North Texas "cold snap"

[Uncle Doug]

Well it's 16 degrees right now at 3am, wind chills expected from -1 to -8. I work nights so I am up on "pipe freeze" duty. I have a job in Baytown Tx. Sunday night...hope it warms up since I work outside...

.Ever get the feeling you're "gett'n to old for this $%#@"..aah the joys of being employed I guess..

Not far from you today as I work in Mont Belvieu.

It was 26F when I left the house this morning. Spent the evening checking to make sure everthing is still protected. Put an extra sheet over the wife's limon tree. Shut the water off in the barn and drained all the pipes. Brought the potted plants into the shed and put a heat lamp on them. We will fair ok as long as it does not drop much lower. Temps into the teens will hit everyone down here hard because most do not prepare well enough. We only see these temps about every 10 years or so.

 

[Bird]

I guess it's gotten so cold here that the NWS can't measure it; website just shows "NULL" for the temperature. But they show it was 15 a couple of hours ago.

 

[ronjhall]

The sensor's up there must not be set to read below freezing for extended periods.
Maybe they need to get a retired tech back to repair equipment.
We should be OK down here. Temp is a balmy 38 degrees.

 

[EddieWalker]

Ron, where are you at? I wanna be there!!

19 degrees this morning, but it's very dry. No ice on the windshields, or frost on the ground. High today is expected to get to 28. I can either stay in the house and hybernate, or do a sheetrock repair for a client. There's no way that I'm going to go work outside today, that's just not an option. LOL

Eddie

 

[Egon]

What is this "Cold Period".

CBCNews.ca - Breaking News, Canada, World, Health, Business, Entertainment

Weather forecast for a Town in Southern Alberta.

 

[ronjhall]

Ron, where are you at? I wanna be there!!

19 degrees this morning, but it's very dry. No ice on the windshields, or frost on the ground. High today is expected to get to 28. I can either stay in the house and hybernate, or do a sheetrock repair for a client. There's no way that I'm going to go work outside today, that's just not an option. LOL

Eddie

McAllen, TX. Just a short 500 miles south of you.

 

[jinman]

11.5 degrees right now by my thermometer. I thought it might be in single digits, but maybe that will be tomorrow morning. I was out getting a bundle of firewood at 6 am and it didn't seem too bad, but my deck sure popped and creaked like it was frozen. As Eddie noted, this seems to be a dry cold and not too bad if the wind isn't blowing. Even so, I don't think I'll be drinkin' a cool Shiner's while sittin' out on my new deck today.

 

[dmccarty]

I think we are in the second week of way below normal cold weather for this time of year.

Last weekend and this weekend looks like a repeat, it only got up to 33 degrees at our house. The thermometer sits on the porch and it usually a few degree warmer than the temps once you get away from the house.

Last Saturday I wanted to fuel up the tractor, drop in some additive in the JD and Ford, take off the mower and FEL bucket and put on the box blade and pallet forks. Then pick up some logs from a tree I finally cut down. I started late in the day and did not realize how cold it was out there. The wind was the killer.

I had to take off my heavy, warm gloves to wear vinyl gloves to fuel up the tractor and put in the additive. This took maybe 15-20 minutes. In that time my hands went from warm and toasty in the heavy gloves to numb to pain. I had to go back in the house and warm up for a while. By the time the hands warmed up there was not enough daylight left to make it worth powering up the tractor. Sunday I went out and put up some posted signs and enjoyed the woods. I had on the right clothes but it sure was cold.

This weekend is not going to be any better. I might be able to get out this afternoon and switch the implements out and move the logs so I can saw up the logs on Saturday. Either way it is another COLD weekend.

Thankfully the tree I cut down has been dead for a few years and at least the top third is dry and ready to burn. I think I am just going to saw the smaller limbs to length and start putting them in the wood stove. We SHOULD have enough firewood for the season but boy howdy Momma Nature is making up for the slow start to winter we had this season.

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

It's 11:30 am and the temp is up to 18 degrees right now. I have my spickets covered with blankets, and let my faucet in my workshop run last night. This is what that faucet looks like right now.

Eddie

 

[Western]

LOL Eddie, that's what you'd feel like if you worked outside today..what is that a global warming thermometer??

I was reading on the Fox news page that this cold front will help with the "chilling " hours required by some crops like apples and peaches in the deeper South...if they are protected that is..

I hope this cold will at least thin down some of the pesky bug population going into this Spring..

 

[Bird]

LOL Eddie, that's what you'd feel like if you worked outside today..what is that a global warming thermometer??

