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.
  • #401
In the aftermath of the 1988 storm, it was eerie. Due to the lack of power, and shortage of gasoline, etc, it was eerily quiet in many places. Then, you'd hear large "crack" noises followed by earth-shaking thuds as trees split and/or fell, unable to support the load of the ice. When we finally got power back at my house, and could run the furnace, the heat warmed up the metal roof and loosened the ice up there. When it let go off the back of the house, the ice destroyed my brick chimney and fireplace. The next morning, the ice on the front side of the house let go, ripping off the other chimney. Not fun! As you might imagine, it was not easy or cheap getting masons to rebuild the fireplace and chimney in the dead of winter.
 
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  • #402
Here's a news preview of the storm. 81 days to recover from the storm. I remember Evo child and i rode around several days after the storm taking pictures, it was the most surreal thing we'd ever seen, 3 inches of ice. The sun came out and it was like you were on another planet.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZQppZ0sco4
 
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  • #403
These people lived very near me from the street scenes. For people that haven't been through an ice storm.

http://www.emul8.com/ice-storm/
 

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  • #404
My wife just called - she's now about 18 miles from home - I estimate another hour and 15 minutes. We have a little over 1" of ice on top of about 12" of snow in the yard. I just let the puppies out and had to go out and rescue the female. Her stomach was flat on the ice and apparently her feet didn't touch the ground? She was yipping.
 
  • #405
In 1988, I had a Nissan Pathfinder. I had to put my chainsaw, mixed gas and bar-oil in the back, along with tow chains and a choker-cable for moving large pieces of tree-trunk, to make sure that I could back home from work every day. It would not be unusual to wend your way through interconnecting roads that were open in the morning, only to find that your path was blocked by freshly-fallen trees on the way back home.

Lots of locals cleared fallen trees on roads near their homes so that the utility company trucks could get through more easily. If the power companies had to pay the cost for all the volunteer labor, it would have cost them millions more to restore power.
 
  • #406
WhoWee said:
My wife just called - she's now about 18 miles from home - I estimate another hour and 15 minutes. We have a little over 1" of ice on top of about 12" of snow in the yard. I just let the puppies out and had to go out and rescue the female. Her stomach was flat on the ice and apparently her feet didn't touch the ground? She was yipping.
Why is she out in the storm?

Poor puppies. I remember when we had ice once, I opened the back door and before I could stop him, my dog went charging out the door, hit the ice on the deck and went sailing off the other side. :(
 
  • #407
turbo-1 said:
In 1988, I had a Nissan Pathfinder. I had to put my chainsaw, mixed gas and bar-oil in the back, along with tow chains and a choker-cable for moving large pieces of tree-trunk, to make sure that I could back home from work every day. It would not be unusual to wend your way through interconnecting roads that were open in the morning, only to find that your path was blocked by freshly-fallen trees on the way back home.

Lots of locals cleared fallen trees on roads near their homes so that the utility company trucks could get through more easily. If the power companies had to pay the cost for all the volunteer labor, it would have cost them millions more to restore power.
I know you've had your share of terrible storms up there, but I think people there are better equipped to deal with it. Even a small amount of ice in Atlanta is devastating because they aren't able to handle it.
 
  • #408
Evo said:
Why is she out in the storm?

Poor puppies. I remember when we had ice once, I opened the back door and before I could stop him, my dog went charging out the door, hit the ice on the deck and went sailing off the other side. :(

Her late class didn't cancel because there was no precipitation at 3 PM. She called the department head and he said to come in (class at 6). When only a few students showed up (4 in her class), they closed campus at 7 - it's about 70 miles away and she didn't want to stay over. She figured classes would be canceled in the AM - if not she'll need to drive back for the 9 AM class.
 
  • #409
Any frozen cow footage yet?
 
  • #410
Math Is Hard said:
Any frozen cow footage yet?

I'll check with my son - sounds like something he might have available. They probably steam a good bit?
 
