Snow Forecast For Virginia

[Hay Dude]

we lost power Jan 3 @ 0815, still off.
last night, received a text from the coop saying power should be restored @ 2100 on 1/06. Shortly after, got another text saying power has been restored. Then another that power will be restored @ 2100 on 1/06. Bad enough the power is down, quit screwing the pooch on the admin stuff.

All electric vehicles and equipment with no fossil fuel power backups makes for someone’s dream life until reality smacks them in the face. We were using a Volvo L20, skid steers and tractors to try and open up streets in the neighborhood. Try doing that on a battery.

Agree. The battery stuff looks all warm & fuzzy till the power goes out. Then its “uh oh”.
Could cost people their lives.
It would take forever to “un-jam” hundreds of dead EVs in a row. Meanwhile what do all the drivers do? Freeze to death?

 

[ovrszd]

All electric vehicles and equipment with no fossil fuel power backups makes for someone’s dream life until reality smacks them in the face. We were using a Volvo L20, skid steers and tractors to try and open up streets in the neighborhood. Try doing that on a battery.

The "greenies" aren't worried about that. They have us to do that for them.

 

[riptides]

We had 12" of snow & lost power for 15 hours! I had bought new chains ( several ) fuel mix enough for 8 gallons for my chainsaws, Both tractors have full tanks ! & I've been spliting seasoned rounds of wood since the beginning of Nov. I always plan on being ready , & live by the motto better to have it & not need it , Than need it & not have it ! It did get down to 18 degrees that night & I managed to keep the house at 71 degrees all night . The the only thing I was not ready for is the loss 85% of the evergreens on my property & the clean up took a day in a half Just to clean my driveway were 100% of them came down !Glad I'm retired.

I am a little south of you, Just got power back and steady this early AM.

The trees took a catastrophic hit with this storm. As did the roads. 28 South was bumper to bumper from Nokesville down through Fauquier. People trying to bail from the interstates.

 

[riptides]

WOW
Didnt realize VA DOT dropped the ball so badly on the road salting/plowing! Who’s in charge down there, anyway?

I think it was a combination of events fast moving. The storm started as rain and within the hour turned to ice then snow. The traffic was already on the road and just got caught at the wrong time and place. The portion of interstate, in that area, is pretty rural with no exits for miles. Those exits available, amenities were quickly over run, or closed due to the storm.

I have not seen anything so quick and damaging here in decades.

 

[civilian]

I saw this in the Washington Post. Actually my wife saw it - I thought it was good food for thought.

"Imagine what it would be like if they all where electric vehicles"

gg

At least when cars run out of gas, bring down a tranfer tank and get them fuel and send them on their way. Electrics need to be towed somewhere to charge them. Yuck. Jon

 

[TMGT]

Still no power here and no estimate on when they'll have it back up, at least traffic isn't too bad so plan on heading into town to get some fuel later.
I was waiting for the ice to start melting before going out, been overcast today so taking a little longer then expected.

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[ovrszd]

Electrics need to be towed somewhere to charge them. Yuck. Jon

Unless you own a Tow Truck. Then it's Cha-Ching!!!!!

 

[TMGT]

Na, you just get a fossil fueled truck pulling a fossil fueled generator to go around and charge them up......

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[civilian]

About the freeway being tied up for hours between exits. One thing they did in N Michigan years ago while trying to clear up a major pile up with exits 5 to 6 miles apart was to head all traffic off at the prior exit, then go to the last cars waiting to get past the traffic jam, and turn them around and send them back to the exit they past and off the freeway. Kept doing that while they cleaned up the accident. Now, I was not in the VA back up, and don't if this would have worked instead of people sitting in there cars for hours. Jon

 

[can do]

I am a little south of you, Just got power back and steady this early AM.

The trees took a catastrophic hit with this storm. As did the roads. 28 South was bumper to bumper from Nokesville down through Fauquier. People trying to bail from the interstates.

Glad to hear your back up ! I've lived in VA. for most of life & IMHO I think the rapid change in temp. caused the problem , As everything was soaking wet & flash frozen & that let the wet snow cling to anything wet . I did get to try my DYI project I did earlier this year & that was install a golf cart canopy & some led lights , & the canopy held up great to the heavy wet snow.

