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

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The discussion centers around varying winter weather experiences across different regions. An Arctic cold front is expected to bring severe conditions, including strong winds and potential blizzard-like conditions, leading to dangerously low wind chills in some areas. Participants share personal weather updates, with some experiencing significant snowfall while others report mild conditions. Notably, areas in the Midwest and parts of the UK are facing heavy snow, while regions like Western Washington and parts of Florida are seeing typical winter temperatures without snow. Concerns about the impact of cold weather on crops, infrastructure challenges in handling snow, and personal anecdotes about coping with the cold are prevalent. The conversation also touches on the contrasting experiences of those in warmer climates, highlighting the diverse impacts of winter weather across the globe.
  • #351
Thankfully, it's skipping us, at least until Tue, although I think that's totally different system headed your way.

As it is, Tue's projected 13 below doesn't hold a frozen candle to last year's -29 F.

I'll simply keep the door closed and call my parents.

Same as it ever was.

Besides, if thing get WAY bad, I can hike there in slightly more than an hour (and I have the extreme cold weather gear in which to do it).
 
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  • #352
Getting ready for a big snow. Plenty of animal food, that way they don't have to me if times get tough.
 
  • #353
Not a huge one, but we are forecast for 10-18" Wednesday. Hopefully, it stays all snow this time.
 
  • #354
It's starting to feel like Maine here in Kansas. Snow, snow, snow.

With temps to -10°F Thursday morning.
 
  • #355
dlgoff said:
It's starting to feel like Maine here in Kansas. Snow, snow, snow.

With temps to -10°F Thursday morning.
We're under a blizzard warning, and weather.com says we're all going to die. :rolleyes:

The Fruitbat and I have three firelogs and some devilled eggs.

Unfortunately we are all electric, but I do have my coleman tailgater grill, unfortunately it requires a special propane cannister, which I don't have, but it's cute, don't have any charcoal either. Don't have an axe, so I can't get wood, even if I had gloves and snowboots so I could chop wood in -60F windchills.
 
  • #356
Evo said:
We're under a blizzard warning, and weather.com says we're all going to die. :rolleyes:

The Fruitbat and I have three firelogs and some devilled eggs.

Unfortunately we are all electric, but I do have my coleman tailgater grill, unfortunately it requires a special propane cannister, which I don't have, but it's cute, don't have any charcoal either. Don't have an axe, so I can't get wood, even if I had gloves and snowboots so I could chop wood in -60F windchills.
I think it's good that you don't have an axe. It's also good that you don't have cold-weather gear. If you are to be a cold-related fatality, it's best that the authorities find you at home so your place could be rented out right away. Finding bodies when the snow-banks melt makes for messy legal situations.
 
  • #357
turbo-1 said:
I think it's good that you don't have an axe. It's also good that you don't have cold-weather gear. If you are to be a cold-related fatality, it's best that the authorities find you at home so your place could be rented out right away. Finding bodies when the snow-banks melt makes for messy legal situations.
:smile:

I love you turbo!
 
  • #358
Evo said:
:smile:

I love you turbo!
Just trying to be practical... :rolleyes:
 
  • #359
12 inches of snow tomorrow :D!
 
  • #360
Kevin_Axion said:
12 inches of snow tomorrow :D!
Hah, 14-16" with 45 mph winds and -10F below temps (without windchill).

I will have to dig a path for my 9" fruitbat so he can go potty.
 
  • #361
Evo said:
Hah, 14-16" with 45 mph winds and -10F below temps (without windchill).

I will have to dig a path for my 9" fruitbat so he can go potty.

Will he even agree to go, at those temps? Or will he go on a pee strike?
 
  • #362
lisab said:
Will he even agree to go, at those temps? Or will he go on a pee strike?
His pee might freeze mid air. :eek:
 
  • #363
Evo said:
His pee might freeze mid air. :eek:

And it doesn't even have to fall very far!
 
  • #364
That's nothing

it was so cold that the mate's shadow froze fast to the deck and had to be ripped loose by main strength. And even then he got only about two-thirds of it back.

Mark Twain
 
  • #365
It is going to flood this spring when this finally DOES melt... oh boy is it going to flood.
 
  • #366
I got up to make coffee just now and no water. Turns out that the water meter is frozen. So I took a propane torch to it. Ahhhh Coffee.

