these parts. Ice storms are actually fairly uncommon here.

Indeed they are; last ice storm we had was 2008. But as the old saying goes, "speak of the devil"....an ice storm warning starts at 6 pm tonight. Estimates are around .25", which would likely mean power lines down.

https://www.weather.gov/media/...eport/SitReport1.pdf

We started up the generator yesterday, just in case.

We dodged the ice storm. Stayed just above freezing.

But you folks in the Pacific Northwet....what's going on out there???

Well, the ice caught up with us last night. Everything's coated this morning. Not too bad yet but if we get much more of the ice the projected 40-50 mph wind gusts tonight could wreak havoc.

I have a friend who is in the process of moving to the Port Angeles/Sequim area in Washington. They got well north of 2 feet of snow there last week and I think there is more on the way. Snow there is unusual; this amount of snow is record-breaking.

How you guys in the Northwest doing?

Was video chatting with junior (who lives in Seattle) yesterday, he was showing me out the window, they’d had about 6 inches, and it was coming down hard. He was working from home, Seattle is all hills, so when it freezes at night, the roads are disasterous. He was looking forward to skiing, though, they are getting feet of snow in those mountains. All my Bellingham friends are posting pictures of the snow. It’s pretty bad when a lot of it falls there, they don’t have enough plows and sand trucks to deal with it.

The storm that hits tomorrow is supposed to be the one that triggers the slides. The reason is that it is not only a large storm but it's warm ("atmospheric river" via Hawaii) and expected to melt a lot of the accumulated snow.

I won't be personally affected but I hope the folks in fire areas have done what they can to prepare.

Lake Shore Drive was closed for about a day while some emergency repairs were made.



Thought to be partially the result of our really cold, then really warm temps a few weeks ago.

Wow!

My brother in San Diego sent me a wonderful book on horses for my birthday. We did not know it was in the package lockbox until last night because neither of us wanted to get out of the car when it was 30 below. When I opened the book all the pages fell out! We think the cold had to have been a factor.

We had another storm yesterday overnight into today. Just cleared the drive. We'd had periods of warmth and melting followed by cold so there's lot's of ice everywhere.

And not to be left out....Hawaii gets some unusual weather...

quote:

It's an unusual sight to say the least. An intense weather system brought snow to the Hawaiian island of Maui Sunday.

A ranger at Polipoli state park in the mountainous portion of the island reported drifts of up to four feet, according to KHON-TV. Snow was seen at an elevation of 6,200 feet, which some say could be the lowest the fluffy stuff has ever been reported on the island.

While the snow was a curiosity, a mass of cold air and moisture known as a "Kona Low" also generated wind gusts that reached 191 miles per hour on the top of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, forcing evacuations of the various observatories on top of the volcano.

"Kona lows are most common during the late fall, winter and spring and are associated with a southward plunge of cold air over the central Pacific Ocean," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Maggie Samuhel.

The winds exceeded the speed threshold that would normally constitute a category 5 hurricane. It's not yet clear what damage the winds may have done to the observatory facilities as the gusts also created dangerous black ice on the mountain road leading to the top of the peak. Workers are just now returning to check on the facilities there.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/e...-winds/#1f34d5656095

quote:

Originally posted by piqué:
My brother in San Diego sent me a wonderful book on horses for my birthday. We did not know it was in the package lockbox until last night because neither of us wanted to get out of the car when it was 30 below. When I opened the book all the pages fell out! We think the cold had to have been a factor.

WHAT a shame, pique!

I guess somehow the extreme cold made the glue so brittle (effectively freezing it) it no longer "held". (I'm assuming it was bound by glue [?].) That, or the materials at the binding reacted to the temperature changes at different rates, separating the binding.

If there's a university near you, I'll bet there's a relevant (don't know off the bat, what that might be) department that could advise you. Around here, Penn State U is full of helpful advisors among the professors. For instance (among other help over the years), after I woodpeckers made gaping holes in my siding*, the Wildlife Dept. sent me a wealth of information about how to rid myself of the pests and even suggestions about how contractors could repair the holes - not so easy.

Maybe - Materials Sciences? If not, perhaps they could advise about a different department.

I don't think it would be a cheat to request a refund on account of the book's damage if sent by Amazon (Thinking of medicines and flowers that were damaged either by extreme heat or cold at my end.) After all, the transporters ought to know how unpredictable the effects of weather extremes are. IMO they could/should have advised you to pick packages up at the P.O. or other headquarters (UPS, Fedex) to protects the contents.

Such extreme temperatures certainly do subject materials to changes never encountered in the usual range of temperatures. (People too - like your asthma)

*when sons left home, I changed my bedroom to the other side of the house and didn't hear their pecking.

Just a few days ago it was almost 50 degrees outside.

What I'm seeing through my kitchen window presently: