How cold is it?

[Mattlikesbikes]

This is what it looked like Friday in Bucks County PA. Yesterday morning all the snow was pretty much melted and now it is about 8 degrees outside and the wind is howling.

[Salty19]

Not a ton of snow here, maybe a couple of inches, but about -6 temps and howling wind. 

After hearing what I thought were pipes cracking last night (boy the house makes lots of noise in this cold), I checked the upstairs guest shower which lies near an outside wall, which I failed to let the water drip.  Forgot about the fact it was near an outside wall until later in the evening.

Sure enough, no water came out of the faucet.  Placed some space heaters nearby, knowing full well there would be a leak to clean up. By 5:00am the defrost action occurred, water was pouring down the walls into the kitchen and basement.  Going to have to destroy that shower to fix it due to wall access issues.   Needed remodeling anyway, but was hoping to put that off until next year.

[Greene]

Ouch!  We can relate Mike.  When we returned from Orange Beach on Jan. 1st we walked into a house and read our thermostat - 33 degrees.  Someone's backpack or luggage must have rubbed against the thermostat when we were leaving on Dec. 21st and turned the furnace off.  Six frozen pipes and one frozen drain.  Happy New Year. Fortunately we were able to defrost them all without bursting any lines. 

So the first night back we spent thawing pipes out and the second night I got to remove 12" of snow from our really long country driveway.  Now it is friggin' negative 15 degrees outside.   Do you think we're ready to move south yet?

Mike and Shivering B

[capt_nemo]

High today is ONLY 58* and we're FREEZING down here in SW Florida. Even had to turn my HEAT STRIP on to raise the house temp from 67* to a comfortable 70*.

But it's only temporary, because temps start rising tomorrow and Saturday/Sunday it will be 84*!

capt_nemo

[BruceW]

Capt Nemo,

Your comment reminds me of my dad. He would talk about the blizzard of 1957 in San Diego. After a long buildup, he'd explain he had to light the pilot light on the space heater out in the hall because of the intense cold.

[frank]

Capt Nemo....84 on sunday eh....well.....from ALL of us locked in the "minus ??" catagory, I have one thing to say:


BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA to you!!

[Bob23]

Nemo:
   I know personally that you are a fair guy so I'm sending you down a bottle of NJ cold. After it's empty, please return the bottle with some FL warm! Any flavor will do!
Bob23

[Salty19]

Greene, you got sooo lucky without any burst pipe! Glad to hear.   Crazycarl also was tending burst pipes today.   We've got the leaks fixed, yep two pipes burst, but the damage it took to find the bad sections took some toll on ceilings, drywall, and a shower. In three rooms including one bathroom under the problem that we just replaced top to bottom.  Cough.  

So to answer your question, how cold is it?  It's so cold, we took everything out of the deep freezer in the basement so we could huddle inside of it to stay warm!  

'Tis the season I suppose for the North/South ribbing.   I'll be sure to return the favor come hurricane season. 

[kickingbug1]

if it wasnt so damned cold i would go out in the garage sit in my boat and pretend i was sailing. i have the luxury to be able to just sit in the house and watch it snow. nowhere i have to be. it was pretty though.

[Salty19]

Yep, and no CLR DVD this year to get through the cold, dark winter.
I think we should fire the guy that makes 'em...

[skip1930]

Our Great Lakes fleet has not even begun to make port yet. BayShip only has two freighters [and their both Canadian] in as of today [07-January-2014] the 'Boys' are still out to sea and our in-town Coast Guard ice breaker, Mobile bay, has been breaking ice for 17 days and no word on her return.

Their should be about 18 taconite oar carriers coming in. Ten will be 1000 footers, like the three shown rafted together in the photo below. ... if they don't get stuck in the ice. The St. Lawrence is closed for the winter.

Aside from Cleveland their is no other port they can winter in.
They should be shipping out in March to begin the season of 71 or so round trips between the mines and smelters.

skip.





Todays Post-->This Was Getting Silly-the Fools

I know an old lady who swallowed a goat,
Just opened her throat and swallowed a goat!
She swallowed the goat to catch the dog,
She swallowed the dog to catch the cat,
She swallowed the cat to catch the bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
I guess she'll die.

U.S. Sends Polar Star Icebreaker to Free Chinese Icebreaker
Sent to free Russian Ship stuck In Ice
That Shouldn't Be There If Global Warming Was Even Slightly True,
That They Set Out To Prove
PS - It's The Middle Of Freakin' Summer Down There


The United States Coast Guard is sending the Oregon-based icebreaker Polar Star, capable of breaking 20 foot of ice, south to the Antarctic to free a Russian research ship that got trapped in ten foot of ice, and also to free a Chinese icebreaker that got trapped in the ice while trying to free the Russian ship. An Australian icebreaker also was unable to help. The 399-feet long Polar Star can break ice that's six feet deep, at a continuous rate of three knots.

The Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy with 52 passengers was on a four-week expedition to follow the path taken a century ago by Australian explorer Sir Douglas Mawson.

One aim of the expedition was to track how quickly the Antarctic's sea ice was disappearing because of global warming, but a blizzard and thick ice caused the expedition to be abandoned on Christmas eve, despite the fact that it's the height of Summer in the Antarctic.

The Polar Star, which recently completed a three-year, $90 million overhaul, is responding to a request from the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, the rescue-operations coordinator, the Coast Guard said today. The ship, 399 feet in length and able to continuously break 6 feet of ice at 3 knots, [20 foot by laying on top of it in a ram-backup-ram program], is specifically designed for open-water icebreaking, with a reinforced hull and special ice-breaking bow.

...

The Polar Star left Seattle in early December on a mission to break a channel through the sea ice of McMurdo Sound to resupply and refuel the U.S. Antarctic Program's McMurdo Station on Ross Island. The trip is the Polar Star's first since 2006 for one of its primary missions, called "Operation Deep Freeze."

So, from one pole to the other. Let's not make the obvious wise-crack, that this now makes her the Bipolar Star.

skip.

[capt_nemo]

Bob23,

Had enough of the foul tasting NJ "cold" you sent down in a bottle. Thanks, but send no more, PLEASE!

Immediately filled it with SE Florida "warm", as requested and put it in overnight mail.

Hang on, should be there soon, good buddy!

capt_nemo

[Bob23]

CN:
   It arrived yesterday- THANK YOU! I opened it immediately, poured a tall glass and it's already up to 25! That stuff works great! Supposed to go into the 50's on Saturday. And I liked the coconut flavor! Can't thank you enough!
Bob23...thawing.
(Maybe you could send some bottles to our frozen members just west of here)

[Greene]

18 below again this morning.  Please send us the 100 proof version of heat in a bottle.  This really sucks!

Mike and B

[Tim Gardner]

It was so cold here that I had to chop up the piano for fire wood... I got 2 chords.

TG