Stormfly

1 hour ago, Bob Chill said:

This place is in mid/late crappy season form already I see.  Lol. I closed the blinds before Christmas. No reason to open them for a week or 2. Carry on with weenie death by a thousand cuts

I got the tools for the cuts.

2 minutes ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Anecdotally, I don’t need any stats to know that our winters are getting worse. Not as cold, less snow, and shortened periods of snow on ground.

Add not getting just snow to the list!  It's hard to have a storm that stays all snow from start to finish.

This scene always reminds me of the great fall of the GFS when the "chance" goes out the window!

3 hours ago, IronTy said:

Am I gonna have to turn on the AC by the weekend?  Dewpoints in the 70s?

At least if it did there wouldn't be any of those pesky six legged bloodsuckers around!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

(A day late due to illness in family)

1 minute ago, MDstorm said:

After 36 hours without power and recording a record low of 40.2 inside my house, the power has returned!!

Now to check on the Christmas ham outside on the deck.  

 

MDstorm

That's certainly good news!
Did you have any issues with pipes freezing up?

2.5 for the low.  Wind chill in gusts close to twenty below.  Definitely frigid when letting the dogs out.
The door in the mud room has a single pane and always gets icy but the pattern is absolutely beautiful this time!
No need for that fake snow spray in a can this time around!

Just ran a trash can outside to the bin in my PJs and stocking feet.  About 100' trip each way.  Ouch, reminds me of 1984.  Worse actually because I was in athletic shape then!  Wind chill minus 15 verified.

There's nothing worse than wasting a cold snap!  (meaning no snow!)

At least we got an inch on Sunday, January 20, 1985.  The cold that followed was incredible.  We were at -9 with winds gusting into the 40s like today. 

I remember knowing "big cold" was coming and checked the antifreeze in my truck with a hydrometer.  It was just a hair under -20F.  That morning when I pulled the cap it looked like a Martian slurpee!

A lot of folks remember this outbreak because it postponed Reagan's second term inauguration ceremony!

The next outbreak that matched this minus wind would be Jan 19, 1994.  I remember waking up to the power going out.  It was BG&E's activation of rolling blackouts due to so many people plugging in space heaters.  The power was out for 30 minutes. They said the demand shattered record (for the time) of 6.6GW!

47 minutes ago, Roger Ramjet said:

We do not need snow pack tonight to see below 0. I'm already ay 4 degrees at 6:15 PM!

We're not that cold, I'm at 8F.  I will say this, we're now coldest so far for the year.
Last time we were below 10 was that bust of a storm where it started out snow and warmed up, turned to rain and was washed away by the next morning. 

If we had a foot of snowpack and the winds died down we would def see below zero tonight!

13 minutes ago, TSSN+ said:

That’s the goods 

They know how to winter.

10 minutes ago, Terpeast said:

I forgot to do some weather stripping on my windows, and my office window (I WFH) was leaking cold air inside. Tried to find weather stripping products, but they were all out of stock or not available today.

So I used duct tape as weather stripping. It's working. So far...

Duct tape will fix just about anything in a pinch!

1 hour ago, IronTy said:

Went on a 2mi hike.  WeatherBug says -7F with wind-chill of -34F but I'm not sure I buy it's that cold.  Out of the wind you really don't feel cold at all.  But hiking into the wind on the ridgetop I could see getting frostbite relatively quickly without protection for your face.  Further down the mountain 200-300 vertical feet there's hardly any wind so it isn't bad.  I gotta cut some more wood for the stove and cook up some sausage now.   

Nice setup!

Looks like fun.  My border collie would be going nuts fetching sticks there!

1 hour ago, toolsheds said:

That strip mall has been there as long as I can remember.  Looks to have metal studs and probably had an updated facade at some point, but It was standing at least in the late 80s. 

Guess it was just the right wind at the right time.

Really good that no one was in or getting in or out of that car when it came down!

5 minutes ago, lpaschall said:

 

How does this pass code?  That's like a chimney, does not appear to have any structural support at all.  It's all for looks but that surface area is like a sail.  A 70mph gust is 20psf, for example.

10 minutes ago, RDM said:

Curious which source you use?  From the DOM web site, they currently have 77,700+ customers out.   Albeit DOM does not provide service to all of VA.  They had about 2K out as of 0800.  

For those who don't have it already, here's the link to the DOM outage map

https://outagemap.dominionenergy.com/external/default.html   

 

 

A lot of the media outlets post this one:

https://poweroutage.us/

LOL it's sunny and snowing, really showing up when looking south.  Need to look for a rainbow.

Sun out, really clear blue skies to the west, temp down to 26.

1 minute ago, osfan24 said:

Maybe it's because you are east of me, but I put my inflatables down and they are still blowing all around in the wind. We've got limbs flying off of trees and our wreath just about flew off our door before I took it down and brought it inside. I'm not saying it's a hurricane outside but it's gotten pretty windy here.

We have lots of trees which keep the winds near the ground quite a bit lower.  Years ago this place was like being on a mountaintop.  Spring thunderstorms with 30-40 mph gusts would roar through, all the doors in the house would slam and it sounded like firecrackers going off.  Didn't even need thunder and the dogs were running for cover.  Now we just hear roaring and if it gets bad (>50) cracking.  Because the blue spruces are getting kind of tall, especially the 100 footers.  Deck is littered with needles that are sharp as a tack and now sticking like the planks have wet paint on them.

Wind is one of my favorite things but with the cold that's coming, not so much!  I do have proper PPE but it's like that scene out of A Christmas Story with Ralph's brother except I can, in fact, put my arms down.  But keeping a 10mm socket in my hand is damn near impossible!

45 minutes ago, Ralph Wiggum said:

Another overhyped arctic front by the msm and the prez. Unless in the upper Midwest or down wind of the great lakes this is a nothingburger. We get 2 of these a season. Very cold? Sure...but thats also relative. I get it....travel day and all that. I'm just looking at obs and reports and I'm far from impressed. Just being honest. Avocados underperformed

Agree on the nothingburger!  Especially the wind.  The inflatables are laughing at these gusts.  The biggest news IS the cold.  Especially to those unprepared that lose power.  The news sure does like to sensationalize these events.  If they were as bad and widespread as touted, there would be no need to chase storms.

Burst of flurries with gusts.  Can't even flizzard!

Power just failed as I type this!

Nice sleet bomb and wind gust around 840 with temps dropping down from 42 to 35 now rain and creeping back up.

10 minutes ago, WEATHER53 said:

What kind of temp can be maintained inside the tent?

As warm as you like if you are willing to have a fire either inside or out.

Lots of ponding in the yard with less than a half inch of rain so far.  Soil is not perking due it being frozen.  Dogs are going to be skating tomorrow night.