I hear it's been snowing Stateside

John Kielly

Shari's fan club
It's warm this side of the world.

Here's a shot of a road that's breaking up because the asphalt is melting in the heat.
 

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Here's a shot of a road that's breaking up because the asphalt is melting in the heat.
Can't speak for other parts of the US, but it has been rainy at my house near Portland, OR.

As for roads in the heat, IIRC, there was a stretch of road in the Southwest US which required firefighting assistance on warm days. The local transportation authorities used asphalt which incorporated pulverized tires in the mix, but did not remove the tiny steel wires (remnants of the reinforcing strands of wire rope - this was an early use of this technology). On hot days, added heat from the oxidizing wire set the road on fire.
 
Portland

I just visited my Daughter & family in Portland over Christmas. I actually saw a small spot of sunshine one day! Unfortunately we all couldn't fit into the sunspot! :)
 
Well in this neck of the woods (Eastern Maine)

it's done nothing but snow and some freezing rain over Christmas. Just got another 8" of fluffy stuff last night. The freezing rain resulted in 7 days with no utility power in my town and much of Hancock County along with many other areas in Maine.

However, folks living "in the country" have not forgotten how to take care of themselves and cope with a bit of adversity. Power is generally dependable except when it howls a Nor'easter or during heavy wet snows or freezing rain...which is quite often this time of year.

Wood stoves and furnaces abound in the area. So do small to medium sized generators. We burned wood for 28 years and switched to a pellet stove about 4 years ago to cut the time devoted to fuel prep. I have had pretty good luck with the stove, a Quadrafire, only having to replace an auger drive motor and an optical sensor so far. Pellets, at current prices, save us about 40% over an equivalent amount of Middle East oil heating equivalent wise. With a pellet stove we can load the hopper and be away some and still have steady heat as opposed to a wood stove where you have to be there to feed the unit. An extra + is the pellet stove can operate on a 12v deep cycle battery which we did at night during the recent outage, charging the batter when the geni was on.

I like being reminded, once in a while, that life can be hard and not as comfortable as modern civilization and all its trappings have lulled us into thinking it is. A good dose of reality is not a bad thing. Ciao from snowy, cold Maine! --Greg
 
Portland Or

Can't speak for other parts of the US, but it has been rainy at my house near Portland, OR.

As for roads in the heat, IIRC, there was a stretch of road in the Southwest US which required firefighting assistance on warm days. The local transportation authorities used asphalt which incorporated pulverized tires in the mix, but did not remove the tiny steel wires (remnants of the reinforcing strands of wire rope - this was an early use of this technology). On hot days, added heat from the oxidizing wire set the road on fire.

was named after Portland, ME. It often rains there too because of its seaport location, while it snows a few miles inland. Francis Pettigrove won the naming coin toss.
 
Here in the banana belt of Southern Montana we had another 2 or 3 inches of snow preceded by some lovely light rain to help slacken up the roads a bit. Sorts out the Californians pretty quickly and the folks with 4WD who figure they can go anywhere at any rate of speed they want. Lots of them end up in the ditch or median on Interstates, on most roads (two lane here) they end up in the ditch. Hopefully they learn a good, although expensive lesson, assuming they don't kill themselves or someone else.

My Cairn Terrier loves the cool weather and snow better than the heat that's for sure, as long as the snow's not too deep.
 
Snowing lightly here in Tennessee

Very, very, lightly...not enough to break the kids outta school if they were going. Hope it doesn't snow largely before Monday as I plan to go back to work and that might be an event I could pass up....it would have to be fairly bad and timely for around here. Just to be certain, if it snowed all it snowed on a ten foot square it would be about 3 inches...sure as "heck" ain't gonna melt as the temp is running about 23 degrees. Yeah, bad I know....but we're complaining about the weather - at least I am.
 
Snowing as we speak

Very, very, lightly...not enough to break the kids outta school if they were going. Hope it doesn't snow largely before Monday as I plan to go back to work and that might be an event I could pass up....it would have to be fairly bad and timely for around here. Just to be certain, if it snowed all it snowed on a ten foot square it would be about 3 inches...sure as "heck" ain't gonna melt as the temp is running about 23 degrees. Yeah, bad I know....but we're complaining about the weather - at least I am.

And 11 below zero on the F scale. It's so cold that if you're not careful when you first go outside your nostrils will stick together if you take a deep breath!
 
Just 4 deg F now, with an overnight low of -1 at KBED.

But we only got about 10" of snow - hard to tell with all the blowing/drifting.
 
OK, so a poll....... How many of you have been outside in 30 below?

-40?
-50???


