magpiemaniac

11 minutes ago, kvegas-wx said:

Van Denton backing off for the central and southern Triad.  Later onset, earlier finish tomorrow.  Still more than .25 but the .5 he says will be VA border on up.

Here’s a screen grab from his update...

Ugh.  Propane guy didn’t show up today.  Office said he was swamped.

Tank meter reads that I’m at 60% of a 500 gallon tank.  So until he can get out here, I have 300 gallons to fuel a 22 kw generator, two gas HVACs, gas range, and gas tankless water heater.  I cut the pilot light on the logs.  Running the generator wide open on a full load will burn about a 188 gallons in 48 hours.  Half load burns 122 gallons in 48 hours.  I’m thinking worse case scenario would be 72 hours without power with generator burning 232 gallons leaving the rest for appliances, etc.

I’ll be alright.  Right? 

At least we’re not in Texas.  Count your blessings.

59 minutes ago, magpiemaniac said:

37.6/24.5 currently

Less than an hour later...

35.8/24.0

37.6/24.5 currently

RAH cut back a little from their early morning ice forecast.

The quite before the storm.  High of 43.9 today with some nice sun since late morning.  Current temp of 41.9 with dew point of 24.6.

16 minutes ago, BornAgain13 said:

The Weather Channel App has my area reaching 37 degrees tomorrow afternoon... nothing that I have seen in the guidance shows that...

Like I’ve always said, checking The Weather Channel for weather info is like reading People Magazine for investing advice.  

39 minutes ago, BornAgain13 said:

Just got my propane topped off... Gas Logs will be ready to roll if we need them. 

I’m still waiting on Hank from Strickland Propane to show up with the bobtail this afternoon.  I’m sitting on 300 gallons—enough for a few days of generator use—but I’d feel better with the tank topped off.  I cut the pilot on the logs to conserve what I have.  LOL

17 minutes ago, wncsnow said:

Euro doesn't even really drop it below freezing here and it definitely is warmer

Looking at the Euro at this point is going to be a bit coarse and granular.  Sort of like counting hairs on someone’s head with a wide angle lens a quarter mile away.

3 minutes ago, kc4wsd said:

Eden, NC:
Low this morning of 24.8 at 7:22A. Currently 37.6/19.7
Lots of sunshine in Greensboro, and finally warming a bit after a very cold start to the day. You should be getting plenty of sun for recharging those batteries@magpiemaniac

You’re right.  I’ve been keeping an eye on it.  Haven’t had much sustained sun since the 9th.  My battery is up to 2.62 volts after some sun today.  Another couple of hours should fully charge it to 2.78.

This is not what we meant when we said we wanted winter weather.  Ugh.  

6 minutes ago, kvegas-wx said:

Some bright sunshine here in the Triad for a few hours today may help the road situation tonight a bit.  But we are nearing the time for OBS with only a few model runs left.  Generators were flying off the shelves this morning at Lowes in GSO.  They sold 8 while I was standing there.  

Lets get this over with.  I'm ready for 50's and sunshine next week.

I was going to run over to Home Depot on Battleground for some new work gloves, but I’m not eager to fight the anxious mobs.  (My old ones will do.)  My neighbor had the foresight to schedule a major tree pruning and cutting this morning to avoid the worst.  I’ve been watching the crew cutting away.  I’m also waiting on my propane guy to come top my tank off.

The more prepared the people around you are, the easier it is for everyone.

1 hour ago, AirNelson39 said:

Just got a Tempest weather station here in southern Caldwell County. Excited to see the details with this borderline ice event tomorrow. Y’all can check it out here, https://tempestwx.com/station/41819/grid

Nice.  I’ve had a Tempest since late December.  I really like it.

5 minutes ago, frazdaddy said:

BTW, if you are interested. A couple of guys from the old Canes forum have migrated to the HF canes forum. Not bad disco in the GDT's 

Thanks.  I’ll look that up.  My wife and dog would rather I vent to a message board during games.  At my age, I’m more into an old style forum than social media.  There is no game discussion and insight on Twitter.  It’s just snarky comments.

The wind—something that wasn’t an issue during this past weekend’s event—will more than make up for any slightly reduced ice accretion that might happen.

My retired in-laws will spend thousands each year on flying and vacationing all over God’s creation—and they earned that—but they won’t spend a dime on even the smallest generator and prep items to prepare for the most common of emergencies.

I call people like that “one episoders” because if they appeared in a series like The Walking Dead, they’d wouldn’t make it through one episode.

Whisper a prayer for those poor husbands trying to buy a generator tomorrow who have to return home empty handed.  

7 minutes ago, tarheelwx said:

I'm really amazed/disappointed/surprised/irked, etc that with such overwhelming model guidance for a disruptive storm, RAH has not expanded the watch area - not having Randolph and Davidson county in there......... what in the world are they thinking?

Maybe that's why they are meteorologists and I'm just a hobbyist.

They’ve seemed a step behind other offices pretty often lately.  Their forecast discussions and maps don’t seem as updated as frequently.

30.7/22.4 right now.

High today of 50.4 at 3:50 PM.  Like @kc4wsd, current temp is today’s low.

Some sun tomorrow would be nice.

3 hours ago, NCSU_Pi said:

I have a practical question for the board. It's obviously too late for the current storm, but thinking about the future, how practical is a home standby generator for people with heat pump heat?

I can't remember precisely, but I think it's a 3 ton, 14 or 15 SEER unit, with heat strips. I assume the strips are out of the question, but can you practically/safely run the heat off a generator? In such a case, I would be talking about just running at some minimum level of comfort. From what I've read, the starting in-rush is just going to be too much for most home generators.

Complicating matters is that I do not have gas service at my home, nor is it currently offered to my address. So were I to get a generator, I'd also need to pay for installation of gas service, or a tank and a delivery service. I don't even know if there's gas service on my street.
 

A larger whole-house backup generator should be large enough depending on what else it would run.  Generac makes air-cooled generators up to 24 kw.  An electrician can calculate what size you need.  You might not need one that large depending on what else you’d be running.  For fuel, a 500-gallon in-ground propane tank (filled at 80% for expansion) would run the generator for over 5 days on full load and over 8 days on half load.

Of course, a portable, gas-fueled generator could not handle that sort of load.  They’re for the basics like refrigerator, microwave, etc.

50 minutes ago, CentralNC said:

Most of the state in the sun....but not the triad.

My wx station needs some sun to recharge, dagnabbit.

Looking at your house on the latest model run map and saying this isn’t going to be a serious event does everyone else a disservice.  This thread covers a lot of territory.  Some will get a cold rain.  Others could be without power for two or three days.  We have people reading this thread who don’t post, but would like to get a sense of what might be coming.

1 minute ago, gritsnc said:

I have already ordered 2 more. Another one for myself and one for my daughter and her husband. Our reading got up to 226 on our carbon monoxide detector. The fire department said that was extremely high.

Glad you’re okay.  Did you find out what caused the CO levels?  Dirty wick?  Bad kerosene?