Bomb Cyclone!!!

[TCowner]

The National Weather Service and the local TV forecasters really love to exaggerate these "killer storms" that bear down on us from time to time. There has been a blizzard warning for SE Minnesota since Wednesday night. We got one inch of snow and minimal winds and the work commute Thursday morning was close to normal. Of course all of the schools were closed and every event cancelled to prepare for the storm. I understand the idea of providing some warning but to the degree they hype this is almost embarassing.

A storm hit north central Minnesota several years ago where I nearly spent a day or two stranded in my car when the storm gave us 17" of snow with 70 mph winds. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the definition of a blizzard. Of the course the term "bomb cyclone" was not available at the time.

The winds are expected to pick up today and no doubt that will create some visibility issues. But when we live in the upper midwest and get some snow with wind it doesn't have to be an "armageddon" or "end of days" event.

 

[Alan W.]

We only have about 1.5” of snow. But it is a bit cool.
Cats and dog are curled up on their heated beds.

 

[David Wayne]

+3 an hour ago -3 now heading to -8 they predict. Blowing snow, can't tell how much but not alot.
Predictions started at 5-8 inches and now are at 1-3 and the wind is 25-35. they are no longer saying
60mph gusts. Sure glad I don't have to go out and so far still have power.

 

[oosik]

Way over here on the West edge we have cold. Two mornings ago ..... -6F. It's slowly warming up and by Sat it's supposed to be in the low 30's. Little to no added snow and almost zero wind.

Really nothing out of the ordinary for our area.

 

[mikester]

If you flap your rms up and down real fast the wind chill numbers will get bigger. Post a video and your local news station will put it on TV, it's a slow news day after all.

 

[oosik]

Two problems there mikester. 1) I don't watch the news - too depressing. 2) I'm not going outside and flap anything - too cold for me. I enjoy the inside too much. Enjoy looking at all the white stuff out there.

 

[groundcover]

43F and pouring, wind isn't too bad yet.

 

[Oaktree]

But when we live in the upper midwest and get some snow with wind it doesn't have to be an "armageddon" or "end of days" event.

Ditto for New England. It's not like we aren't used to winter storms, but we get the same warnings about "treacherous" driving and "blizzard" conditions for storms that only produce 6 inches. Hardly even worth clearing the driveway for.

 

[Oaktree]

Yup, other than the cold Temps. Got enough snow to cover most of the grass. Roads and sidewalks have thin layer of ice.

Had to dig out the ice cleats when taking the dog for a walk.

Good move, it's the black ice that gets you. Took a real nasty fall on some a couple years ago...could hardly see that it was ice but man was it slippery!!

 

[K5lwq]

10F here in East Texas. A few flurries is all we got. No accumulation. We did lose power from trees going over in the wind. Unfortunately our house is all electric. I thought I had a good plan to deal with that but it needs refining. We have a 12K generator and I tested running the central heat a few years ago. It would pull it if I turned half of the heat strips off. Well turns out it will only pull it for about 20min then starts to die back.

We did not have any space heaters here so we brave it with blankets. Got down to 38 inside before power was restored. Took us a while to warm up although the house did not take that long. Emergency heat plan underway this morning.

 

[Yander]

43F and pouring, wind isn't too bad yet.

That's about what it was here yesterday afternoon. now it is -5 and going down. Get your stuff done outside now (I took yesterday off and got tractors/chickens etc. ready), it is going to change fast. Ohio had their second fastest temp. drop in history. Dropped 46 degrees from yesterday's temps.

 

[Tinhack]

18F with a wind chill of 5F at the moment. This is REALLY COLD for us down here. At least we still have electricity this time. I spent the day before yesterday wrapping outdoor pipes and faucets. I still have water pressure so that's a good sign. There are quite a few folks in surrounding counties that have lost electric power but not like before.

I sure don't miss the snow of the Ohio Snow Belt. I lived up there during the blizzard of 1978. Had to make my way from Mentor to the Cleveland Clinic for work. I got there and was the only one there at the Data Center. After an hour, they closed the whole clinic and a few of us walked to the cafeteria to grab what food and coffee they had left before closing. Took longer to get home than it did to get to work--Folks were stuck in snow all over the place. Nope, don't miss that at all.

 

[Oaktree]

10F here in East Texas. A few flurries is all we got. No accumulation. We did lose power from trees going over in the wind. Unfortunately our house is all electric. I thought I had a good plan to deal with that but it needs refining. We have a 12K generator and I tested running the central heat a few years ago. It would pull it if I turned half of the heat strips off. Well turns out it will only pull it for about 20min then starts to die back.

We did not have any space heaters here so we brave it with blankets. Got down to 38 inside before power was restored. Took us a while to warm up although the house did not take that long. Emergency heat plan underway this morning.

Kind of a tough call, how much do you want to put into a backup heat source you might only use once or twice every couple years. Do they still make those kerosene space heaters or were they banned for creating too much CO?

 

[ruffdog]

Minus 10F here with moderate wind. The snow is now squeeking when walked on. They are still saying the wind will get worse. The warm rain in the north east will get slammed with the frigid storm from the west. I'm thinking the quick freeze will be tough to deal with.

 

[K5lwq]

Kind of a tough call, how much do you want to put into a backup heat source you might only use once or twice every couple years. Do they still make those kerosene space heaters or were they banned for creating too much CO?

I use to have a couple of those and they worked great. Cost of kerosene was the problem. My wife has asthma and they really bothered her if I did not get No1 kerosene and around here the only way to get that is at a box store. Very expensive. We have a electric fireplace but the heater needs to be fixed so that is probably the plan. It will heat for about 30 seconds and it seems like it will put off some good heat if that was fixed. I also was thinking about some oil filled radiator heaters for support.

The generator handles the A/C window units if I just run the main room and the bedroom. That is more important for me because I have MS.

 

[dodge man]

Luckily it didn’t snow much here, maybe 2”. A foot of snow we would have had bad drifting. Western Illinois here, west of Peoria Illinois, it’s -8 with a windchill of -33.

 

[Yander]

I used Kerosene heaters for years as backup heat. They are a good reliable solution and K1 stores well. I actually still have a few of them. Bought up 3 slightly used KeroSun heaters a couple years ago and still need to put new wicks in them. Was going to keep them around for anyone who needed backup hear. I have propane with a couple of portable options for backup now. I would still used Kerosene in the garage if needed.

You can buy a K1 heater for less than $60 off of CL or marketplace and buy a couple cans of K1 and you are set for several days of heat for around $130 all in (Cans, K1 etc.). No reason not to have something like that in every home if you have nothing else.

 

[oosik]

If it got really tough - electricity failure - I have a portable generator. Set it out on the porch and run a couple space heaters.

However - 40 years of experience here shows that our electric co-op is magnificent. They have, historically, responded within eight hours to all types of outages. I put my trust in them.

 

[MossRoad]

-5F at 9:00 am. Looks like we got maybe 6" of snow so far. Air looks hazy, so there's a fine powder of snow flying. Small drifts in our yard. Seeing some pretty good wind gusts.

Ate lots of cookies last night.

 

[ruffdog]

Ate lots of cookies last night.

A bag of freshly cooked cookies can get the neighbor to dig me out of the biggest snow storms!