Record temps

[Alpha]

A new aussie record has been set for the hottest summer days on record. A scorching 48.1 celsius which is 118.58 fahrenheit

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2014/01/03/12/36/qld-heatwave-pushes-mercury-to-new-highs


Meanwhile on the other side of the globe

http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/canada-colder-than-mars-north-pole-as-northeast-united-states-braces-for-cold-snap/story-e6frfq80-1226794047422

[|iR|Focalor]

Still no snow in Georgia, at least not where I live. Maybe it has at some point up north in the Appalachian Mountains, but I don't think it has, haven't heard anything about it that I remember on the news lately. I doubt it WILL snow at any point. Or if it does, what'll probably happen is it'll get pretty cold in the late winter months, then when spring starts approaching it'll slightly warm up and then BAM, we'll get hit with another week or two of super-low temps, snow and probably lots of ice that'll kill off all the shit everyone planted trying to get a head start on for the growing seasons.

Luckily I have the luxury of having a few chicken houses I converted into greenhouses that are rigged for heat. Problem with that is that if I have to rely on running heat, it's all kerosine and propane powered and I have to manually fuel shit up daily, and the fuel is pretty expensive. So if something happens and I miss fueling shit back up, everything dies and then all the money I already spent on fuel goes down the drain.

[The Happy Friar]

Currently 0f!  Woohoo! 

We've got a wood furnace that heats the water too, so the water is a balmy 150 & the house is normally a toasty 75-85. 

But man, it is COLD outside! 

[Sgt. Dick]

46 degrees here right now, but we will be back in the 70's tomorrow, FLA is 

[fdrjk]

its colder than a witches titty locked in a freezer in the middle of january on the top of mount everest here up in yankee land

and our fireplace hasnt worked for 3 years 

[|iR|Focalor]

and our fireplace hasnt worked for 3 years 

Gas log only?

[Sgt. Dick]

its colder than a witches titty locked in a freezer in the middle of january on the top of mount everest here up in yankee land

and our fireplace hasnt worked for 3 years 

You better go find Golgo and cuddle up. 

[Barton]

I'm not sure if we will break record temperatures here, but we're also getting blasted by some cold winter weather system here in MN. Today thru Monday will be the most frigid. Potentially we could get 30-40mph gusting winds and wind chill as low as -15F thru -30F. I just heard the other day they were preemptively closing schools on Monday, because of how life threatening the wind chill will be. I hope we don't lose power next week like some parts of Michigan did last month. 

[Sgt. Dick]

I joke about it because I live in Florida, but on a serious note, all you northerners be safe and I hope it is not as bad as they predict.

[The Happy Friar]

I joke about it because I live in Florida, but on a serious note, all you northerners be safe and I hope it is not as bad as they predict.

We're used to it.    Besides, we get cold and snow.  Heaters/wood/blankets/etc. keep up warm.  Shovels/plows/blowers move the snow.  You guys live in one of those states were evacuating to save your life happens.  We don't do that with cold and snow.     But thanks!

BTW, "wind chill" is for sissies.   

[|iR|Focalor]

Winter weather is just different in the south. Down here, when it gets that cold, ice becomes the major worry. It'll rain/snow all day and then after dark, all that standing water will freeze solid all over the roads, at which point it becomes a 700 car slip-n-slide pile up. Our trees aren't used to the ice either. Snow will stick to the branches of pine trees and other kinds of trees, the temps will climb just above freezing during the day, then at night the temps will dip back down below freezing and all that shit freezes solid on the branches of trees. Branches start breaking off, falling onto power lines or houses or cars or roads, often whole trees will become uprooted from the extra weight of the ice.

If it were just a matter of snow being everywhere, no one would have a problem with it down here. But often times when it does snow, it melts and then freezes solid into this horrible ice bullshit.

[The Happy Friar]

True, our wildlife & foliage "knows" how to handle it.  In 2010 there was a storm in October that shut down a large section of this area for days because the trees didn't loose their leaves and nobody had snow tires yet.   

Best solution when you don't know/can't handle the snow/ice is stay home.  There really is nothing so important to risk rolling off the road for, and if there is, that's what 911 is for (well, at least up here all our ambulances are 4wd with 4x snow tires, so they're prepared).

[|iR|Focalor]

It's really wacky looking when it happens. The entire landscape looks completely fucked up because all these long limbs on the trees are sagging under the weight of the icicles like weeping willows. We're supposed to be getting a pretty severe cold snap tonight and the next couple of days... and some rain... which spells disaster. I've got a bunch of 100+ year old oak trees on the property that are total monstrosities. Some of them are towards the end of their life span and are standing in awkward positions or already have plenty of rot going on in the tops of them. Makes mowing the grass under them kinda unnerving. I've been out there a few times dumping my wheel barrow by the creek and had huge limbs come crashing down a few feet from me, hehe. I'm hoping none of them come down completely. They're far enough away from the house that they won't hit my house, but the clean up will be difficult. I don't really have a chainsaw large enough to cut through the trunks without making multiple cuts at different angles, and I'd also have to drive my farm tractor through the yard and tear shit up dragging away anything I cut. That makes me more nervous than anything. I'd have to ride over a portion of the sodded part of the yard that has a sprinkler system buried in it. Last thing I wanna do is crack one of those lines open or bust a sprinkler head off.

And NOBODY around here even owns any kinda snow-capable tires. In fact, I don't even KNOW what the hell snow chains look like, haha! And everybody in this state drives like maniacs, so on the rare occasions when the roads ice over in the winter, it's like the god damn destruction derby. People driving 55 or faster on solid ice, having no idea how to steer out of a spin, people locking the brakes down instead of pumping them like they're supposed to.

[|iR|Focalor]

A couple of pics I took last time it actually snowed here back in 2010 I think.

[ex]

Winter weather is just different in the south. Down here, when it gets that cold, ice becomes the major worry. It'll rain/snow all day and then after dark, all that standing water will freeze solid all over the roads, at which point it becomes a 700 car slip-n-slide pile up. Our trees aren't used to the ice either. Snow will stick to the branches of pine trees and other kinds of trees, the temps will climb just above freezing during the day, then at night the temps will dip back down below freezing and all that shit freezes solid on the branches of trees. Branches start breaking off, falling onto power lines or houses or cars or roads, often whole trees will become uprooted from the extra weight of the ice.

If it were just a matter of snow being everywhere, no one would have a problem with it down here. But often times when it does snow, it melts and then freezes solid into this horrible ice bullshit.

This is the major problem with wet weather during the winter in Dallas too.  It hovers right around the freezing mark for the high, and dips into the 20s at night, causing freezing rain.  It becomes literally impossible to drive on the shit when it completely freezes over, and we don't have the equipment to handle it down here.  Dallas' version of snowplows are farming tractors with a small snow-shovel plow underneath it.  We barely have just enough to handle what would be considered a moderate-low level winter event up north.  If there was a truly horrible event with 3+ inches of freezing rain like they get up north, might as well cancel every plan for the next week.  There's simply not enough ability to handle that kind of winter weather down here.

BTW, the last ice storm we got collapsed a cool 20% of our trees.  Shit's still fucked up out here.

The only good thing about this cold snap is that it looks to be dry, for Texas at least.  Going to make for some bitterly cold temps, although not as bad as the single digits I'm seeing for Mississippi and Georgia.  That's amazing to see temps forecasted so close to 0 F in places like Atlanta and Nashville.