  • #411
Math Is Hard said:
Any frozen cow footage yet?
That last batch died due to moldy sweet potatoes. Small consolation, though.
 
  • #412
Evo said:
I know you've had your share of terrible storms up there, but I think people there are better equipped to deal with it. Even a small amount of ice in Atlanta is devastating because they aren't able to handle it.
True. We know how to drive in nasty, slippery conditions, and many people own generators, chain saws, etc. Atlanta? Not so much. Even in MD, when I was working for General Physics, a couple of inches of snow on the road would prompt mass call-ins due to the weather. I drove to work one day, to an almost-empty parking lot, and trudged upstairs to my division to find myself alone with my division's secretary. I asked her where everybody was, and she said "Snowed in." She grew up in Buffalo and I grew up in Maine, and even with my crappy Taurus rental with general-purpose tires, I had no problem getting to work. Apparently, that sort of behavior is tolerated near the Mason-Dixon line.
 
  • #413
Math Is Hard said:
Any frozen cow footage yet?

:frown:
 
  • #414
I thought we had escaped in Tucson with temps in the 60s and 70s the last few weeks, but it is even dropping around here now. This night we are expecting temps in the low 20s with a hard freeze warning. The mountain roads are closed also due to snow.

The warning even extends quite a way into northern Mexico. It is cold everywhere in North America north of the tropics.
 
  • #415
MathAmateur said:
I thought we had escaped in Tucson with temps in the 60s and 70s the last few weeks, but it is even dropping around here now. This night we are expecting temps in the low 20s with a hard freeze warning. The mountain roads are closed also due to snow.

The warning even extends quite a way into northern Mexico. It is cold everywhere in North America north of the tropics.
Wow, that's really bad.
 
  • #417
My wife finally made it home - took longer than I thought. She said the roads were very slick - lot's of branches hanging on wires.
 
  • #418
Glad she's OK. My wife has to go to work tomorrow, but she has a Subaru Legacy with AWD and studded snow-tires. Pretty routine commute for her. Glare ice would be a different story. I would insist that she stay home just to avoid all the idiots.
 
  • #419
turbo-1 said:
I would insist that she stay home just to avoid all the idiots.
That's what I keep telling the Evo Child. She says what a good driver she is in snow and I tell her it's not her I'm worried about, I'm worried about the other idiots crashing into her.
 
  • #420
Evo said:
That's what I keep telling the Evo Child. She says what a good driver she is in snow and I tell her it's not her I'm worried about, I'm worried about the other idiots crashing into her.
My wife's vehicle has symmetrical AWD with superb tires. No problem. The problem is every jerk who has a 4x4 and thinks that enables him or her to violate the laws of physics. Pickup trucks are very bad in real slippery conditions because their weight distribution (unloaded) is so off balance.

Edit: I should mention that I have owned traditional 4WD vehicles for over 30 years, and many of them were terrible in real slick road conditions. After driving my wife's Legacy in nasty conditions, I convinced my father to buy a Forester, then my wife drove his Forester through snow and insisted that I buy one for myself and save the old Nissan 4x4 for fishing in the summer and landfill runs the rest of the year. I don't have to make commutes to work, and so have just kept the all-weather radials on the Forester, and they are fine for driving on snowy roads, as long as you pay attention.
 
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  • #421
The birds were taking shelter from the storm on my patio today. Poor things.

108md.jpg
 
  • #422
Evo said:
The birds were taking shelter from the storm on my patio today. Poor things.
I try to supply black oil seeds and suet all winter for the chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, etc. The popular press says "Don't make the birds rely on your feeders" and similar, but guess what? Steady availability of high-calorie food and the micro-climates surrounding buildings, landscaping, etc can make a real difference in this climate.
 
