Will the Arctic Cold Front Cause Severe Weather and Damage to Crops?

In summary, the weather is gradually changing from cold to warmer temperatures. The forecast for tomorrow predicts that there will be winds between 20 and 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. This will create significant blowing and drifting of snow with near blizzard conditions possible at times. Visibilities will be reduced to below one half mile, making roads near impossible to travel on. The cold wind chill values will be widespread, ranging from 20 to 30 below zero. There is a potential for life-threatening situations due to the dangerously cold temperatures. Additionally, my aunt and uncle own a large strawberry farm and citrus orchard near Tampa, FL and stand to lose the entire crop due to the hard long freeze.
  • #876
62 outside grey and rain today. Always loved it when snow would shut things down. We'd get the sleds and walk up to the local Wendy's and get a hot chocolate.
 
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  • #877
lisab said:
In summary: Let cooler heads prevail.

I can now go bald in peace.
 
  • #878
It is warmer with a hat on.
 
  • #879
We are again above freezing. Pathetic two inches of snow that we got in the last few days are slowly melting.
 
  • #880
Another day of -35C for us, but it looks like its not here to stay, by next week we should be up at the -15c area.
 
  • #881
Makes me shiver as I get ready to move hay with a tractor in near 70 degree weather.

I do miss snow though. Went to school in Michigan for a couple of years and loved the snow. But we walked everywhere so no problem.
 
  • #882
Ugh. The dreaded tic-tic-tic sound of freezing rain as it hits the window.

Meanwhile I got a message from my daughter, she's without power :cry:.
 
  • #883
High temp of the day is 20 deg F. At least it's clear and sunny, for another day or so, then more snow.
 
  • #884
lisab said:
Ugh. The dreaded tic-tic-tic sound of freezing rain as it hits the window.

Meanwhile I got a message from my daughter, she's without power :cry:.

There is a nice little trick to end the suspense. If the lights are on and dim three times, you're fine. If the lights go off and come back on three times, you're toast. After the third try they won't be coming back on.

Luckily they put in heavy new lines a few years ago, but for a long time we frequently lost power. A few years before we bought this place, they were without power for almost two weeks, beginning with a heavy snow storm. So we've got a generator and wood stove. In a disaster like the flood of 1996, we are far down the list of prioreties for the power company. Local outages could be a real bugger if there is a lot of damage.
 
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  • #885
lisab said:
Ugh. The dreaded tic-tic-tic sound of freezing rain as it hits the window.

Meanwhile I got a message from my daughter, she's without power :cry:.

I'm afraid, it's not looking good

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...cripples-city/2012/01/19/gIQArD73AQ_blog.html

Slippery in Seattle: surprise ice storm cripples city

a dangerous ice storm is presently glazing the Emerald City, with mounting power outages (around 120,000) and car accidents. Washington’s Governor has declared a state of emergency.

I think you would have told us that...if there was power.

We think of you.
 
  • #886
Andre said:
I'm afraid, it's not looking good

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...cripples-city/2012/01/19/gIQArD73AQ_blog.html

I think you would have told us that...if there was power.

We think of you.

Well it's been very "interesting"! Power was on and off for the afternoon, lots of momentary "blinks" followed by surges. Is that caused by the linemen powering up a line that was down, I wonder? So I shut down my electronics to protect their delicate circuits :smile:.

It seems stable now, though.
 
  • #887
lisab said:
Well it's been very "interesting"! Power was on and off for the afternoon, lots of momentary "blinks" followed by surges. Is that caused by the linemen powering up a line that was down, I wonder? So I shut down my electronics to protect their delicate circuits :smile:.

It seems stable now, though.
Do you have a portable generator Lisa ? Enough for fridge, lights, TV, cable ? I got one after the last hurricane, glad I did. Turbo has one too, a fairly big one if I remember correctly.

Rhody...
 
  • #888
rhody said:
Do you have a portable generator Lisa ? Enough for fridge, lights, TV, cable ? I got one after the last hurricane, glad I did. Turbo has one too, a fairly big one if I remember correctly.

Rhody...

No, I live in an apartment :smile:. And it's all electric - everything! The heat, the cooking, the water heater. Not my preference, but renters can't be choosers.
 
  • #889
lisab said:
No, I live in an apartment :smile:. And it's all electric - everything! The heat, the cooking, the water heater. Not my preference, but renters can't be choosers.
Same here. How's your daughter? Is her electricity back?
 
  • #890
This weather here is ridiculously hot this winter. A [strike]mid-januaryfly[/strike] mayfly just flew by when I let the dogs out, and the cherry trees are already in blossom.
 
  • #891
lisab said:
Well it's been very "interesting"! Power was on and off for the afternoon, lots of momentary "blinks" followed by surges. Is that caused by the linemen powering up a line that was down, I wonder?
The utility company would not powering up a line with momentary blinks. That's more likely short circuits somewhere on the local grid and possibly breakers opening and closing in response to current/voltage transients. That happened during the snowstorm in October. We had power, which fluctuated, but neighborhoods around us lost power for 2 or more days due to downed power lines. Usually, breakers open and isolate those areas from the grid.

We just had our first snow since the October storm. It was a light dusting, but we're supposed to get several inches tonight.
 
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  • #892
Daffodil blooming the first of January. Not typical at all
 
  • #893
I was always under impression that there is an automatic switch somewhere, that tries to restore the power after a short circuit - and it does it three times. The idea behind is that the part of the grid responsible for the short circuit is cut off by the local fuse, and rest of the grid can work correctly. That's why a single or double blinks are often followed by the normal operation. It may happen that you are in the part of the grid that is being cut off by the fuse, it may happen that these three attempts fail, and even after the last grid is still shorted somewhere. Then you are out of luck.
 
