Cold

jtr1962

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Jan 25, 2002
Messages
4,168
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Flushing, New York
What scale are they using? F or C? Lousy writing; they should have clarified that.
They're using degrees F. -135.8°C would be -212.4°F. It's never gotten this cold on Earth's surface during recorded history.

I agree they should have mentioned the scale.
 

Howell

Storage? I am Storage!
Joined
Feb 24, 2003
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4,740
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Chattanooga, TN
On the way in to work yesterday there was a full rainbow and partial double rainbow. Traffic jam all the way in as I drive west, chasing that pot of gold.
 

Tea

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Jan 15, 2002
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27a No Fixed Address, Oz.
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A cool, pleasant 46 in Adelaide tomorrow. For the scientifically challenged amongst us, that's 115 degrees in the old money. It will be 40+ from about 10AM through to maybe 8-ish. Over here in Victoria (a few hundred kilometres further east), where we mostly get Adelaide's weather only a day later, it's 40+ every day this week. Last night it didn't drop even marginally under 30 until 5 am, and started warming up again at 6. Cool change and 25ish temperatures expected on Saturday, then hot again next week.

Last year was the hottest year ever recorded in Australia, but it was, like this year, a "normal" year - i.e., neither El Niño nor La Niña. You are not supposed to break heat records in a normal year. The last La Niña year (2009-10) saw worst-on-record floods all across the eastern half of the continent - especially Queensland and Victoria. The last El Niño year (2008-09) smashed summer temperature records and brought worst-ever bushfires with many dead. The heatwave alone (i.e. ignoring the couple of hundred killed in fires) killed 350 people in the state of Victoria, mostly old and sick and poor, presumably plus however many others in the other states, which copped it almost as badly. The extremes get worse every time now, and the next El Niño year is going to be an absolute horrorshow. Expect 50 degree days in major capital cites like Pert, Melbourne or Adelaide, and a death toll in the thousands.

Meanwhile, I'm relaxing in the evening cool. The sun just set and it's 36 degrees (that's about 97 for the challenged ones who still have to count on their fingers).
 

jtr1962

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Flushing, New York
Australia is just getting the kind of temperatures much of the rest of the world will be seeing by mid-century. I read somewhere that by 2050 an average July or August day in NYC will be upwards of 50°C. I hate to think what a heat wave will be but you'll probably have thousands dying. I'm enjoying what has been mostly a real winter here because it may well be the last one I experience in my lifetime. NYC winter temps by mid century will probably resemble late spring. I'll be looking for real estate up north, far north, long before then if I'm still alive. I can't stand hot weather.
 

mubs

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Nov 22, 2002
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Somewhere in time.
I believe we're very near to or have already the crossed the point of no return. Melting glaciers accelerating their own melting, buried methane deposits waiting to burst forth, and what not. Perhaps time to migrate to what are now harshly colder climes.
 

jtr1962

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Flushing, New York
I believe we're very near to or have already the crossed the point of no return. Melting glaciers accelerating their own melting, buried methane deposits waiting to burst forth, and what not. Perhaps time to migrate to what are now harshly colder climes.
That's really the part which has me worried. The predicted temperature rise due to CO2 is bad enough, but if the methane in the methane hydrates is released, we could be looking at a Venus scenario.
 

Mercutio

Fatwah on Western Digital
Joined
Jan 17, 2002
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I am omnipresent
I have strictly indoor cats. They go out on the balcony in warmer months, but the biggest difference is that my girl cat is willing to tolerate sleeping next to the boy. She's normally very territorial about my bed, which is the one place she thinks is hers. And hey it was only -6 today, so we might even get in to positive temperatures today!
 

CougTek

Serial computer killer
Joined
Jan 21, 2002
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Québec, Québec
Here, most houses have fully insulated basements and the ceiling is often as high as on other floors. With the kind of temperature we have, having a vented crawled space would be silly. The house would collapse in less than two decades, not to mention the high risk of criters invasion.

That document is a good tip for people living in much southern areas than here though.
 