  • #423
turbo-1 said:
I try to supply black oil seeds and suet all winter for the chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, etc. The popular press says "Don't make the birds rely on your feeders" and similar, but guess what? Steady availability of high-calorie food and the micro-climates surrounding buildings, landscaping, etc can make a real difference in this climate.
It can really make a difference, but if you are going to do it, you need to commit to it. A neighbor across from me has a beautiful set of feeders, that she never fills. I want to go over and smack her.
 
  • #424
Evo said:
It can really make a difference, but if you are going to do it, you need to commit to it. A neighbor across from me has a beautiful set of feeders, that she never fills. I want to go over and smack her.
I estimate that we spend at least $200/year feeding birds. I'd like to wipe out the thistles on the cleared part of our property, but I can't. The bees and hummingbirds love the blossoms, and the goldfinches go nuts over the seeds.
 
  • #425
turbo-1 said:
I try to supply black oil seeds and suet all winter for the chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, etc. The popular press says "Don't make the birds rely on your feeders" and similar, but guess what? Steady availability of high-calorie food and the micro-climates surrounding buildings, landscaping, etc can make a real difference in this climate.

There is a downside to that. For instance the canals here host a plethora of water birds, and the population throws tons of bread in the water to feed them. The result is that the species who happen to eat that thrive, at the expense of others that specialize on typical water biotope foods like fish.\

So the geese and coots thrive in abundance, becoming a nuisance, while the beautiful great crested grebe can't find a spot anymore to build his nest
 
  • #426
Evo said:
That's what I keep telling the Evo Child. She says what a good driver she is in snow and I tell her it's not her I'm worried about, I'm worried about the other idiots crashing into her.
You never know how many lousy drivers there are until you go through the downtown area at 60 mph. Then they come at you from every direction.
 
  • #427
Jimmy Snyder said:
You never know how many lousy drivers there are until you go through the downtown area at 60 mph. Then they come at you from every direction.

Ever been in Mumbai during "rush hour"? Then the game is, "find the GOOD driver"... and you realize that the guy driving your cab... he's not one of them. TRUUUE story. I'd have been terrified if the crazed maneuvers weren't all being done below 15 MPH! :smile:


Andre: True, but I trust Evo and Turbo to know how to responsibly feed birds; Evo is clearly in love with the little fluffy cuties, and turbo as well. Anyway, those are song-birds, and they can always use a snack... pigeons/doves, geese... I've never seen them starve.
 
  • #428
turbo-1 said:
Glad she's OK. My wife has to go to work tomorrow, but she has a Subaru Legacy with AWD and studded snow-tires. Pretty routine commute for her. Glare ice would be a different story. I would insist that she stay home just to avoid all the idiots.

Thanks turbo. My wife received a text at 5:30 AM - no classes today. I'm glad because she wouldn't have called off - and (more than likely) I would have been driving her.:rolleyes:
 
  • #429
WhoWee said:
Thanks turbo. My wife received a text at 5:30 AM - no classes today. I'm glad because she wouldn't have called off - and (more than likely) I would have been driving her.:rolleyes:

Meanwhile she'd be teaching to a class of one or two!... that kind of dedication is admirable, but wasted.
 
  • #430
They've been predicting freezing rain here since late last week and up at least until 10 pm last night. However, it didn't happen. We only got light rain and now the temps are headed for the low 40s which means not only don't we get ice, but some of the ice on the ground will be washed away. Of course, tonight it will freeze over, but except for tomorrow, the daily high temps are going to be above freezing until Wednesday next week.
 
  • #431
We're watching sleet accumulate on the ground. There is about 2 inches of sleet on the ground and very little traffic. Bus service in the city has been suspended, and schools in the region are closed. The local CC plans to open at 12 noon - but I can't see that happening if it continues sleeting like it is. Later today - freezing rain. The plow truck went by a few minutes ago. While it removed the snow, the surface is now covered with sleet/ice.
 
  • #432
I can't be sure, but where I am in Chicago I'd swear that it's about 20 inches of snow. With the wind it's very hard to tell...
 
