another big ice storm in the east today

It's been sleeting/rainning here since last night and shows no sign of stopping. I'm just a 2 hour drive south of DC and they are getting hammered as well. It's interesting that it's been raining sleeting continually, but there is no water dripping off the roof at all meaning it's all freezing up there!

It was 18F outside last I checked, so it's definitely all turning to ice. As much fun as getting a chance to use my flashlights would be tonight, I don't relish the thought of loosing the heat, so lets hope the power stays on for this one!

That being said I've got several hours of hand warming batteries for my Mr Bulk NexNeedle if it comes to that

Not a single car has gone by the house all day, when I went out to get the paper this morning there were no sounds at all from the highway just a half mile away. Usually it's a subtle background sound out the front and I didn't hear a thing!

I doubt that the conditions will have improved much by tomorrow morning when folks are going to try to get to work. That could be nasty.

I tried to go out and knock the worst of the ice off some of the smaller ornamental trees in our yard that are bent over completely. Couldn't get it to come off, just broke branches. So we're probably going to loose those if this keeps up much longer.

Likewise here in Charlotte NC... Possible reenactment of the Ice Storm we had in December - 2.5 days with no power -

We already filled jugs with water and stuffed the fridge full with them and soda cans (reducing the volume of cold air that flows out when the door is opened), repacked the freezer with as much as possible of the more expensive items on the bottom where it's coldest, bought some extra "power out" food including items that only need to add water to be edible or just need boiling water to cook. Cooler filled with ice and sitting on the back porch (where it's below freezing) for if the power is out for more than 36 hours and we have to stuff everything in the freezer into ice filled coolers - that'll keep everything for another 24 hours or so, more if we keep it all outside.

Since the last outage we now have a little coleman single burner stove that sits on those disposable 1 pound propane cylinders (got 2 cylinders and an adapter to fill them from the 20 pound cylinder under the propane grill, which is full). Already have the battery operated radio ready to go. Bought a tiny battery operated hand held LCD TV on sale at radio shack after the last outage. Plus we now have a chain saw - had to cut down 5 trees after the last storm. Charging both cell phones now...

They're expecting 1/2 to 1" of ice on everything in the morning. Bye-bye power lines again...

This is starting exactly like the last one - we're getting sleet now. Next should be the freezing rain on top of it. I hope it stays to the north... (sorry James )

We have ice in So. Calif. but it's all in our refrigerator's freezer section .

Here in the NYC area, we're supposed to get 12" of snow by Monday afternoon. The outside temp right now at 2:45PM EST is 9F. So whatever falls from the clouds will certainly adhere to the road surfaces. Here we go again. Storm # ? (I lost count. Since Christmas, its been one right after another). I'll bet all you West Coast dwellers are jealous

Ed.

I'd love to see snow cover our palm trees.

Marty

Within the last hour it's turned to hard dry snow here. It is bouncing as it hits things, so it's already frozen before it hits the ground and is starting to accumulate like snow. Perhaps that wont stick as bad to the power lines as badly.
The temp is only 21 so it's not melting as it hits the ground, this kind of stuff isn't as bad to drive on as slick ice, but that doesn't matter to the folks around here. They are historically only used to 1 or 2 bad snow storms a season, not this constant hammering.

I think we got away lucky - appears to have been only a sleet/snow event with a little ice... Won't be venturing out in the car today, though - the NC infrastructure isn't designed to handle even this little bit of snow - have to wait until tomorrow when the temps get up a bit and the roads melt off...

James, it snows on Klaatu Barada Nikto too?

The official storm total here was 10 inches of snow and that is at the airport (or what passes for one), about 5 miles north of me. When I measured the snow on the front porch this morning, it was 5 inches (north side of house in lee), so I figured at least the much. No power outage, but, that's okay.

We got 18" of snow in Northern NJ today.

As the storm trailed off and the shoveling was finished we went for a walk (SF G2 and Arc LS to keep the snowplows from flattening us!).---Marc

Ted, lol, yes

So, now I'm taking out the trash (and the snow is so frozen with ice that I'm not even breaking through it) and I notice that it's very quiet in the backyard. The heat pump is not running. It's covered in ice and so are the fan blades.

The house is not cold, so the emergency electric has kicked in and I didn't even notice it. No blown circuit breakers (but I can tell by the nice warm ones labeled for electric heat that is whats been heating my house all day.

So I clear the ice off of it and free the frozen fan blades but it still wont run.

This does not bode well for my electric bill which will be through the roof if I have to run the em heat while I wait for a repair guy.

Uuuuggg!

James

How does your emergency heat work? Do you have a generator that kicks in when the power is out?

Marty

Hi Marty,

No, nothing that complex. If the power goes out I'll be well lit, but I don't have enough Mr Bulk NexNeedles to use them as feet warmers for the whole family

The emergency heat just refers to the backup electric heating elements that pick up the slack if it's too cold for the heat pump to make up the difference, or if something goes wrong with it so that you're not living in a shelter waiting for a service call.

But it's pure electric heat, so it's probably 3 to 5 times more expensive than just running the heat pump, but it will keep me warm.

Tomorrow i'll check the fuses in the disconnect box, it might just be that. But I can't get replacements tonight anyway so there is no point (beyond getting to use a bunch of flashlights!) to mess with it anymore tonight...

I can feel my wallet lightning with every passing moment

Now the storm is where I live in the Northeast. Snowing like a bugger as I speak. Up to 30 inches in places predicted but at least a foot and a half in nearly all of MA, CT, RI area. Cape Cod which a lot of times gets rain while we get snow has been hit as well.

This has been a major Eastern Coast storm, huh.

Here's a scene from the front of my property. My wife and kids are pictured having "fun". At least the kids are. This is with approx 20" on the ground here in N. New Jersey.

Consider yourselves lucky. We have about 28" here in south-central Pennsylvanina. Luckily it is light, as my father and I are responsible for the snow removal of approximately 1/3 of a mile of dirt road. Power remains intact.

Dale

James, where are you (NewYork?) and what do pay per kilowatt hour?
The snow looks beautiful, thanks for the pic e=.
Keep warm everyone.

a LOT of snow indeed! as a SoCal resident I'm thoroughly thankful we don't have to deal with such on a regular basis--altho earthquakes, when they hit massively, are rare and hard to predict--but jealous at the same time!

Hang in there, guys. I'm glad I don't live there anymore ('Jersey shore) whenever it gets really nasty like that.

I'm always especially amazed when the southern east coast gets slammed while I sit here looking out the window at yet more winter rain.

I mean I'm three hundred miles farther north than Toronto, and yet places a thousand miles farther south than I am are the ones with the snow.

Doesn't make all that much sense to my pea brain. *sigh*

Stay warm and safe,


-= MICROSOFT FREE ZONE =-

Tomas, it makes sense from a major climate change standpoint. Preliminary phase. It is a signal that the planet's heat exchange system is out of whack.