My personal extremes are;

-28F with a 40mph wind (UN-workable!)
-52F but calm (also pretty much unworkable)

Where I grew up they closed public schools at 30 below zero, so we'd play outside. The big maple trees started cracking like gunshots at 40 below....


Funny thing how you can always tell the real from the fake. I was talking with my dentist the other day and he told as how he and a buddy were out thawing lines one morning, "nippy morning, like the pipes wouldn't even get warm let alone thaw, 'bout sucked the flame out..." And they were going to go back and get the welding torches because the propane just wasn't getting it done and I carefully asked the question....."so how were you set up? Was the propane tank inside a truck box or in the pickup or had you grabbed it out of the shop or what?"

"Ohhh no," he says, "we had the little Crummy with the gaspot and a couple 40-pounders wrapped in batt'ry blankets in the back..."

s'truth :)

al
 
Depends on location. Anywhere south of MT, ND, MN etc.--minus 30 is brutal. Anything colder is unthinkable. Farther north, minus 30 in calm conditions is cold but not unbearable. Minus 50 is unbearable no matter what. Plus, in some places temperature inversions set in with thick ice fog so the 3 or 4 hours that might be sunny are dark. Miserable! No wonder booze sales spike.

Some of the snowmachine racers put duct tape directly on their face and nose to protect against frostbite. Works OK but it's not much fun to peel off.

As I say to my young friends: Outdoor work or play in temps below zero loses its romance after the age of 60, or maybe even 50.
 
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Al-In-Wahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh........................

Now you are talking COLD and WINTER...........................

Right up a Manitoban's alley........................................

We do not have a lot of snow but it has been COLDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Just will not break. Today the temp has but we are headed for about 6 inches of snow. Not the nice light fluffy stuff but more sugary.......................

Then back into the deep freeze we go.

There must be a reason that Thompson Manitoba has state of the art COLD weather testing facilities for Rolls Royce and Pratt & Whitney jet engines.

Also Ford has a cold weather testing lab. It was something to see about 10 years ago when I was working up there. They would close a road and flood the low spot with maybe 10'' of water. It was -30 celcius and they would drive cars and trucks through the water for maybe 75 yards.

Talking about blocks of ice after a few hours..................................

Just to think we are on the down hill slide to spring..................... LMAO

Calvin
 
BTW, in the story above re the dentist thawing the lines...... he didn't know HOW cold it was but they had the rad on and the announcer said -48C in town so it was a legitimate "50 below"....... and as any coldweather farmboy knows, the Bic lighters quit working in light jacket weather while propane goes down to around 20-30 below before it loses faith, and it STOPS WORKING before 40 below zero. If you do get it out of the tank it's a liquid and you can't light it with a match LOL
 
At 40 below you'd best have the right kind of fuel oil in your above ground tank--some of it gels. And lightweight grease in your 4WD differentials, an engine block heater, battery blanket, transmission heater, and the patience to hear your "square" tires go bump-bump-bump for the first few miles.
 
i've got a question

Why don't y'all move somewhere else.......? I don't know the answer either but it's been just below zero here in Tennessee like twice in my entire life and that was for about two maybe three days. Cold here, is 20 degF for the most part.
 
when I was a freshman at Michigan state it was -16F actual with wind chill that was something in the range of -30 (and there WAS WIND always). They cancelled class on that day, but resumed the next day when it was only -10 or so with the wind chill. If you haven't ever been to MSU's campus it is quite large, not a lot of wind breaks, and the bus system left a lot to be desired if you had to get to your next class in any relatively reasonable time.
Icicles on your eyelashes, and frozen condensation on your mask/scarf after the 20min or more walk to class.
then there's the temps in the bedroom after the wife finds out I just bought another bit of tooling for the lathe...Kelvin scale type stuff!
Great fun!
Mike
 
Why don't y'all move somewhere else.......? I don't know the answer either but it's been just below zero here in Tennessee like twice in my entire life and that was for about two maybe three days. Cold here, is 20 degF for the most part.

That question there has a nugget of wisdom in it. I would think there must be some deep roots that keep them where they live.

I remember my grandmother saying, "Be it ever so humble and dirty, there's no place like home."

Concho Bill
 
The question

Why don't y'all move somewhere else.......? I don't know the answer either but it's been just below zero here in Tennessee like twice in my entire life and that was for about two maybe three days. Cold here, is 20 degF for the most part.

is...................

Would the American citizens be able to handle Canadians moving to the warmer areas of the US???????

You would hear.................... "EH" constantly

You would hear.................... "Sorry" constantly

We would complain that we would not have our higher alcohol content beer

And finally we would leave our 40 Creek Whiskey behind.
 
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