Baby it's cold out.
 
  • #367
Evo said:
His pee might freeze mid air. :eek:

Just hope he doesn't try to pee on a fire hydrant. That hurts ten times worse than having your tongue frozen to a flag pole.

It stayed in double digits here ... wait ... what's that dash before the temperature mean? Aaaaagh!
 
  • #368
dlgoff said:
I got up to make coffee just now and no water. Turns out that the water meter is frozen. So I took a propane torch to it. Ahhhh Coffee.

Baby it's cold out.
It's going to be much colder tomorrow. I hope your pipes will be ok.

BobG said:
Just hope he doesn't try to pee on a fire hydrant. That hurts ten times worse than having your tongue frozen to a flag pole.

It stayed in double digits here ... wait ... what's that dash before the temperature mean? Aaaaagh!
:smile:
 
  • #369
Evo said:
It's going to be much colder tomorrow. I hope your pipes will be ok.
Thanks. The water meter is on the northwest corner of the property where the wind howls. I'll keep a small stream of water running until we're out of this cold snap.
 
  • #370
dlgoff said:
Thanks. The water meter is on the northwest corner of the property where the wind howls. I'll keep a small stream of water running until we're out of this cold snap.
Consider covering it in plastic and then burying it under some compost and bark mulch. That should keep it warm until spring.
 
  • #371
Astronuc said:
Consider covering it in plastic and then burying it under some compost and bark mulch. That should keep it warm until spring.
Good idea. In the past I've stuffed insulation down in the hole and was going to today thinking it would be okay until then. It's full of R-19 now.
 
  • #372
dlgoff said:
Good idea. In the past I've stuffed insulation down in the hole and was going to today thinking it would be okay until then. It's full of R-19 now.
Put the insulation in a plastic back. Air is a good insulator, but wet (soaked) insulation doesn't insulate very well. Compost decays and produces heat.
 
  • #373
Astronuc said:
Put the insulation in a plastic back. Air is a good insulator, but wet (soaked) insulation doesn't insulate very well. Compost decays and produces heat.
Well, the meter is in a well with a metal lid. I doesn't get wet in there in the winter.

This rural meter gets read monthly, so I wouldn't be able to cover it up. I got a notice just this summer that there would be a $25 fee if it is not free of weeds. They are worried about snakes I guess.
 
  • #374
Just let the my dog out, jeeze o pete that wind and that small granular ice stings like crazy. I wish I had my camera, just in the 3 minutes he was out, he looked like a snowman, he was completely covered with snow.
 
  • #375
You know, until I sent picture to some relatives in India, a few didn't believe the kind of snow and weather you people get in the North America. It's... cold, but it is very beautiful, and even that cold is like blazing heat... it's a little majestic.

Icicles... never get old.
 
  • #376
12 deg and snowing steadily. The heavy snow is due tomorrow, and the forecasters are describing a band of heavy snowfall that may or may not have this town in the bulls-eye. Again, it looks like the northern parts of the state may get a lot less snow than we will.
 
  • #377
I didn't experience -40 once this winter. Balmy!
 
  • #378
turbo-1 said:
12 deg and snowing steadily. The heavy snow is due tomorrow, and the forecasters are describing a band of heavy snowfall that may or may not have this town in the bulls-eye. Again, it looks like the northern parts of the state may get a lot less snow than we will.

Your TOWN!? Wow... that's some awful luck given the size of this storm. :bugeye:
 
  • #379
nismaratwork said:
Your TOWN!? Wow... that's some awful luck given the size of this storm. :bugeye:
The point is, the forecasters are predicting heavy snow in a wide band of Maine, but the way they draw their maps, I can't tell if the are putting us in the 12" zone or maybe the 20" zone.
 
  • #380
Phase 1 was mild. Waiting for Phase 2. Fortunately we're not in the freezing rain section. I'd much rather have 2 feet of snow than freezing rain and 1 or 2 inches of ice on everything.

This Afternoon...Snow with patchy freezing drizzle. Snow accumulation up to an inch. Cold. Near steady temperature around 20. Northeast winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Tonight...Freezing drizzle and snow likely in the evening...then snow...freezing rain...very light freezing drizzle and sleet after midnight. Total snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches. Ice accumulation of up to one quarter of an inch. Near steady temperature in the lower 20s. Northeast winds around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 90 percent.