  • #433
It's snow and raining. Snow is melting and freezing! horrible! It's not a storm but just painful to go out in this kind of weather.
 
  • #434
10 deg F here and snowing quite heavily. At least we're not in line for sleet and rain.
 
  • #435
WhoWee said:
Thanks turbo. My wife received a text at 5:30 AM - no classes today. I'm glad because she wouldn't have called off - and (more than likely) I would have been driving her.:rolleyes:
Good for her. My wife's employer won't bother doing that. They wait for people to show up (or not), and then perhaps make a decision to shut down for the day if they are badly under-staffed or if the weather intensifies. My wife has to drive almost 20 miles one-way to get to work and she never misses a day. Meanwhile, there are people who live much closer to the plant that claim that they can't make it to work in bad weather. It's frustrating for her to drive all the way to work only to have the plant close after a couple of hours and miss most of a day's wages.
 
  • #436
My son is stranded in Akron (the city that rhymes with Saccharin).

He missed his originally scheduled flight yesterday morning because he arrived less than 15 minutes before the plane departed. That was costly. Now his rescheduled flight for today was canceled because of snow. Hopefully, he'll be out of there tomorrow, but, damn he's wishing he had made yesterday's flight.
 
  • #437
Texas statewide is suffering rolling blackouts. While the temperature here is not that cold by northern standards, our power plants were not built for these kinds of temperatures.

The blackouts started around 6 AM, the first was twenty minutes off, twenty on. Then twenty off, ten on. Now it is over an hour off, ten minutes on.

It looks like I'm in for a cold day with rather intermittent internet access.
 
  • #438
D H said:
Texas statewide is suffering rolling blackouts. While the temperature here is not that cold by northern standards, our power plants were not built for these kinds of temperatures.

The blackouts started around 6 AM, the first was twenty minutes off, twenty on. Then twenty off, ten on. Now it is over an hour off, ten minutes on.

It looks like I'm in for a cold day with rather intermittent internet access.
Dang. Can't your power companies wheel in power (purchase) from elsewhere?
 
  • #439
D H said:
Texas statewide is suffering rolling blackouts. While the temperature here is not that cold by northern standards, our power plants were not built for these kinds of temperatures.
That's surprising. I would have thought that power plant would not be affected by cold temperatures unless the coal piles froze or the oil got too viscous. I thought many new plants were natural gas fired.

[/quote]The blackouts started around 6 AM, the first was twenty minutes off, twenty on. Then twenty off, ten on. Now it is over an hour off, ten minutes on.

It looks like I'm in for a cold day with rather intermittent internet access.[/QUOTE] Unbelieveable that there is not surplus generation.

In the Northeast US - during one of the winters in the the early to mid 90s (maybe 93), the temperatures were so cold that rivers froze and barges couldn't deliver coal or oil. And the coal piles froze. We had a reserve margin of 0.2%. Natural gas was being used (was committed) for heating. While many fossil plants were down, the nuclear plants in the region kept the grid up - otherwise there would have been a significant blackout.

Go Nuclear! :biggrin:
 
  • #440
D H said:
Texas statewide is suffering rolling blackouts. While the temperature here is not that cold by northern standards, our power plants were not built for these kinds of temperatures.

The blackouts started around 6 AM, the first was twenty minutes off, twenty on. Then twenty off, ten on. Now it is over an hour off, ten minutes on.

It looks like I'm in for a cold day with rather intermittent internet access.
It's hard to see how a region that consumes so much power air-conditioning buildings in the summer doesn't have the capacity to provide electricity for lights and heating in cold weather. Or are there infrastructure issues that are not evident?
 
  • #441
dlgoff said:
Dang. Can't your power companies wheel in power (purchase) from elsewhere?
Texas has its own power grid.

