This weather is awful!!

[ziggy29]

It took our dog about 12 seconds to finish her morning bio break outside today and then run back inside where it's heated to a balmy 68º. It was about 15º when we woke up and tomorrow morning will be closer to 10º.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshopper I have about 4 hummingbirds around the homestead. I am rotating frozen feeders from inside the house.

Do you normally have them around this time of year? Up on the Mogollon Rim, I listened to my neighbor and stopped feeding them some time in late September, so that they would not linger around and would migrate south as they were supposed to do.

[bruce1]

Went to the barn and the sun came out for a few seconds. All warnings are ended for here Still very windy, my footprints dissappeared in 15 minutes. We have a flurry right now. Guessing six to eight inches if it were level instead of drifts. Cleanuo about two hours with the big tractor but I am going to wait until the wind drops.

[grasshopper]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound Do you normally have them around this time of year? Up on the Mogollon Rim, I listened to my neighbor and stopped feeding them some time in late September, so that they would not linger around and would migrate south as they were supposed to do.

I am in SE Arizona 30 miles North of Old Mexico, 6 miles West of New Mexico.

We have Magnificent, Blue-throat, and Anna's year round. I also had a Black-chinned for this years Audubon Christmas Bird Count.

Mag's and Blue-throat's are huge hummers, as big as some sparrows. I have seem 2 Mag's coming to the feeder this AM, @ 14 degrees.

[travelover]

Storm in MI is tapering off. I plowed out our neighborhood road and a few older neighbor's driveways with my Kubota. Now to sit back and wait for the cookies to arrive.

[bbbamI]

14 degrees now. Most schools are closed in the area and DH's oncology appt was cancelled due to icy roads. Hopefully we'll see temps above freezing by Friday.

[Dimsumkid]

20+" and counting north of Chicago, I shovelled a path of front door and garage about 30-35" and I exhausted. It's still coming down at a good pace. Definitely heart attack work out there.

[grasshopper]

Light snow, 29 @ 9:30

[youbet]

Following up on last night's report from Chicago, here is a pic of the buried picnic table on our patio as observed through a rear window. Must be about 3 ft of wind-driven snow there.

[youbet]

Here's the view looking out the front door. The sidewalk leading from the porch to the driveway seems to have a 5 ft drift. Note the top of the railings just peeking out...... And it just gets deeper and deeper from there. I'll be trying to clear the driveway enough to get a car to the street today. The rest can wait......

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo 7am central time: The local power company is asking everyone to conserve electricity due to record demand. The city of San Antonio (next door to us and a different power company) is doing rolling blackouts because the system cannot keep up. Temps are in the upper teens. (You folks up north - stop laughing...)

Oh! That's why they were talking about being prepared for power outages down here. I couldn't figure it out as I didn't think we'd get enough ice to down power lines or anything. I forgot about the likely high power demand.

We're 39 now at our house, although downtown Mission and McAllen are showing 33. 38 is the projected high - it might even get into the 40s here!

Tomorrow is the really cold day for us. It might not get above 32 tomorrow, and some places are predicted to get down to 23 overnight.

OK - I know for folks even just 250 miles north of us 23 overnight is no big deal. But around here it is!!!

Audrey

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo 7am central time: The local power company is asking everyone to conserve electricity due to record demand. The city of San Antonio (next door to us and a different power company) is doing rolling blackouts because the system cannot keep up. Temps are in the upper teens. (You folks up north - stop laughing...)

Same power story in Austin, too. Usually you only hear this for statewide heat waves. Haven't heard anything in our little town -- we have our own municipal electric utility that buys wholesale power from the LCRA.

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grasshopper I am in SE Arizona 30 miles North of Old Mexico, 6 miles West of New Mexico. We have Magnificent, Blue-throat, and Anna's year round. I also had a Black-chinned for this years Audubon Christmas Bird Count. Mag's and Blue-throat's are huge hummers, as big as some sparrows. I have seem 2 Mag's coming to the feeder this AM, @ 14 degrees.

What an awesome set of hummers! I love the big ones. What a treat to have them over the winter. I'm sure they appreciate the food!

I know Anna's usually overwinter in the states - I think we even have one around here (lower Rio Grand Valley TX). But I didn't know the Blue-throated and Magnificent stayed around.

You live in awesome birding country. I will never forget my SE AZ birding trip

Audrey

[Cruisinthru]

Well, our electricity is still up, but the natural gas flow is gone. We woke up to very low gas pressure and they have no idea when it will be back. It was 14 degrees this morning and we have gas heat. We are staying warm right now with one electric space heater in one room, but who knows how long the electric service will be with us. We Texans aren't supposed to go thru winters like this, we pay our dues during the summer heat waves.

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruisinthru Well, our electricity is still up, but the natural gas flow is gone. We woke up to very low gas pressure and they have no idea when it will be back. It was 14 degrees this morning and we have gas heat. We are staying warm right now with one electric space heater in one room, but who knows how long the electric service will be with us. We Texans aren't supposed to go thru winters like this, we pay our dues during the summer heat waves.

Yeah -- we actually don't have gas service (it's available and runs to the house but we had an all-electric kitchen and water heater and I didn't want to pay the $180 per year connection fee when we wouldn't be using gas for 7-8 months a year. But we pay for it in times like now, when the heat pump has trouble keeping up and the expensive heat strips have to kick in.

And if the heat goes out, we have a couple of 10,000 BTU kerosene space heaters in the garage which I test every December or so. It's ready if the power goes out (and yes, I know to leave a crack in a window or two if we needed this).

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 (and yes, I know to leave a crack in a window or two if we needed this)

Don't you just hate paying someone to repair those things afterward? Looks like someone could come up with a better way rig up a vent...

[ls99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cruisinthru Well, our electricity is still up, but the natural gas flow is gone. We woke up to very low gas pressure and they have no idea when it will be back. It was 14 degrees this morning and we have gas heat. We are staying warm right now with one electric space heater in one room, but who knows how long the electric service will be with us. We Texans aren't supposed to go thru winters like this, we pay our dues during the summer heat waves.

Might be just a frozen regulator at the service entrance.

[M Paquette]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls99 Might be just a frozen regulator at the service entrance.

Sudden flash of someone trying to thaw the regulator with a torch...

[ls99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Paquette Sudden flash of someone trying to thaw the regulator with a torch...

Is that a Freudian slip? Flash it will be.

[clifp]

I really feel for you all, it seems like this has been a particularly bad winter.

The good news is stocks of heating oil and propane are plentiful, so don't hesitate to turn up the heater. (I own shares/units of a couple propane distributors). Come to think of it I also own shares in one of the largest salt producers. So all in all I am helped by crappy winter weather.

I was trying to make you all feel a bit better by finding someplace with worse weather than the midwest and north east. However, after checking out the usual suspects, Alaska, Mongolia, Siberia, and Greenland, I gave up some of those place are in -10 to -20 range but they don't have sleet and snow.