Weather

[lizkat]

We had most of the day and night yesterday with rain, torrential rain, flash flood warnings, frick’n tornado spotted close to us in the Northern suburbs of Houston in January. This morning 71F here, 35F in Oklahoma looks like the heat won this round.


So that was a culvert not a bridge? Kind of looks like a river there.

Yep, just a big culvert. Really big, 30 feet in diameter. The 20 and 30 foot ones up here are inspected every two years and in the most recent inspection prior to the 2006 flooding collapse, it got a grade of 5 out of 7. The water there is ordinarily just a minor stream passing through under the roadways, you don't even really notice it as you drive along.

But as I said, the local streams and creeks all became raging monsters in the Catskills after those rains on June 28, 2006. There's only one way for water to get from two and three thousand feet above sea level to the ocean and that's to run in any direction that's downhill, meanwhile gaining velocity and destructive powers from headwaters to larger streams and feeder rivers. Which of course is why the culvert was so large to begin with. The washout was something like 150 feet by 50 deep.

The reason the crest of waters under the i-80 Delaware Water Gap was eventually 21 feet above normal that week is all just from what happened up here and along the way.... water coursing through the Susquehanna and Delaware river systems down to the Atlantic. Of course the NYC drinking water reservoirs up here were way more than topped off and so had to release water in order to prevent dam ruptures, and that in turn contributed to the flooding way further downstate.

 

[Herdfan]

Yep, just a big culvert. Really big, 30 feet in diameter. The 20 and 30 foot ones up here are inspected every two years and in the most recent inspection prior to the 2006 flooding collapse, it got a grade of 5 out of 7. The water there is ordinarily just a minor stream passing through under the roadways, you don't even really notice it as you drive along.

Ironically, it isn't the water pushing them out, it is the suction when they fill that pulls them out. That is why the galvanized and plastic ones are ribbed to break that suction. They usually figure they don't need it for the concrete ones, but sometimes they do.

 

[lizkat]

January doing the cold thing tonight and tomorrow. Air temps here will approach or exceed double digits below 0ºF.

At least they already brought the January heating fuel so that concern's off the list. I always open the base cabinets and turn the heat up more than a tad on super cold nights --to protect a couple water pipes on a north wall in the kitchen-- and down a little to compensate for it in the days when we get "heat waves" back up above the freezing mark.

Can always put on another sweater but cannot always reach a busted water pipe buried behind a cabinet. Man there are ways to cobble together a DIY kitchen but whoever tacked this kitchen onto an 1860s house in the 1930s and then later on ran water into it and still later added some dodgy built-in cabinetry (which I have not bothered to rip out YET for fear the wall will come with it), they must have been sipping some good home brew behind their design decisions.

When I first discussed renovations with a bro he laughed and said he could probably bring "the big truck and some chains down here and have this poor excuse for a kitchen off the house in about ten minutes." Of course since i was then still living most of the time in a city apartment with a one-windowed 6'x8' kitchen, I thought he was nuts. After all, the thing is roughly 12'x16' and has three windows and two doors in it, what's not to like? 40 years later, well... it's still good for a laugh and the occasional repaint job.

 

[Herdfan]

At least they already brought the January heating fuel so that concern's off the list. I always open the base cabinets and turn the heat up more than a tad on super cold nights --to protect a couple water pipes on a north wall in the kitchen-- and down a little to compensate for it in the days when we get "heat waves" back up above the freezing mark.

Every year when mom would have her termite inspection done, some young Orkin tech would come tell her she had some ductwork in the crawlspace disconnected. So she got all nervous and instead of calling me, she would call the HVAC company to come "fix"" it. After a Service Charge later, she was told it was not disconnected, it was run there on purpose to keep the pipes going up to the kitchen sink from freezing.

Finally cancelled Orkin after I asked them multiple times to call me with any issues they found and not to tell her, but they couldn't stop themselves.

House was built in 1962 before energy efficiency was a thing.

