-31Deg F????????

[gerard]

Anyone from Watertown NY? Hear it got down to -31 F last night. Coldest temp in the contiguous 48 states and colder than siberia (at least yesterday!) Guess if your pipes don't freeze then they never will /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[s1120]

Got to love the snow belt of upstate ny huh? It was pretty cold here in the eastern part of the state, but nowere near that thank God.

 

[rancar]

Wait until this Thursday night, my friend. It's supposed to be the coldest night of this winter. Heard on NPR this morning this cold blast coming out of Canada is coldest on the face of the earth....colder than the Antarctic. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[JATO_RaT]

Man, you guys have a whole different world over there. What is the dominant way to heat your homes? What about cows and horses etc., do you have to do something special for them? While we have had a mild winter so far, its also a mixed blessing for without the cooler weather and rain our mountains don't get as much snow and they are our water source for summer water. Today was about 63 degress and right now, about 12:00 AM its 49.1 degrees outside. The almond trees are already blossoming out and I made my first cut last week of my grass area. Good luck with the weather, I guess it gets to be an indoor kinda day when the temperature gets that low, its pretty tough to imagine it being that cold and getting much done outside. Rat...

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have ann all electric home,but I heat with wood,I have a wood furnace tied into my duct work..Heats 2800 sq ft easily on the coldest nights.Our cats, dogs,cattle,chickens,rabbits and 2 miniature goats stay outside,I just make sure they have plenty of hay/feed/water etc and they are fine,although it has not reached -31 at my house,last night we had temperature's in the teens and 45 mph gusts of winds.But even the years when the temperature has dropped to -25 still the animals are taken care of the same way.

 

[s1120]

Thanks Rat, rub it in. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I got to say this has been the COLDEST winter I remember in a LONG time. We normaly get some real cold snaps, but this year it never stopped! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif I can only remember a few days where the temps went over 32deg, and WAY to many under 0.

 

[Egon]

Switch to the celcius scale. The numbers are smaller so it's not as intimidating.

Egon

 

[alan40]

My brother-in-law lives in Watertown and his fancy weather thermonater went off the scale because it was to cold /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif. Can't wait until tonight it's supposed to be even colder. Got my garage done just in time. All I have to do is look out my window and if the dogs are at the door it's going to be cold. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Take care

 

[Anonymous Poster]

You are a genius.... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[RJohnson]

Egon
Except when you get to negative numbers. -40C and -40F are the same temperature. So there is not too much difference between -31F and its counterpart -35C /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
All I know is that negative numbered temperatures do set well with me, that is why I live in Texas /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Randy

 

[rancar]

Hi Rat....

Thanks for the sympathy but with this war on terrorism, recommendations made by our government to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting to ward off chemical attacks, and all this other war-like geopolitical stuff that I can't quite all fathom, I'm learning to tolerate these temp extremes very well...Thank You. The temps may very well be the least of our problems in the future. I feel like I'm in the elements, a budding Johnny Rambo, preparing for the next terrorist assault on this fair land of ours...one reason I left Long Island and now living in rural upstate NY.

So, to hone my survivor skills a bit and to answer your initial query, I heat with two wood stoves. Will be firing these babies up every night this week, for sure. We cut all our own firewood....no need to concern ourselves with rising heating fuel costs. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif We have 2 overhead space heaters in the basement to keep water pipes from freezing. I saw that special Nova program on TV last night on explorers in Antarctica and somehow I felt a kindred spirit with those fellas. Well, who knows what the future holds.....thanks again for your concern.

....Bob

 

[looch]

Watertown would be like a 2.5 hour drive south for me.

Sure was nasty up here the night of the 10th. It was around 9pm when the wind picked up out of nowhere. The temp dropped 13 degrees in an hour, and kept on going after that.

We heat with wood and oil (ouch - .53 cents CDN a litre). What I'm finding difficult this year is the lack of snow combined with high winds - makes this 100 year old house a little drafty.

 

[Wingnut]

interesting topic ... since Sunday I was in the midst of my weekly televisit with Mom back in Alberta ... and after I educated her on the less familiar (to Canadians) info on the "war" ... we discussed the weather ... always an interesting topic ... and reminisced about how long it's been since we saw an "I survived..." certificate in the Edmonton Journal. I remember one from the late '60's where the cerificate was for 2 or 3 weeks of -40 temps ... and at least one in the '70's for 6 weeks of -20 and below temps.
And I can <font color="blue"> vividly </font> remember the snow banks (from the plows ) being higher than the power poles while in high school ... let's see ... that'd have to be the winter of '64-'65.
In '74, the snow was so deep in Inuvik that, when I slipped off the trail on my snowmobile, and got stuck, and got off to try and turn the sled around .... I was in snow up to my neck ... (panic time!).
So ... while's it seems cold and the snow is annoying ... my perspective is ... well, this ain't all that bad. (Of course, the $350 propane bill I got 2 weeks ago makes me long for warmer weather ...)

 

[rancar]

<font color="blue">"...the $350 propane bill I got 2 weeks ago..."</font>

Peter....

Since I heat with firewood, I'm a bit curious about what time frame the $350 covers....monthly bill? ....bimonthly?

Bob

 

[Anonymous Poster]

$350..... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gifif you were cold you would forget about being cold for a while after you 1st seen the bill.I would probably start shaking not from being cold but being in shock.

 

[gerard]

So far we haven't seen much more than 5 below but when it's this cold the horses stay in. Keeping them in the barn and out of the wind keeps them nice and comfortable and we have heated water buckets in each stall, otherwise they freeze up pretty quick wehn it's this cold + the horses don't like cold water so the heated buckets are the way to go.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

A couple of years ago when I had my small herd of cattle,I used the Rubbermaid Stock tanks and used a submersible tank heater,I could fill the tanks up and be good for a couple of days.What little bit of livestock I have now,I carry about 20 gallons of hotwater in the morning and about 10 in the evening.I have 2 of the buckets like you mentioned,but I never have used them yet.They are here when I do need them. It is nice to have a windbreak or barn for horses.
You ever heard of Stockyard Ranch and Supply? They have some nice items for horses/cattle etc...

 

[JATO_RaT]

So letting our 2 dogs in every night becasue they have this look of "Its cold out here" is really acting on their part. Rat... /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[looch]

I was talking to the lady cutting my hair (those conversations are getting shorter and shorter /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif) and she has an old farm house buit in the early 1800's. It is heated with an oil-fired hot water system. She had pictures with her and she showed me one of the furnace. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif It was huge and looked like it was cast iron - something out of Nightmare on Elm Street. This season, she's been heating since October. I almost fell out of the chair when she told me that she has spent, to date, 4000$ CDN in heating. She was going to look at a more modern unit that afternoon.

 

[Wingnut]

oh well ... it's all relative ... 2 winters ago when the fuel first went skyhigh ... I got a $520 bill for propane for January ... now THAT one freaked me out!
However .. if this keeps up, I'll be starting to look at wood heat! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif