Brrrrrrrr....so bloody cold

[Pradeep]

Well it's not so cold anymore, but we certainly had some exciting icy weather in upstate NY. Anyone else slipping and sliding around today?

 

[flagreen]

Well it's not so cold anymore, but we certainly had some exciting icy weather in upstate NY. Anyone else slipping and sliding around today?

Not here in Florida. Do you get the lake effect where you are?

 

[Mercutio]

Just wait Pradeep. It's coming your way. I had to scrape 8" of snow off my car this morning, another 3" when I went to lunch and then 4" more when it was time to go home.

I hate snow.

 

[Fushigi]

Even though Merc and I are only about 60 miles away from each other, our experiences are rather different. We got 3-4" of blowing, drifting snow yesterday. Enough that my morning commute was pretty bad (2.5x normal time) since they hadn't relly plowed the roads. But the afternoon drive was only marginally worse than average and there's nothing new but colder temps this morning.

At home, the car is garaged, so snow scraping isn't needed (substitute shoveling the driveway). At work, it's an open parking lot, but with the wind yesterday, there was only a minor accumulation on the vehicles.

Merc, being just S / SE of Lake Michigan, will on average get a lot more lake effect snow than I will.

 

[Bartender]

Just wait Pradeep. It's coming your way. I had to scrape 8" of snow off my car this morning, another 3" when I went to lunch and then 4" more when it was time to go home.

I hate snow.

Merc, we have some delicious hot-chocolate for you.

 

[Mercutio]

I think I'd prefer my warm NyQuil cocktail, actually.

 

[Pradeep]

Not here in Florida. Do you get the lake effect where you are?

We get some lake effect, tho not as much as people right on the shores of Lake Ontario. We prob had about 6 inches overnight, and a couple more inches today. Yesterday was worse, plenty of ice with slush on top, and idiots who think 75MPH on all-seasons is fine. We usually see them off the road a bit further on. A B-double passed Tracy yesterday, sure enough it had rolled over at the next exit. You'd think professional truck drivers would know better.

Car is what we have to brush off, driveway is plowed by our derelict landlord who comes maybe once a week, at 8am after everyone has already gone to work. So snow tires are a must.

On a brighter side I got the rego plates for the truck today, picking it up tomorrow. I'm giddy with excitement, I better have a hot toddy. Bottoms up!

 

[Pradeep]

Picked up the truck yesterday. Lots of fun and plenty of powa! Does have overdrive, I was mistaken. Dual 16 gallon fuel tanks and you can almost see the fuel guage moving while you look at it. Scary stuff! Takes about 20 mins to warm up. And the noise, poor neighbours. The all-seasons were shocking in the snow, so today I got some Nokian Hakkapeliitta SUV tires for it. Very nice improvement in traction, apparently we are meant to get a real mofo of a snow storm next week.

 

[The JoJo]

Duh, we've had the most snow in ten years come down the last 24 hours. With winds of about 20m/s during the snowfall, the weather was beautifyl! Great storm! You couldn't see more than maybe 50-150 meters at best.
Simply beautiful.

But of course the downside is, the road are totally packed with snow. Where there was 2 lanes, there are about 1-1.5 lanes now after the snowploughs.
And now it's about 0 celsius, so the snow is getting really heavy.

Time to go out on a walk.

 

[Pradeep]

We just finished the snowiest January on record, about 65" for the month - tho I'm sure nothing compared to Finnish standards

 

[flagreen]

It's global warming. The equatorial regions have heated up so much they're sucking all the cold air from the poles toward the equator.

:eekers:

 

[time]

Just finished the hottest day here for nearly 80 years: about 41.7C or 107F (half way between two Weather Bureau observation stations). At 3:15pm, I confirmed 41C outside (in the dirt of a shaded pot plant to minimize radiant heat effects from the bricks).

Fortunately, the normally suffocating humidity dropped off - it's frequently about 65%, rising to the 80's when the sun sets, so the day didn't feel as deadly as I expected. The car A/C didn't stand a chance in the ten minute trip back from the shops - we just wound down the windows - not something you'd normally consider here unless your A/C is broken or, incredibly, YOU DON'T HAVE ANY.

Unfortunately, we had a power failure around 4:30pm - bastard quasi-publicly-owned electricity company has been milking money from maintenance for many years. :evil: This is the fourth (fifth according to them) in the last four weeks. I called them after two hours, and after the usual gratuitous lengthy wait on hold, they were all honey because of our recent history. They're now admitting they lack the diagnostic tools to trace a fault in the underground system that we're blessed with! Presumably, when the wires are above ground, they just drive around until they see one down. :roll:

Anyway, it ain't much fun without A/C, fans, or refrigerator in this weather (we only have two rooms with undersized A/C anyway). Half the family ended up going to the nearest Golden Arches restaurant (a famous American fast food chain), but the eldest and myself baulked; we picked up a Pizza the Hutt offering and doctored it until it became edible, 'cause the power miraculously returned.

I doubt it will get below 29C (84F) tonight, and they're predicting the same again tomorrow (maybe a degree less), and a couple of degrees less Monday. But as the temperature 'drops', the humidity rockets, and air conditioners and people struggle.

What's getting everyone down, is that daily maximums this month have been above 34C (93F) virtually every day, and I don't think overnight minimums have got below 27C at all. It's just a crippling combination with the aforementioned tropical humidity. (I should point out that official temperatures for the City of Brisbane are taken at the airport, which for the last fifteen years or so has been located near the coast - it isn't representative.)

These three months have formed one of the most uncomfortable Summers in memory. Unrelenting is the term that springs to mind - except for a couple of weeks before Christmas, which Mickey had the good sense to pick as a time to visit this armpit of a city. :-?

 

[jtr1962]

Yuck. That sounds like the summer of '93 here in New York-strings of days over 90°F combined with oppressive humidity, and we had one day where it reached 106°F in the shade. I think that day shattered the records-until we hit 108°F a few years later. Strangely, this past January was the second coldest on record-we only had a few days when it actually went above freezing(normal average winter highs in NYC are about 38°F).

 

[Pradeep]

Just finished the hottest day here for nearly 80 years: about 41.7C or 107F (half way between two Weather Bureau observation stations). At 3:15pm, I confirmed 41C outside (in the dirt of a shaded pot plant to minimize radiant heat effects from the bricks).

Guess I won't tell you about the heavy snow we are currently having here in Upstate NY then :mrgrn:

 

[time]

jtr1962: Yeah, just add 10 points to the humidity and you'll get the idea (I meant 65% minimum in the hottest part of the day). Although you can take away 10-20 points in 'Winter' (tropical climate = dry Winters - no rain).

And unfortunately, we now experience 90F+ days over a seven month range.

On the other hand, Pradeep, the 'Winter' minimum is barely different from some of New York's Winter maximums. :roll:

 

[Computer Generated Baby]

If I want culture, I just go to Fresno.

That's a joke, right? All that Fresno has given us lately is two supposed murders and something to fill the 11 o'clock news when more important things are going on in the world....

Well, as of last Friday, I guess Fresno is now finally back on track for the California Annual Per Capita Murder Rate Award.

 

[Pradeep]

We've had about 4 inches since 10am this morning, will prob be a foot or more by tomorrow morning, with another snow system for Thursday arvo.

 

[sechs]

It's 80F here now... shooting for another record.

You can keep the snow, but I'll take ten degrees lower from you.

 

[SteveC]

It was in the 60s yesterday, and I had the top down on my car. Now it's snowing with 6 inches expected.