 

[k0ua]

Na, you just get a fossil fueled truck pulling a fossil fueled generator to go around and charge them up......

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I wonder how many months that would take.

 

[k0ua]

According to some stats I just read, an Compact car uses up to .16 gallons per hour idling. With a 4 to 5 liter car will use twice that. If you have a small car with a lets say 12 gallon tank and it was about full when you started, you could idle for about 75 hours. With a larger car with say a 20 gallon tank you might be able to idle for nearly 60 hours. BUT it would be foolish to idle the entire time. A better strategy would be to idle for no more than 15 minutes with the heater on full blast and then shut it off for at least 15 minutes before restarting. Don't let the car get too cold or it will be hard to heat up again. This should about double your survival time with what ever fuel you have onboard.

If you have electric car the protocol is simple, you are going to freeze to death in a few hours. You best be making friends with someone with a an ICE engine and full tank to share their car. You might be able to convince them that your body heat could be a help. Don't run the battery down trying to heat the car, you are going to need the reserve battery power to drive the thing off if and when the road is clear. Otherwise you are going to be in for a big tow bill.

 

[CADplans]

As far as idling,, an ABHRAMS TANK consumes 10 gallons per hour, idling,,
It probably consumed half of its fuel getting in trouble,, so there will be only 250 gallons left.

It either can idle for 25 hours,, or crush everything in its way, and go on about its business,,

 

[k0ua]

Some reports on the Tesla are that the cabin heater can use up to 20% of its battery power per HOUR!. That sounds bad. BUT there are some other strategies you can do. One is to make sure the heater is on recirculate. This is just common sense, AND you can do the same strategy as an ICE car of running the heater only 1/2 of the time to extend your heat time. One other idea is to NOT run the cabin heat at all, but only use the seat heaters to keep warm. They use much less power than heating up the whole cabin. One downside is that the car itself will try to keep its own batteries warm with its battery heaters if the temp is really cold. There is not much you can do about that.

Bottom line is you are probably better off to being stranded in the Internal Combustion Engine car than the electric car. But you can survive for some time in the Electric car if you use your head. Of course keeping a couple of blankets in either type is a good idea. Not to mention toilet paper, some extra water and a few snack bars could go a long way to making your life more comfortable. Using snow for toilet paper does not sound like much fun to me.

 

[TMGT]

I wonder how many months that would take.

Just need more trucks and generators



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[riptides]

Sounds like a market opportunity for body panels to collect energy for electrics. And I thinks some are already looking at that.

Not sure what happens at night. LOL.

 

[Fxfymn413]

Did you enjoy the beach today?

Yeah that one is on me! We lost power Tuesday morning along with internet and cell service. The stand by generator kicked on and ran for about 22 hours and then died due to an overspeed condition. So, no water or lights, but the wood stove kept the house at a reasonable temp, I fetched water from the pool to flush the toilets, and a neighbor brought a generator over for a couple of hours to keep the freezers cold. We still do not have power, but at least we got cell service back. All in all a significant inconvenience, but not a tragedy.

We got over 13 inches of wet heavy snow in about 6 hours time. My first push on the road was tough even though we only had about 5 inches at that point, but I got through and after that it was easy to keep up. Our road is just under a mile long and we had more than 30 trees down and blocking or partially blocking it, Fortunately the neighbors came out in force to clear them.

When it comes to snow Virginia's state motto is "God put it there and he will take it away." For the first 24 hours the state roads leading to our subdivision were totally unplowed or treated. After that there was one lane and it was rough as a cob from folks driving on it before it was plowed.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The trick to getting roads cleared in a big snow is for people to stay off the roads. Once they’re full of cars, you can’t plow. And you surely can’t plow everywhere at once.

 

[ovrszd]

The trick to getting roads cleared in a big snow is for people to stay off the roads. Once they’re full of cars, you can’t plow. And you surely can’t plow everywhere at once.

What???? You mean I can't go to Wal-Mart this morning during the storm??? What????

 

[coldsteelva]

I wonder if the roads are as bad as they say...let's load up and head on out there to check.