 

[Herdfan]

Gearing up for another winter storm. This one will include some ice or freezing rain in the middle of it plus some 30-40 mph wind gusts. Should be fun.

 

[Clix Pix]

In the cold winter months most nights I open the cabinet doors in the kitchen and when there are predictions of very cold temperatures -- freezing or below -- during the night, I also run a trickle of water, too, through the faucet in the hopes of preventing the pipes from freezing. My condo apartment kitchen is on three outside walls and has windows on two of those sides, so with the pipes under the kitchen sink right there on the wall which faces the lake and probably not sufficiently insulated I take precautions.

Years ago when living in our townhouse, my husband and I had an unpleasant surprise one cold December morning when we went to run water in our kitchen in preparation for making coffee (again, just as here, the sink was under a window and on an outside wall) and nothing happened. No water came out. Agggh!!! We soon realized that the water in the pipes was frozen. Thankfully the pipes did not break! There had been an unexpected, very sharp drop in temperature and a serious cold snap overnight. An hour or two of patiently blowing gentle heat on the area with my hair dryer and a space heater strategically situated in the vicinity finally did thaw out the frozen, icy water and it began running through the pipes normally again, to our relief. Whew!!!

That, along with the memory of the unfortunate situation in the townhouse next door, where things weren't so good, as those neighbors were out of town at that time, had probably turned down the heat a bit, too, and came home to find that the flooring of their entire main level was covered in icy water, thanks to the pipes in their kitchen having burst. It was a mess and a total shock when they opened the front door..... We had no idea that this was happening and unfortunately even if we had known, we also had no way of contacting them, either, to alert them. After that we always made sure that we had each other's contact information when someone was going out of town in the event of such a situation occurring again.

So, yeah, I worry about pipes freezing up and bursting....

 

[Yoused]

January doing the cold thing tonight and tomorrow. Air temps here will approach or exceed double digits below 0ºF.

Funny, here we have entered our January Summer, which usually goes on for about a week, maybe two. I think there was one day this week that topped 60F. The last of the snow was gone by Tuesday, and we might not see any more this winter (though, we also just might). This is a short break, which will give in to some manner of unpleasant, probably before the end of next week. We are trying to enjoy it while we can.

 

[lizkat]

memory of the unfortunate situation in the townhouse next door, where things weren't so good, as those neighbors were out of town at that time, had probably turned down the heat a bit, too, and came home to find that the flooring of their entire main level was covered in icy water, thanks to the pipes in their kitchen having burst. It was a mess and a total shock when they opened the front door.....

Yah I am VERY, VERY fortunate I never showed up here in mid-winter to find a situation like that before I ended up with a sister-in-law as caretaker of this place for a few years while I was still a weekend commuter from the city and still working on pretty basic renovations of the house. Before she started living there during the week, I just blithely set the thermostat to 50 and drove away, then came back on Friday expecting to find what I found, which was an only slightly chilly house and a pissed off indoor-outdoor cat curled up in the corner of the couch waiting for some better (woodstove) heat and some food more interesting than the water and dry kibble I left for her (or whatever she rounded up in the way of wildlife from outside).

House was built in 1962 before energy efficiency was a thing.

So you can imagine how it goes in a farmer's village-edge retirement cottage built a hundred years before that lol.

Honestly it's comedy gold just looking at some of the cobbled together stuff in this place. In the bath, someone made a window (of course !) but then someone else later decided to drop the ceiling, leaving the window alone of course (of course!), so that the top of that window frame is now embedded in... well... it's complicated.. of course!

The deck roof joists are made from old doublewall silo boards. Somehow they've managed to hold up ok for a zillion years and not-counting.. and on and on. The wall studs in the house are all beech, which may as well be drop-forged steel after aging only 20 years or so, right... so after 120 years the guys went through a few drill bits before successfully hanging sheetrock here after taking down plaster and lath.

