Major Cold Wave Are You Ready?

With a major wave of cold and snow hitting right now, with freezing in areas which are not used to very low temps.
Are you ready, back-ups to your primaries? An opportunity to check your systems.
We have plenty of wood, gen sets are ready, and propane tanks are full, trucks are full of fuel.

 

Went through the first wave yesterday. We live in the Midwest.
Went through the prep checklist last Monday.
Fueled and ran all the gennys, chainsaws, vehicles etc. Always have more than enough firewood.
Hope the worst is over. The wind is brutal. I went outside last nite, came in and grabbed a beer from the fridge. And it actually warmed my hands up reaching in the fridge.
Here's a pic of the temps inside and out last nite.

 

Yup, were @ 21 Deg. right now, ice is 1/4 inch thick all over, and people are fuckin stupid driving around in this shit!
I fired up the Trackster last night, mostly to go and play, but also if we needed to make a trip to the E.R! This little thing is an absolute blast to play with in the nasty!

 

5f degrees here at 330pm. Windchill is at -20f with the 35 mph winds.
Nice and toasty inside with both fireplace inserts running.

We were supposed to get major snow 7-9 inches then drifting with the 30-50 mph winds.
well, we got 2 inches but wind has left grass clear in places with 1 foot drifts by the fences.

But, that raining and dropping into the teens in like 30 minutes made some nice slick paved roads. Living on a dirt road .. it sucks in the spring but man, winter time,
zoom zoom.

 

https://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/patents/patent-3613992.pdf
I wonder ??

 

meh. I guess it would be a good way to get rain in the desert.

 

16F isn't that bad...but lots of folks in SE Louisiana aren't prepared for it. Nothing like a nice fire in the wood stove to keep things toasty, regardless of the quirks of nature.

 

Ha, I gotta add up the cash donations, but I bet I "earned" a grand pulling people outta the ditch with this little trackster! I screwed stainless screws into the track lugs and they never slipped, ran the snatch strap to what ever I could get to and yanked them out! Had to make 4 runs to the gas station to re fill the gas tank, but I did 8 hours of tugging and pocketed a bunch of cash! Don't tell the gooberment!

 

23 here right now, 10-15 mph wind. The line at the hardware store to get propane was 1/4 mile long yesterday and they had sold every heating appliance they had. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

 

hit 16 at about 7 this morning now at 18 in McClellanville SC my last tomato plant bit the dust. Satsuma orange in the ground supposedly an take 20 see how it does

 

Cold got my satsumas a couple of years ago but the thorny graft plant refused to die!!!

 

Having a heat wave. It's 12F. Winds still kicking around so the windchill is like -7.
Going to take the dog for a walk. He's been supermaning off the back deck and rolling in the snow and want to look for bunnies.

 

Looks like a failure on most days would not be a large issue, but on one of the coldest days of this winter a 30% drop is a big deal.

...................
Sat, December 24, 2022
Guardian pipeline, a subsidiary of Oklahoma-based ONEOK, had an equipment failure.

"Guardian experienced two valve malfunctions at its Sycamore compressor station in DeKalb County, Illinois, which resulted in reduced capacity on our system," Brad Borror of ONEOK said in an email statement.

"Our crews are focused on resolving the issue and restoring capacity in a timely manner. One valve has been restored to service, and we continue working on the second," he added.

Guardian reduced the amount of fuel it sends by 30%.

 

Low water pressure here, Water company claims a line break on the east side of the Teche
Bull hockey!!! All the chronic slackers whom didn't insulate their pipes!!!
If I was in charge I'd shut down the water plant and let the water drippers lines freeze up.
Then I would restore service!

 

single digits on Friday the 23rd. and by thursday the 29th we should be near 50.

 

It impacted Ill. & Wisc. for 5-6 hours, it looks like correcting the one valve brought it back up enough where they dropped the request to drop thermostats down to 62.

 

I work at Rural King, it's a farm supply store, and the week before Christmas we were slammed by customers preparing for the record cold and Christmas! It reminded me of the big snowstorm 2 years ago. We are OUT of propane, propane heaters, heat lamps, heat bulbs, insulated underwear, woodstoves, insulated faucet covers, pipe insulation, anti-freeze, anti-freeze testers, heat tape, pellet stoves, kerosene heaters, kerosene, etc., etc., etc.! THANK GOD that trucks are coming in next week! We had high winds, 3F temps, but no ice and about 0.25" of snow! Dec. 23 was brutal, weatherwise and at work, but Christmas Eve was warmer (10F) and work was not as hectic. TVA had to impose rolling-blackouts because of power demand, but at least I won't be cold cause I heat with NG and have propane back-up! Water bill is gonna be higher because we have been running water 24 hours a day to keep the pipes from freezing! I don't want to even guess what the utility bill is gonna be after this!