  • #894
We've had a warm winter so far with no snow since last winter, that is to say October. With good luck we won't have any at all, but unfortunately, there's two inches of bad luck on my sidewalk right now and it's still coming down. Wouldn't you know it, my wife's inlaws are coming to visit for a few days and I have to drive up to Newark this morning to pick them up.
 
  • #895
Jimmy Snyder said:
We've had a warm winter so far with no snow since last winter, that is to say October. With good luck we won't have any at all, but unfortunately, there's two inches of bad luck on my sidewalk right now and it's still coming down. Wouldn't you know it, my wife's inlaws are coming to visit for a few days and I have to drive up to Newark this morning to pick them up.
Brings back memories. I used to live in Yardley, PA and my office half of the week was in Edison, NJ, the other half was in Parsipany. How I loved those daily commutes up Hwy 1 from Trenton to Edison.
 
  • #896
D H said:
This weather here is ridiculously hot this winter. A [strike]mid-januaryfly[/strike] mayfly just flew by when I let the dogs out, and the cherry trees are already in blossom.

We've been getting crazy fluctuations, and it's killing me. The only times I usually have sinus trouble are during the major seasonal transitions from warm to cold and old to warm. I'm getting that every two days now. It was 60 degrees on Wednesday and 23 degrees on Thursday. And, yes, a few of my trees are budding and my spring bulbs are sprouting.
 
  • #897
There was raining one day, next day we had a snow storm, and the day following slush! :cry:
 
  • #898
Tiny bit 'o freezing rain, watching all the cars fishtail around the corner in front of my house last night. Should have sat out on my front porch on my rocker with a Bourbon and been more entertained.
 
  • #899
Evo said:
Brings back memories. I used to live in Yardley, PA and my office half of the week was in Edison, NJ, the other half was in Parsipany. How I loved those daily commutes up Hwy 1 from Trenton to Edison.
I took route 1 to Newark, and it was treacherous all the way. Coming back I decided to take the turnpike which was much better except that there was a crash right in front of me. I had no time to stop and so I threaded my way through the obstacle course. Fortunately, I didn't hit anything.
 
  • #900
A former (part-time) neighbor from RI called me earlier. They're getting a lot of snow, evidently. He is anxious to get back up here with his Polaris sled and go trail-riding. Unfortunately, there has been insufficient snow to build a base for the trails, so people who are silly enough to go trail-riding risk damaging their machines on rocks and stumps.

It's 18 degrees, so the precipitation is coming down as fluffy snow, though not enough to bother grooming and packing.
 
  • #901
We're having a bit of a drought. I wouldn't mind a nice fluffy daytime snow to watch, but all we've got is really cold weather. :frown:

It's only 21F outside today, but tomorrow it's supposed to go up to 45F, crazy weather.
 
  • #902
Drought? We were also having a dry year, till last week, Tuesday it rained over 2" ,Wed. over 4". It rained steady and hard from about Tuesday noon until Thrusday noon. That followed Snow on Sunday and Monday.
 
  • #903
Sigh. I have to drive 500 km tomorrow. It will be raining and snowing all the day, all the way.
 
  • #904
Evo said:
We're having a bit of a drought. I wouldn't mind a nice fluffy daytime snow to watch, but all we've got is really cold weather. :frown:

It's only 21F outside today, but tomorrow it's supposed to go up to 45F, crazy weather.

We have all your rain. Just give me your shipping address and I'll send it back. Everything has been soggy since last summer.
 
  • #905
We had -34C = -29F (not including windchill) on Thursday, and we are heading towards a predicted 7C = 45F on Tuesday.

I went for a walk at -15C = 5F this morning wearing the wrong coat - my toasty parka was too warm.
 
  • #906
Southern Ontario is having very strange weather. No snow until after Christmas... very weird. Early January was trying to be cold enough to make up for the missed days of cold we should have had. We had a bad ice storm, which half of my lovely trees have paid for.. we are not even out of January and I'm ready for winter to be over, and mother nature is teasing us with a warm spurt, but weather channel stats -13 by tomorrow. *sighs*
 
  • #907
Rain yesterday and last night, and the snow and ice has shed off the roof. I just finished cleaning off the back deck and am catching my breath before clearing the snow off the front patio. I'd like to wait, but it's not going to stay 39 deg forever, and I'll have to clear that heavy wet stuff before it re-freezes.
 
  • #908
My azaleas are already in bloom, as is my redbud, and I had to mow the lawn already. Some neighbors already have their ACs going. My oaks still have about half of last summer's green leaves on them. We had just a tiny, tiny bit of winter weather early November, just enough to nip the bananas. It has been unseasonably warm ever since.
 
  • #909
It is the evening and we are below zero. Zero Fahrenheit. Following nights will be even colder. Siberian high at action - but less than an inch of snow.

Marzena's car didn't start in the morning. Around midday, once temperature got up to around 10 F it started happily - but low oil pressure indicator didn't go off. No idea if it is frost related or not. That means we are down to one car.
 
  • #910
Ack! Sorry to hear that, Borek. I have to eventually brave the cold long enough to re-inflate all the tires on my Ridgeline. They are all below recommended pressure (not unexpected for cold weather) but the truck still handles beautifully in this ice/snow. I love symmetrical all-wheel drive with traction control! My last truck was a Nissan, and it was like a metal-wheeled roller-skate on ice.
 

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