[PLAIN]http://www.solcomhouse.com/images/pwrgrid_interconnects.gif

Why? Don't mess with us and all that. An article: http://www.slate.com/id/2087133/

turbo-1 said:
It's hard to see how a region that consumes so much power air-conditioning buildings in the summer doesn't have the capacity to provide electricity for lights and heating in cold weather. Or are there infrastructure issues that are not evident?
Apparently 50! power generation units went off line this morning due to the cold weather. http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/02/02/texas-cold-snap-leads-to-rolling-blackouts/ Combine that with higher than normal (normal for January) consumption and an inability to connect to the rest of the nation and you have massive rolling blackouts.
 
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  • #442
D H said:
Texas has its own power grid.

[PLAIN]http://www.solcomhouse.com/images/pwrgrid_interconnects.gif

Why? Don't mess with us and all that. An article: http://www.slate.com/id/2087133/
Well I knew that there was an island there but there are also DC ties to other parts of the grid.

The Texas Interconnection is tied to the Eastern Interconnection with two DC ties, and has a DC tie and a VFT to non-NERC systems in Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Interconnection"

I suppose the DC ties aren't going to be able to support the kinds of loads needed there.
 
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  • #443
Our temperature has just climbed to 0F for the first time in two days. Time to go camping!
Will be in a tent at 10,000 feet Friday and Saturday nights.
 
  • #444
Still 10 deg F here, and at least 2"/hour coming down. I had to use my tractor to clear out the snowbank left by the town plow and clear enough of the driveway for my wife to be able to back in and park when she gets home. The intensity is expected to ease off sometime this evening, but by then, we'll likely have 18-20" or so to deal with. Full clean-up tomorrow. Some of my neighbors are getting pretty high snow-banks from all the plowing this year, making visibility an issue when pulling out onto the road, so I'm going to make the rounds and offer to cut back those banks. Plows are nice in moderate storms, but when you run out of places to push the snow...
 
  • #445
We have a 5 ft high berm behind the mailbox at the end of the drive way. I have to shovel the snow pile clear of the mailbox so that the mailman reach it and the newspaper delivery person can put the paper in the tube - although most of the time, the paper (in a plastic bag) is dropped on the ground at the end of the drive way.

In the area between our driveway and the neighbor's driveway, I have to cut down the berm below 3.5 ft so the lady next door can see oncoming traffic. The guy who plows her driveway tends to push the stuff toward our property, so I have a little extra work to do.
 
  • #446
Astronuc said:
We have a 5 ft high berm behind the mailbox at the end of the drive way. I have to shovel the snow pile clear of the mailbox so that the mailman reach it and the newspaper delivery person can put the paper in the tube - although most of the time, the paper (in a plastic bag) is dropped on the ground at the end of the drive way.

In the area between our driveway and the neighbor's driveway, I have to cut down the berm below 3.5 ft so the lady next door can see oncoming traffic. The guy who plows her driveway tends to push the stuff toward our property, so I have a little extra work to do.

Whoa. I think I get the beard now... it's self defense, not just a fashion statement. I can't believe that there is more to come as well. Nutsy.
 
  • #447
Pictures of the 2011 blizzard in the Chicagoland area, during and after. It was the largest amount of snowfall for a 24-hour period in more than 30 years.

img0469hy.jpg


img0467yo.jpg


img0462vs.jpg


img0466g.jpg


img0472jg.jpg


Us, and the neighbors, digging out of the snow after it stopped. At least the sky cleared up and the sun came out. Unfortunately, it will be frigid cold tonight, with tomorrow's high in the single digits only.

img0490y.jpg


img0483yb.jpg


img0493gz.jpg


img0492ap.jpg


Our backyard has been sufficiently buried. I'm estimating that there's about 2 ft. of snow coverage.

img0488yx.jpg


Zz.
 
  • #448
Looks pretty bad Zz.
 
  • #449
The wind didn't help.
 
  • #450
Those are some high snow berms! On the other hand, be glad you all live on streets that get plowed...
 

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