My daughter’s temps in Abilene (about 15) and snow was worse than Denver today (even if you watched the second half of the Bronco game and thought we were in a blizzard, we weren’t) and her school is already cancelled for tomorrow. It will be 45 here tomorrow and 50 by Tuesday.
We kept getting notices from the apt management telling us to run the water in the sinks and keep the heat at 60 and open the cabinets to prevent the pipes from freezing in the ‘frigid’ weather. All the sinks (and I assume pipes) run along the inside hallways (with windows/patio doors across the rooms, maybe 25’ away?), and pipes don’t freeze at 60 degrees interior temp. And 20 degrees isn’t exactly frigid. Now at my friend’s house yesterday morning? Minus 33 (and wind chill -55)? THAT’s FRIGID!
Power went off 545 CST and back on 9:10P. We had just moved some food into a cooler and put on the porch but planned to toss raw meat but left in the fridge so it wouldn’t smell. They say you have 4 hrs so should be ok.
Heard that TVA lost a line which hit my area I guess my utility MTEC is served by TVA.
Report from our neighborhood in NW CT. 24 inches or so of snow. It was still snowing lightly when everyone went to sleep. And just about everything is cancelled Monday.
D1 has about 18 inches at her house in CT. It has been quite a welcome to winter for my SoCal girl. She is used to lots of snow, but only when it involves skiing! Her H’s cousin’s H is in construction and has a plow on the front of his truck. He already came by D1’s house and plowed their driveway for them. I am happy that they have family that live nearby and have been so welcoming to them with the move.
So odd - I doubt we had a half inch - yet the trees are falling from ice. It will be 18 at the high today - so more ice. I guess it’s the trees taking out the electricity stations. They said TN has lost the most, followed by MS. A small system in MS is telling its customers it may be a week. Dang.
We were 3.5 hours - hopefully nothing today but with more ice, who knows.
When we lived in the Dallas area our new home had pipes freeze with 5 degrees F out and 70 degrees F in. The pipes are on the outer walls. I was able to defrost them with a hairdryer.
We have now lived for many years in Colorado and have not had pipes freeze. Built differently. We do open doors to sinks and drip water if it gets below zero.
We texted our Texas relatives to come spend time with us to warm up. I feel for the people who are weathering this storm.
Checked on the cabin this morning. Boy, that’s a lot of beautiful snow. I’d rather be holed up there sipping my hot morning coffee than here. I can’t tell how much snow fell last night because there was a good base to begin with. A young man who lives in town has become our jack-of-all-trades. He texted this morning to let us know he’s available should we need any help. I love this friendly Maine community and our little place in the woods.
I know for many this storm poses inconvenience and potential danger but, if you have power and can stay safely inside, these are the days to slow down and enjoy the beauty of winter. I really miss this.
Freezing/bursting pipes is a big fear of mine. I know of several people in town who’ve had it happen with temps in the 10-15* range and had electricity/heat running. Our houses just aren’t built for it.
Historically, if it gets below 20* or sometimes 25 if it doesn’t break freezing for several days, I start dipping pipes. I figure better safe than sorry, even though the boiler guy said we probably shouldn’t have trouble since the boiler heats up the pipes in the basement so much. But still, I’ve had magic shell freeze in our cabinets before, when we had our old boiler set at 63. Our kitchen (and our bedroom) don’t have radiators.
So far this time, I haven’t started the dripping. With our heat at 68, our house is SO warm. Even the kitchen isn’t too terrible. Upstairs, our X-Box room where I sleep on the couch (when escaping H’s snoring) was TOO warm for me to sleep. But I might drip tonight since the temps will be between 5-10* for lows and not break freezing until Monday. I might cut back the heat a little to 66-67 and see how that does. I know I’ll be crying when I get the heat bill next month, but at least I can afford it now.
All it takes is a quarter inch of freezing rain to cause power outages. The lines themselves can become too weighed down as well as all the trees falling. In my area of NC we got lucky that a lot of our freezing stuff was sleet which bounces off rather than freezing rain which glazes all surfaces. Made for super slick roads but didn’t bring down lines or trees.
In my area of Atlanta we have a lot of fallen limbs/trees partially blocking streets and intermittent power outages due to downed lines. But I am not complaining as no outage has been for an extended period of time and internet has been restored.
Crossing fingers this is the worst of it here. We only have a couple hours forecast to be above freezing for the next two days and winds so I’ll be a bit nervous about more issues from trees until we are past that.
Northern Va near DC-– the freezing rain never arrived so we just had snow, then about 2-3 inches of sleet yesterday. Roads were icy and slick last evening, but are better today. Even the hilly street we live on is pretty clear, though there are patches of ice.
No power outages reported in the county. Schools will probably open tomorrow.
All in all, we were pretty lucky.
Temperatures won’t get above freezing all week and the forecast shows more snow is expected next weekend.
I live east of DC by the Chesapeake Bay. We got about 7.5” of precipitation - over 5” of snow and then the rest ice. Fortunately the freezing rain/sleet did not freeze onto tree limbs so we don’t have wide spread power outages. But the layer on top of the snow makes it very difficult to remove and/or walk on. I just tried to take my dog out to relieve herself - at 50lbs, she was just sliding across the top layer unable to gain traction. Even I had to jam my feet down to take a step and break thru the surface. I only went a few steps before stopping - she managed to find a spot under our deck stairwell to relieve herself. Of course, it took her forever trying to sniff out a spot - if you are a dog owner, you know what I mean!
I’m off on Mondays normally so enjoying a forced day of relaxation rather than my normal day to run errands. Dh and my sons are all working from home. My place of business is closed today but doubt they will be tomorrow - I don’t have the luxury to work from home so it’s going to be fun figuring out how to get out of my neighborhood.
Forecast is for high temps in the 20s for the next week so the snow/ice isn’t going anywhere. And weather models are showing another possible storm this weekend.