Wednesday...Freezing rain...light snow and sleet. Additional snow and sleet accumulation up to an inch. Ice accumulation of up to one tenth of an inch. Highs around 30. East winds 10 to 15 mph... Becoming northeast 5 to 10 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation near 100 percent.

Wednesday Night...Snow likely in the evening...then scattered snow showers after midnight. Additional light snow accumulation possible. Lows around 17. West winds around 5 mph...becoming northwest after midnight. Chance of snow 60 percent.

Seems the system is now centered over the Ohio River Valley between Ky and In.
 

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  • #381
turbo-1 said:
The point is, the forecasters are predicting heavy snow in a wide band of Maine, but the way they draw their maps, I can't tell if the are putting us in the 12" zone or maybe the 20" zone.

Hell, that's kind of a big deal for forecasters to miss. I guess in Maine though this is nothing however!

Astronuc: What is freezing rain? I'm finding several definitions online... is it like sleet or hail, or rain that freezes on contact with the ground?
 
  • #383
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  • #384
nismaratwork said:
Hell, that's kind of a big deal for forecasters to miss. I guess in Maine though this is nothing however!

Astronuc: What is freezing rain? I'm finding several definitions online... is it like sleet or hail, or rain that freezes on contact with the ground?
It's rain (liquid) just above or at freezing but not frozen as in sleet or hail. It hits a cold surface (at or below freezing) and turns to ice. Surfaces get very icy/slippery.
 
  • #385
Astronuc said:
It's rain (liquid) just above or at freezing but not frozen as in sleet or hail. It hits a cold surface (at or below freezing) and turns to ice. Surfaces get very icy/slippery.

Great... another kind of lethal weather I get to experience here. I love this country, but you have ice that seems to WANT you dead! Freezing rain... sounds like a level of hell.
 
  • #386
Astronuc said:
Seems the system is now centered over the Ohio River Valley between Ky and In.
That's one mean looking storm. I'm located where the arrow is and the snow is starting to pill up.
 

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  • #387
Astronuc said:
It's rain (liquid) just above or at freezing but not frozen as in sleet or hail. It hits a cold surface (at or below freezing) and turns to ice. Surfaces get very icy/slippery.
And tree branches jacketed in solid ice get VERY heavy - a major cause of power outages when they take out utility lines.
 
  • #388
dlgoff said:
That's one mean looking storm. I'm located where the arrow is and the snow is starting to pill up.
And I'm just to the right of you. It's really coming down right now, I can't see the road now, so I can't tell if any stupid people are trying to drive in this, I'm sure they are.

I got caught in the car in a sudden whiteout in New York once, I could barely make out the snow fence along the roadside and just made sure I kept it in sight, going 10mph, I do not know how I made it home and didn't get stuck in snow.
 
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  • #389
nismaratwork said:
Great... another kind of lethal weather I get to experience here. I love this country, but you have ice that seems to WANT you dead! Freezing rain... sounds like a level of hell.
I suppose freezing rain could also be supercooled water droplets.

I've only experience supercooled water once. Somehow I had a bottle of water - can't remember if it was distilled - in the refrigerator. I went to retrieve it and as soon as I bumped it, it flashed to solid. Pretty amazing.


freezing rain—Rain that falls in liquid form but freezes upon impact to form a coating of glaze upon the ground and on exposed objects.
In aviation weather observations, this hydrometeor is encoded ZR. While the temperature of the ground surface and glazed objects is typically near or below freezing (0°C or 32°F), it is necessary that the water drops be supercooled before striking. Freezing rain can sometimes occur on surfaces exposed to the air (such as tree limbs) with air temperatures slightly above freezing in strong winds.
Source - http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/browse?s=f&p=39
 
  • #390
turbo-1 said:
And tree branches jacketed in solid ice get VERY heavy - a major cause of power outages when they take out utility lines.
Last winter (and one several years ago), we had many trees in our area just fall over from the ice and snow accumulation. We had one or two in our back yard, as well as braches just peel off some fir trees last winter.
 
  • #391
Astronuc said:
I suppose freezing rain could also be supercooled water droplets.

I've only experience supercooled water once. Somehow I had a bottle of water - can't remember if it was distilled - in the refrigerator. I went to retrieve it and as soon as I bumped it, it flashed to solid. Pretty amazing.


