Maryland burbs here. We are expecting a dicy commute tomorrow evening. Rain changing to snow and plunging temperatures. Not much precipitation is expected, but the early rain will wash away the pre-treating salt brine, and then the roads will freeze. And then we’ll have a few days of cold temps - but nothing like the bitter cold the midwest will see.
My central Wisconsin elderly, not healthy, in laws are stubbornly toddling around their 130 year old house (complete with the original single pane windows) and told us yesterday that the first floor toilet has frozen again for the second time this winter. It’s the only bathroom MIL can access right now as she just last week was released from 6 weeks in rehab following a hospitalization. They can flush the toilet using water from a bucket. They have no business staying in that house through the polar vortex. It is quite frustrating to watch from afar.
I shouldn’t complain about the Bay Area weather then. The kid calls me a wimp now every time he returns from St. Louis and says that 50 degree weather in the winter is balmy.
That polar vortex is why we’re seeing so many out of state license plates in AZ right now. It’s in the 70s here and beautiful. So beautiful it may have made ASU actually move up my son’s college list this past weekend when we were there for his music auditions. He’s not been all that interested in the local U but it was presenting an alluring picture.
D14 is in Chicago suburbs though, and it’s her first winter with a job, a car, and a commute, and she’s getting a doozy. Early this morning hers was the car with the biggest pile of snow behind it and just her to shovel it out. She said she might be working from home some days this week due to weather. DH and I lived in the Midwest for grad school and it never got that far into negative temps. I really think she should just come home for a visit.
We got about 10” of snow today and it’s still snowing. Tomorrow the system moves out and we’ll get some lake effect (in Michigan). H had to park his car in the road and snowblow a trail before he could get his car in.
I think the low tomorrow is going to be -10 and the high on Wednesday-2. But it’s going to warm up to over freezing by Sunday. I’d rather it stay cold, the warm ups just make an icy mess, the snow is easier to deal with.
But everyone here is doing their snow dance, big snowmobile country and it’s been a sparse season. I have trails behind my house and you can hear the snowmobiles all night and day.
@Parentof2014grad, if your D can, encourage her to work from home. Those temperatures are nothing to mess with.
I was at my BIL’s cottage all weekend, their house was so cold. I was so happy to get home and so grateful for my very well insulated house with good windows. And my attached garage.
All of our local schools and usually the local universities will close when it gets this cold.
There’s a reason why I spent 5 years convincing DH we should move out of Chicago then the next 5 years nagging until it happened. The lowest I experienced was -26 but we had plenty of sub zero times. Our pipes froze (then burst on the next warm day; we had the plumber on speed dial). It barely got above 60 in our master bedroom. DH had to go shovel the flat roof in single digit temps. Batteries would refuse to work until they felt warm enough. The cat slept on top of the heat vent. Dishes in the back of the cupboards on the outside wall were too cold to handle.
San Diego isn’t tropical, but today I was strolling on the beach shown in my avatar.
We’re in the deep south and expect to see 1" - 3" of snow. Lows Tues. and Wed. are forecast to be in the teens. Social media is blanketed in memes about running out to buy milk and bread.
I’m thankful dh is retired now since during the last severe ice storm he was stuck at his office overnight until rescued by a friend with an AWD truck. This kind of weather is so rare that cities don’t have the equipment to deal with it.
Some schools were closed today due to widespread flu. Most have announced closings for Tues. and some for Wed. as well.
The University of Iowa will close from 5 pm Tuesday through noon Thursday, the first time in close to 10 years that the whole university will be shut down.
South Central Wisconsin here. I had to work, as us hospital employees always work no matter the conditions. Many inches of snow were forecast for overnight and I was really rather scared of getting stuck as my street would not be plowed by 6:30 am. But the snow was less than anticipated, luckily. Maybe 4 inches early am. I got up early, shoveled, dug my car out, working up a sweat as it was a balmy 18 degrees, not close to zero as over the weekend. But there was a little sleet and had to de ice a fine layer twice on my car. My Fit made it to the bus line on unplowed roads and then was slow if ok driving to work. I had a workout shoveling the rest of the snow on arrival home, as it fell all day long. D has her car parked in my drive while out of town, and should go clean off her car while still above zero this evening, as it will be far more difficult when she returns on Thursday.
I am always pleased with the hearty Wisconsin ethic however. I arrived home to temps in the teens and most houses in my neighborhood had someone out shoveling as the snow had finally stopped and the sun was out. The sideways are always tidy for walkers in my neighborhood, no matter the temperature.
Northwestern, DePaul, Illinois State, think a few others are closing. I talked to my son at University of Michigan and they didn’t announce it yet but Tuesday /Wednesday is the engineering internship fair… Agh…
I feel for all of you guys - went to school very upstate NY and lived through lots of crazy weather. Ice storms, blizzards, kids skiing and driving snowmobiles down Main Street. You should all hop on a plane and come down here to FL tomorrow - we are getting to 50 tonight (brr - I’m actually wearing long pjs tonight!) and have highs of 70 all week.
Our schools just closed again for the next two days. I don’t think that has happen before but it nice as it gives parents some lead time on setting up childcare.
Wishing my S’s school would close like the other universities in the region. H shoveled us out this morning (a rare treat!) and I picked up groceries this afternoon so we are all set to stay home until Friday. Current prediction is -14 Wednesday and -26 Wednesday Night.
The governor has declared a state of emergency for the state of Michigan. I know that all of our government agencies are closed but I’m not sure about the universities.
Michigan State was open yesterday and I just checked and they are open today. I guess a state of emergency is NBD to them! Yikes!
My garbage was not picked up yesterday and won’t be picked up until they are scheduled next week. I saw that someone suggested holding your mail to help carriers.
And here, we are getting more snow, up to another 10”.
I am grateful that the very unnecessary meeting that my H had scheduled for today was moved until tomorrow. Here’s hoping they will cancel that. Last week, he had to drive home in freezing rain.
Most of our local schools are now closed through Thursday. My university just cancelled classes for tomorrow and Thursday but no indication of what that means for us univ staff yet.
My anxiety warmed me during my drive to the office, which took me twice as long as usual (one hour instead of 30 minutes). The roads are very slippery because of the snow; salt and sand don’t work well at the cold temperatures we’re enduring.
Local schools closed today and tomorrow here in north central Minnesota, when they usually never close unless the real temps (not factoring in windchill) drop past -25 degrees F. Currently it’s minus -18 F, with a projected low tomorrow at 8 a.m. of -31, and projecting this cold spell will reach its low of -35 F at 3 a.m. on Thursday.
When I woke up here 15 years ago to start house-hunting (a move from Upstate N.Y.), it was minus -37 F, leaving me feeling blessed that the rental car parked outside the hotel started up just fine. Once it drops below minus - 15 F, the outdoor temps don’t feel much different. You just have less margin of safety if your car stalls or if that older person slips and falls outside. We bury our water lines deeply here, and our houses are better built than elsewhere. Do you hear that, California? (I briefly lived in the San Diego area more than 30 years ago.)