The upside of a still drafty ol' place is that worrying about CO is not a high priority even though I do of course have detectors. On a windy night there's even a breeze in the place if I've forgotten to drop a few strategic dishtowels or hang a few extra drapes as part of my winterizing gig. There's nothin' like fresh air to remind a retired farmer of the good ol' days, apparently: better than good because he no longer has to trek up to a barn and milk cows in winter. Whoever used to live in this place could do what I do: pile on a few extra quilts and stock up on books and coffee.

And that's my plan for this weekend and on through the nor'easter if it swings up here.

 

[lizkat]

We're on a rollercoaster from the Arctic: 32 earlier, right now it's 5 on the way to -9, tomorrow high only 5, low -10...

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[Yoused]

This was our big weather news today

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Though, ultimately, being several thousand miles away, its impact here was negligible.

 

[Renzatic]

We're on a rollercoaster from the Arctic: 32 earlier, right now it's 5 on the way to -9, tomorrow high only 5, low -10...

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It's snowing here! Unfortunately, it's not sticking, but it's still snowing!

 

[lizkat]

It's snowing here! Unfortunately, it's not sticking, but it's still snowing!

So no skiing resorts likely to open down there yet, eh? MLK Jr. holiday usually a ski weekend up here for snow enthusiasts but it's likely to be a bit of a bust with all the travel warnings... people unsure they can get back home for work on Tues.

Lots of places in the south are going to see a lot more snow than we are with this storm. In the western Catskills we may be sheltered or "shadowed" by the taller peaks to the southeast, when a storm comes up that way. So they're forecasting a bit of a dry slot for us in part of this gig. It's later on when the winds shift north again and it starts to blow around that it gets interesting. That's when the lake effect off Ontario can kick in and bring snow down from there and crossing the Finger Lakes region enroute to pick up even more moisture.

We're only supposed to get 3-6" snow tonight into tomorrow afternoon in the front end of the storm, whereas other places are likely to get as much as 9-14".

I certainly welcome the moderating temperatures with the shift in winds though, it's been two nights of burning gas like it's free to make sure the water pipes don't freeze up.

 

[Clix Pix]

Snow started here this afternoon, as predicted, a bit after 1:30 or so, and has continued through the day so far. It's bitterly cold out there and the flakes just keep coming, but eventually there will be the shift in temperature and then the rain will wash all of this away.....

 

[Renzatic]

The snow's sticking! It's sticking, yall! On the ground!

 

[Clix Pix]

Shot from my deck as the snow was coming down, fast and furiously:

 

[Yoused]

The snow's sticking! It's sticking, yall! On the ground!

Yaay for you! We had some of that. It stuck, and then it stayed. And then, after a full week, it finally all melted away.

I do not miss it. Not one little bit. But, I hope you enjoy.

 

[lizkat]

The snow's sticking! It's sticking, yall! On the ground!

hush up down there... y'all just made the weather dudes bump our forecast from watch to warning, and now we're gonna get not 3-6" but 5-9".

Meanwhile the guy who plows my driveways called to say he won't plow much until it's all over unless the forecast is further adjusted upwards and the road plowing crews start shoving three feet of slush into our drives. Right now he can't figure out when to sleep and when to figure on plowing. But when that stuff sets up in the overnight low temps, you can end up snowed into your own driveway for weeks, so he's going to keep an eye on accumulation in the local area.

 

[Hrafn]

We had to close the back door, it was 74 outside, vs 73 inside. I didn't want the AC to kick on.

My walk this morning started at 39 degrees, though.

 

[Herdfan]

Was supposed to start snowing this morning around 10. We got some rain and sleet and rain again. Now at close to 7 it is finally changing over.

So probably not getting the 8" they forecast. Instead we will get 4" on top of wet ground which will make the roads worse than if we had just gotten the 8".

 

[Runs For Fun]

We're supposed to get like 4-8" of snow. We usually always get way less than whatever they say but we'll see. It started coming down about an hour ago and is already pilling up.