I was reading on the Fox news page that this cold front will help with the "chilling " hours required by some crops like apples and peaches in the deeper South...if they are protected that is..

I hope this cold will at least thin down some of the pesky bug population going into this Spring..

Yep, I've always heard that the crops you mentioned needed some cold weather, so I reckon they're getting plenty of cold this year.

I've also heard that a good freeze in the Winter reduces the number of bugs we have to contend with in the Summer. On 12/2/2009, we had a little snow and I also had a doctor's appointment that day. The doctor mentioned that we needed a good freeze that would last 6 hours or more to reduce the insect population. I didn't ask how he came up with that number of hours, but I've also read that the hard freeze doesn't actually reduce the insect population. Personally, I have no idea which is right. But if a freeze does reduce the insect population, we ought to have fewer insects this Summer than ever in the last hundred years.

The NWS in Denton finally got their thermometer fixed and shows the temperature to be 24, while my own thermometer here is showing 21. The forecast for tonight is 11F.

 

[EddieWalker]

If any of you have ever hunted in Alaska, you'll know that cold temps in the winter don't do anything to the bug population in the summer!!!! The might not be very big, but there sure is allot of them.

Eddie

 

[Bird]

If any of you have ever hunted in Alaska, you'll know that cold temps in the winter don't do anything to the bug population in the summer!!!! The might not be very big, but there sure is allot of them.

Eddie

Eddie, I've spent a bit of time in Alaska and the cold doesn't bother the mosquito population. I read an article in the Anchorage newspaper many years ago about a study that was done by the university and there are supposedly several varieties or breeds of mosquito; some with very short lifespans (something like 3 weeks, if I remember right) and some that hibernate and live to come out again in the Spring. And of course there are the no-see-ums, but generally I think Alaska doesn't have the same kinds of bugs and insects that we have. And that's pure opinion and guesswork; not scientific proof at all.

 

[jayste]

I'm always wishful that a "good" freeze in the winter will kill out some of these ticks we have in the spring and summer and fall and....? Anyway, it's crazy but just the other day (this year) I was sitting in our living room and guess what?.....Yep, a tick crawling on my neck!
I still think it has something to do with these Blackjacks and sand rocks!

Jay

 

[mikim]

The sensor's up there must not be set to read below freezing for extended periods.
Maybe they need to get a retired tech back to repair equipment.
We should be OK down here. Temp is a balmy 38 degrees.

He's busy with more important things...spent 2 hrs with potential builder and another 2-3 hrs moving dirt --partly with a shovel....and worked on the boy's tree house for awhile until my shoulder screamed loud enuff that I am now inside for the rest of the evening. Course I still need to get a brain fart as to what to fix for supper.

 

[Uncle Doug]

A chilly 18F this morning, but still had water. Dog did not want to go outside but the wife is out of town and I had to leave for work. Made her (the dog) go outside anyway. My daughter says she will stop by later to check on her and look for water leaks.

I had an icecycle like Eddies on the outside faucet I left dripping. Had one small leak out by the barn last night where the water pipe crossed a small ditch, right at a coupling. Leave it to a freeze to find the poor glue joints.

 

[jinman]

At 6:00 AM this morning, I had one thermometer that said 7.5 and another one that read 5.9. I'm not sure which is the most accurate, but I think it's safe to say it's very cold. Brrrr! So far, no freezing problems, but I'm ready for some warmer weather. I have no intention of operating my tractor, and that's probably a good thing. I'd bet the diesel fuel in it is like jello. I think I bought it over a month ago and had it sitting in cans until Christmas. It was probably formulated for above freezing for sure.

 

[Bird]

I was surprised to see the NWS showed Denton got down to 7 F degrees this morning, but I reckon that was right since a few minutes ago my thermometer showed 9 F. It didn't actually feel as cold outside though this morning as it did yesterday simply because we had no wind at all this morning.

I have a thermometer mounted higher than my head in the shop and it showed 40 F, so I turned on the heat. It's a window unit air-conditioner with heat strip and it was working fine yesterday, but this morning when I turned it on, there was a VERY loud screeching noise produced and I turned it back off.

 

[jinman]

Screeching is probably a very cold blower motor bearing, don't you think Bird? I have two small heaters in my cabin and one in the laundry room in the back of my garage for additional heat.

Last night we went to Bowie for catfish at the Mexican restaurant. It sure was hot and tasty. Sorry...had to brag a bit since I know you've had first-hand experience with that platter of catfish.

 

[Bird]

Jim, I'm sure you're right about the bearing. I just wonder whether it will be alright later or whether I'm going to have a repair to do.

And yep, that catfish is sure good, but I haven't left home the last couple of days.