Freezing temps down in the south...

[LCA078]

Every time we get below freezing down here in the south, we act like it's a tragic hardship. But for me, it just humbles me for those north of me where it's a daily way of life for a good chunk of the year.

When working with or on heavy iron with this weather, it's more dangerous, everything seems heavier and bolts, pins are more stubborn to remove, engines are harder to start, batteries suck, and my own body hurts more every year. Geez- I'm such a southern boy.

My hat's off to you who thrive in the white stuff...

 

[Coaldust]

Not enjoying your free, Arctic blast subscription, I see.

 

[MG84]

We live in the mountains of Va at 2600' so we're about halfway in between climate wise. This type of weather is not abnormal for our area, but it seems like we went several years with very mild winters. However, the last couple have been about what I'd call normal, maybe a little light on the snow. I've seen 27" of snow in one storm before and temps as low as -12F. Well before my time but the winter of 1960 they had more than 48" of snow on the ground.

I have tire chains for all the essential equipment, two generators, and three days worth of wood in the basement for the wood furnace with another 6 cords at the ready. It doesn't matter where you live or how well prepared you are, this type of weather always means extra work.

I do feel bad for people way down south that don't have homes built for this type of weather, backup heat sources, good snow removal equipment, etc. There are a lot of new homes being built that are all electric, no backup heat sources and no generator, that would scare me.

 

[DDoug]

 

[DDoug]

 

[Junkyard]

They overestimated our snow my double. Forecast was 12-16”. We got 6 at the house. It is darn cold here though which is unusual. Honestly the toughest thing thus far is keeping the humidity up in the house. Fireplace insert keeps the main living area very comfortable, welding machine is in the back of the truck if they missed the snow and it was ice. I agree, most houses around here aren’t built for this at all. I’ll never own one that doesn’t have multiple ways to stay warm.

 

[LCA078]

Not enjoying your free, Arctic blast subscription, I see.

As long as I don't have to work in it, I'm good. I don't mind enjoying it once in a while but it's too much when it becomes a daily life. That's why I'm humbled by those that thrive in it.

I lived through the Texas power outage in 2021 for 3 days without utility power or water. Wife was wigging out a bit because we had a 2 year old and a 6 month old in the house. No problem, I had a lot of wood stockpiled for the fireplace and I back-fed the house with a generator so we could run the natural gas furnaces. I enjoyed 'roughing' it for a few days...if you think roughing it means sleeping in your own bed and just having to bucket flush the toilet.

Like said above, some of the new 'modern' all electric homes are not very comfy when the power goes out...

 

[Shimmy1]

It's been close to 20 years, but the winter of 2008 was as cold as I can ever recall. We had -20F for about 40 days straight, 8 straight days of -30F, and the coldest night was -45F. That type of cold makes 10F feel like the tropics, no joke.

 

[Shimmy1]

I enjoyed 'roughing' it for a few days...if you think roughing it means sleeping in your own bed and just having to bucket flush the toilet.

Where does the sewer go? Here, if the power is out, we have to set a 50kW diesel up to power the lift stations, and it has to be moved between 2 different ones. The city should set up a permanent one on the main station, but we used the grant a few years ago to install one for the main pump house, mostly for fire protection as we fill our tower from a 500k ground storage tank.

 

[LCA078]

Where does the sewer go?

At that time, we were on the City of Austin utility system for electricity and water. Natural gas was a separate utility. When the ice storm was knocking down power lines across the state, city of Austin started cutting blocks of the grid to conserve power since there wasn't enough reserve to go around. They prioritized keeping power to blocks with hospitals, sewer, and a couple other critical services but we weren't in one of those blocks. The crazy funny thing about it was our next door neighbor, literally 20ft from our house, kept their power the entire time. Turns out they were on a different 'grid block' which had a major hospital in it even though we were in the same neighborhood.

The water being cutoff was a different story. When pipes froze across the city and started leaking (we're talking the major supply lines to large buildings, etc.), the city started losing too much pressure to maintain safe sanitation methods and decided to cut supply. So yeah, 3 days of melting snow and ice in the crawfish pot for flushing water was a nuisance, not a disaster....like the busted pipe we had in the kitchen on day one. Starting off the 3 day adventure with a flooded kitchen was kind of a disaster and definitely added to the wife's wigging. That's why you see the rug hung up in the back of the pic.

 

[Coaldust]

Melting snow in the crawfish pot. That’s just something that’s rarely mentioned.

 

[Junkyard]

I’ve been through two other really bad weather situations in the 33 years we’ve been here. 07 I had just bought a new house in the fall, spent weeks trimming cleaning up the mature trees. Ice storm came and took a bunch down. We had no power for a week. My aunt lived in tulsa, oldest house of all the family, and she had power. A small 3 bed, 2 bath maybe 1700 sq ft. There were 10 of us in there for a week. Back in 21 we had a really bad cold snap for a couple weeks, zero or below, most everybody I knew had no power and some didn’t even gas for heat. We had bought that house a few months before and we made it the entire time without a hiccup. I ended up off work an entire month. In that time I finished my entire garage, did my taxes and all kinds of little projects lol.

 

[cuttin edge]

That storm is supposed to hit us late today. Down to 4 inches. Ill be glad as it always warms up to snow

 

[stinky64]

Back when trailer trucking CF had a terminal in Charlotte NC just off I-77. Freak cold front combined with some tropical moisture from down south left about 6" of snow on the road, No plows, DOT had a couple of guys in the back of a truck shoveling sand on the bridges. Dispatcher says "you guys are from Buffalo, snow shouldn't be a problem this hot freight needs to go north now" Yeah right. It was funny to see all those boats on Lake Norman with 6" of snow on 'em.

 

[LCA078]

Watching the news this morning looks like parts of Tennessee got clobbered with ice. Up to an inch thick. Similar to what crushed us back in 2021. That sucks- hope they fair better than us.

Here's a few pics of our roads in 2021. Ice was also about an inch thick. I could only imagine the weight it added to limbs, power lines, etc. It's not the cold that generally hurts us southern folks, it's the ice.

 

[TXRweather]

Yesterday, in 10 hours, we had 1.78" of freezing rain here in TN. All of that fell on 2" of fresh snow. Then, we just received another inch of dry snow on top of all of the ice. We have already met the forecasted high today of 17F. It will drop below zero tonight. The next few days are going to be rough. I am staying at home, where I got heat, food, internet and no apartment dweller cowboys in FWD trucks thinking they are invincible.

 

[DDoug]

For those not used to the cold weather....Keep telling yourself (as you slog thru it all)
"What doesn't Kill you, makes you stronger"......

 

[Coaldust]

That Southern Ice is the worst.

 

[DDoug]

That Southern Ice is the worst.

Cripes....put the hubs in, and run up that hill on the median, you can see a path thru there.....

 

[stinky64]

They do have fire, there's something to worry about.