Howell

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Feb 24, 2003
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Chattanooga, TN
I agree this is much more important in colder climates. I'm curious why you say the house would collapse? The vents are off the ground and have physical barriers for critters.
 

ddrueding

Fixture
Joined
Feb 4, 2002
Messages
19,511
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Horsens, Denmark
For anyone interested in improving the environmental efficiency of your building close off your crawlspace vents, insulate the crawlspace/basement area, and treat the crawlspace/basement area as conditioned space.

http://www.bestofbuildingscience.com/pdf/Closed crawlspaces do double duty HEM_SP05_p32-36.pdf

Interesting. I know I had to deal with some code stuff and install additional vents when I closed some off during the remodel. I'll need to read though that more carefully when I don't have a baby on my lap, but it is interesting how they say the humidity issue is better without the vents? None of the houses around here have that plastic vapor barrier on the ground...
 

Clocker

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Jan 14, 2002
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USA
Tomorrow I'm returning to Michigan after being in Florida & the Caribbean for 9 days. This is going to suck. Badly. Amazing my cell phone is working even though our ship won't be at the port in Orlando for about another 12 hours. 1x connection is slow but usable.
 

Clocker

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Wait until you see your roaming charges! :)

Work phone comes with unlimited global voice and data. :) and I did check work email and voice mail in addition to administering my mining rig via TeamViewer, when I could get 3g in San Juan. :)
 

sedrosken

Florida Man
Joined
Nov 20, 2013
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Eglin AFB Area
Around here, when the wind kicks up the wind chill gets down to -30 F regularly. They cancel school because it's too cold.

We've stayed surprisingly warm, despite being heated with kerosene (we can't get a gas tank out cause it's winter, and our water heater, being ancient, must be replaced before they'll even think about putting a pig out here). Being poor we can't do such things.
 

Clocker

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Work phone comes with unlimited global voice and data. :) and I did check work email and voice mail in addition to administering my mining rig via TeamViewer, when I could get 3g in San Juan. :)

Tehtering or Mobile Hotspot is about $21 per minute out here though so I'll pass on that!
 

CougTek

Serial computer killer
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Jan 21, 2002
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Québec, Québec
I'm curious why you say the house would collapse? The vents are off the ground and have physical barriers for critters.
I thought the openings were wider than what you describe. My bad. Also, the pictures in the document you linked had me thought about old bricks and wood constructions, which wouldn't sustain high level of humidity too well. All the houses here have concrete basements, so even with a vented crawled space, they wouldn't collapse after only two decades, unless the concrete used would contain a lot of pyrite.
 

Will Rickards

Storage Is My Life
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Jan 23, 2002
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Here
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Our power/heat was out from Wednesday am through Saturday around 8pm due to the ice storm damage of the power lines.
So happy to have power back and have life back to normalish.
 

LunarMist

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Feb 1, 2003
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USA

Howell

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Feb 24, 2003
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Chattanooga, TN
The Appalachian mountains were the northwesterly border of the storm and did not get the coldest weather in this storm. Atlanta, 200 miles south of me had far more ice and freezing. I woke to 7" of snow but really a rather uneventful day. I was barely late to work. Thanks for the concern.
 

snowhiker

Storage Freak Apprentice
Joined
Jul 5, 2007
Messages
1,668
Looks like I'll be cranking up the A/C later in the week.

More A/C weather next week. At least it's better than last week.

I admit if I was in the bitter cold most of you folks are experiencing for just 20 minutes I'd hate it more than this heat...But dammit, I don't want to use the A/C in February. It's gonna be a long summer. sigh.
 

Handruin

Administrator
Joined
Jan 13, 2002
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USA
It's been around 50F (10C) this weekend here in MA. The large amounts of snow and ice are melting but in a few days we will be back to 10-15F (-12 -9.4C).
 

fb

Storage is cool
Joined
Jan 31, 2003
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Östersund, Sweden
We've had a lousy winter so far, we didn't get any real snow until mid January... And it's supposed to be +6C tomorrow.
 

CougTek

Serial computer killer
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Jan 21, 2002
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Québec, Québec
Apparently, Spring has arrived. I couldn't tell by looking at the termometer : it's currently -18C outside (-0.4F). It's supposed to drop to -20C or -21C before sunrise. On March 24th.
 
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