Source - http://amsglossary.allenpress.com/glossary/browse?s=f&p=39

I don't know... that beard... maybe you're a wizard? :wink:

I know that people like doing that trick with beer, but to hit the sweet spot with water? That's pretty impressive even if it is distilled to minimize nucleation.
 
  • #392
Astronuc said:
It's rain (liquid) just above or at freezing but not frozen as in sleet or hail. It hits a cold surface (at or below freezing) and turns to ice. Surfaces get very icy/slippery.

turbo-1 said:
And tree branches jacketed in solid ice get VERY heavy - a major cause of power outages when they take out utility lines.

And don't forget how it coats your car so it's covered in a solid, impenetrable shell of ice, as you look longingly inside the car window where your ice scraper lies on the back seat of your car. And how it freezes the door locks so you can't open the door even if you could get through the ice.

Except for the passenger side door. It seems like that door always opens no matter how bad the freezing rain has been. Of course, once you open it, it won't latch when you try to close it. It makes those left turns in busy intersections kind of exciting when the passenger side door swings open.

Geez, I miss Nebraska - NOT! At least we didn't have to worry about damage to tree branches - Nebraska doesn't have trees.
 
  • #393
BobG: I had so many responses, but I'm going with: wow.
 
  • #394
nismaratwork said:
BobG: I had so many responses, but I'm going with: wow.
Ice storms can be that bad or worse. People with remote car starters can at least warm up the interiors of their vehicles to loosen the grip of the ice, IF they remembered to set the heater temperature and functions when they parked their vehicle before the storm.
 
  • #395
turbo-1 said:
Ice storms can be that bad or worse. People with remote car starters can at least warm up the interiors of their vehicles to loosen the grip of the ice, IF they remembered to set the heater temperature and functions when they parked their vehicle before the storm.

Whoa... sounds like one of these could paralyze a region for a long time!
 
  • #396
dlgoff said:
That's one mean looking storm. I'm located where the arrow is and the snow is starting to pill up.

Boy, that is one time you have to wish the, "you are here" arrow to be somewhere else! :wink:
 
  • #397
nismaratwork said:
Boy, that is one time you have to wish the, "you are here" arrow to be somewhere else! :wink:

Bora Bora!
 
  • #398
nismaratwork said:
Whoa... sounds like one of these could paralyze a region for a long time!
We had such a storm in 1988 that destroyed millions of trees and left many millions more damaged and susceptible to damage by disease and insects. Almost a million people were without power, many for weeks. Many gas stations had no back-up power and couldn't sell you fuel even if the roads were clear enough so that you could drive there. I was the network specialist for a large ophthalmic practice at the time. With no power in our offices, I was still busy, shuttling generators back and forth to various doctors' houses to run their furnaces in shifts so their plumbing wouldn't freeze. It was a mess. My wife and I were without power for almost a week, although we lived in a fully built-up subdivision. No power in January = bad news for many people.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...itle&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQsAQwAg&biw=944&bih=910
 
  • #399
turbo-1 said:
We had such a storm in 1988 that destroyed millions of trees and left many millions more damaged and susceptible to damage by disease and insects. Almost a million people were without power, many for weeks. Many gas stations had no back-up power and couldn't sell you fuel even if the roads were clear enough so that you could drive there. I was the network specialist for a large ophthalmic practice at the time. With no power in our offices, I was still busy, shuttling generators back and forth to various doctors' houses to run their furnaces in shifts so their plumbing wouldn't freeze. It was a mess. My wife and I were without power for almost a week, although we lived in a fully built-up subdivision. No power in January = bad news for many people.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&...itle&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQsAQwAg&biw=944&bih=910

My reaction is not allowed on PF, but you can guess. Whoa.

Lisab: Sounds about right to me!
 
  • #400
Here's a recent ice storm here. There was a much worse one a few years before that I have pictures of somewhere, we had so many trees destroyed the entire area was claimed a national disaster, it was horrific.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8zMZkliIBM

I can't find a video of it, but the storm of 2002 was devastating.

http://www.nbcactionnews.com/dpp/weather/winter/looking-back-on-the-ice-storm-of-2002-in-kansas-city,-could-it-happen-again%3F
 
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