Historic winter storm ENZO

[Complete Turf Care]

We are starting to recover. I got water back on at my house late morning. I had one minor leak at my shop, and a trip to the hardware store for a fitting and it's fixed.
Temps will drop below freezing soon after sundown and I'm afraid that all the melted snow will now turn back to ice and make travel dangerous. But, it is supposed to warm into the mid 40s tomorrow.

Our water system has issued a 'boil water' advisory because pressure in the system has dropped below a certain level. I expect lots of people (including me) will let their water run again tonight, which will cause pressure to be very low again.

Overall, we faired pretty well. The worst thing about this whole event is lost work time.

 

[dodge man]

When I see records listed, I always wonder how long have we been accurately keeping track of the weather? 120 years? The reason I bring it up I’ve seen stats on the fact we are 1.56 degrees warmer than 300 years ago(I made that number up). When pressed they will say they are scientifically estimating that number from 300 years ago. In the scheme of things any trend of even the last 50 years is a very short period of time.

 

[ponytug]

We are starting to recover. I got water back on at my house late morning. I had one minor leak at my shop, and a trip to the hardware store for a fitting and it's fixed.
Temps will drop below freezing soon after sundown and I'm afraid that all the melted snow will now turn back to ice and make travel dangerous. But, it is supposed to warm into the mid 40s tomorrow.

Our water system has issued a 'boil water' advisory because pressure in the system has dropped below a certain level. I expect lots of people (including me) will let their water run again tonight, which will cause pressure to be very low again.

Overall, we faired pretty well. The worst thing about this whole event is lost work time.

I would consider myself lucky if I got through that storm with just one broken fitting and a boil advisory.

I try very hard not to be on roads that are at risk of black ice. It is mostly that all it takes is one driver with poor skills and we are all in the soup.

Lost work time is better than time in a hospital in my book.

Stay safe, and I am glad that you made through in such great shape.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ponytug]

@Complete Turf Care thanks for the great hoots and the opportunity for the rest of us to experience the storm vicariously!

All the best, Peter

 

[BackRoad]

Seeing the deep south with snow is kind of like seeing your brother get a spanking...

You were supposed to get a spanking too, but didn't get caught...this time!!!

 

[ericm979]

When I see records listed, I always wonder how long have we been accurately keeping track of the weather? 120 years? The reason I bring it up I’ve seen stats on the fact we are 1.56 degrees warmer than 300 years ago(I made that number up). When pressed they will say they are scientifically estimating that number from 300 years ago. In the scheme of things any trend of even the last 50 years is a very short period of time.

Here's a great explanation of how we know what past climates were like: Here's How Scientists Reconstruct Earth's Past Climates

This is an interesting graphic from that article:

Note the time is on a reverse log scale. The colors show different methods of measuring past climate. Also the shading around the lines represents the uncertainty. Methods that measure farther ago are less certain.

It's pretty clear that we have been heating the planet significantly in very recent times. The added heat is causing the jet stream to behave less predictably (among other things). The jet stream is a major factor for keeping cold polar air up there and not down here.

 

[not2old]

I try very hard not to be on roads that are at risk of black ice. It is mostly that all it takes is one driver with poor skills and we are all in the soup.

We get lots of black ice here. I've "saved it" numerous times but two years ago it put me in the ditch. I would expect that I've lost some skills at 77 years old but after that experience I believe that even a very good driver would have trouble. Once you've lost traction, you will not get it back unless you're at parking lot speeds.

 

[ponytug]

We get lots of black ice here. I've "saved it" numerous times but two years ago it put me in the ditch. I would expect that I've lost some skills at 77 years old but after that experience I believe that even a very good driver would have trouble. Once you've lost traction, you will not get it back unless you're at parking lot speeds.

I'm glad that you have stayed out of the ditch numerous times.

I've lost control at less than parking lot speeds. I think that all it takes is some black ice, perhaps a little slope, and an attempt to change direction or speed. I once hit black ice on a bicycle at night. I don't know how I stayed upright but I can tell you it woke me right up and got my adrenaline running.

I've had the chance to skate a few times on a some lakes that froze without wind to create super smooth black lake ice. That was a treat.

All the best,

Peter

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

We are starting to recover. I got water back on at my house late morning. I had one minor leak at my shop, and a trip to the hardware store for a fitting and it's fixed.
Temps will drop below freezing soon after sundown and I'm afraid that all the melted snow will now turn back to ice and make travel dangerous. But, it is supposed to warm into the mid 40s tomorrow.

Our water system has issued a 'boil water' advisory because pressure in the system has dropped below a certain level. I expect lots of people (including me) will let their water run again tonight, which will cause pressure to be very low again.

Overall, we faired pretty well. The worst thing about this whole event is lost work time.

Plumbing must be handled differently there... Here we have multiple days where it is 0f and below... And we don't run water to keep it from freezing.

 

[Eagle1]

Plumbing must be handled differently there... Here we have multiple days where it is 0f and below... And we don't run water to keep it from freezing.

Yup and they may have below 10 F once a decade of less. Code and procedures are way different. Many houses are up on stilts and not on or in the ground. Many old houses in the south have little to no insulation.