Cold
- Thread starter Tannin
- Start date
Stereodude
Not really a
I think one of the several super volcanoes that are due to erupt or an asteroid might be a more pressing concern. Or perhaps the coming ice age or the 20 trillion dollar federal debt. However, I guess we can worry about the solar output of the sun 1 billion year from now. Actually, lets start a gov't program now and raise taxes to fund it. Think of how much compounding interest would grow that money in 1 billion years.
I'm not arguing for or against the sun shade. I read your comment as a joke/sarcasm and found it funny because it was something actually considered by scientists, etc. I'm sure humanity has far greater other challenges to solve and get past in the next 1 billion years before this becomes an issue.
ddrueding
Fixture
AKA, supervolcano
Edit: sorry for the redundancy, didn't notice the conversation had already gone to a new page...
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
45F temperature swings are hilarious but at least I got the frozen wiper fluid out.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
First major winter storm here in the Northeast. Temps are supposed to be in the single digits F later. They're actually closing the Long Island Expressway and parts of the NYS Thruway.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
No winter storm here, but polar temperature. We've beaten cold temperature records for January 1st. We might beat some lows tomorrow too. The last time the temperature dropped close to the numbers we have these days was during the '93-'94 winter IIRC. I took an half-an-hour walk this afternoon and despite the fact that I'm quite tough to cold, I was eager to come back inside. It's so cold that it's no longer fun.
Oh, and my car refuses to start because I forgot to plug it last night, so I'm on foot.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Same here. As much as I love colder weather, once you start getting into the teens or lower °F it starts to get brutal, especially the extremities. It's easy to keep your core warm, but fingers, toes, and ears are another story. My fingers are numb after riding 30 minutes once temps get into the 20s.
This is one of those rare times when car travel is more attractive to me than the alternatives. Unfortunately, it sounds like your car had other plans.
BTW, if I'm looking at the right city, it's supposed to get down to -20°F ( -29°C ) in your area. That's just nasty, particularly with the winds.
ddrueding
Fixture
That Fahrenheit number could be positive and it would still suck.
Truth.
It was 2°F on my ride home tonight after visiting friends. It felt much colder when I was out scraping snow off my windshield.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Yep. Last night, it went below -30°C (meteoman said -33°C IIRC), but I did not go out to verify. The coldest I've sustained was -37°C back in the early nineties. It was -54°C with the wind factor. I stayed out for almost an hour and my feet were so frozen that I did not know when they touched the ground on each of my steps. I was far from that state today when I went out. My fingers where numb, but that was it.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
A testament to the tenacity of human beings.
After we moved to our current location (which is about 3000 feet above MSL), I really miss the central heating that is common in the US. Minimums are ~ 14°C; nothing by your standards, but cold without heating. We are renting now, so no hot water anywhere except the bath. Really miss it at the sink to brush teeth / wash face etc. There are no regulations at all about heating/cooling like in the US.
Aim to have hot water 24x7 at all the sinks and in the kitchen when we buy our own home. There's no piped gas, so water heating is electric, quite expensive. But as one gets older (I'm among the oldest in the forum) these small things matter more.
After we moved to our current location (which is about 3000 feet above MSL), I really miss the central heating that is common in the US. Minimums are ~ 14°C; nothing by your standards, but cold without heating. We are renting now, so no hot water anywhere except the bath. Really miss it at the sink to brush teeth / wash face etc. There are no regulations at all about heating/cooling like in the US.
Aim to have hot water 24x7 at all the sinks and in the kitchen when we buy our own home. There's no piped gas, so water heating is electric, quite expensive. But as one gets older (I'm among the oldest in the forum) these small things matter more.
ddrueding
Fixture
If they are using electric I'd assume tankless is the norm? They have the little ones that fit under each sink and heat the water to a specific temp...
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
What you describe are third-world country living standards. I can understand the charm of living in your home country, but when you know what true civilised living conditions are (I'm not talking about culture here, just comodities), unless you want to punish yourself somehow (or if you have relatives in need at this place), I have a hard time figuring out why you moved back there. Since you've recently moved quite far from where you were not long ago in India, you probably aren't there for helping relatives, or at least not anymore.
The only reason I would be willing to live like that is if I would be on a mission and I would be paid a lot of doh to do so. No heating and no hot water whatsoever feels 19th century to me. Is it an Indie Amish thing or what?
The only reason I would be willing to live like that is if I would be on a mission and I would be paid a lot of doh to do so. No heating and no hot water whatsoever feels 19th century to me. Is it an Indie Amish thing or what?
fb
Storage is cool
It might be difficult for us to understand where there's ice on the lakes for 8 month/year, but I think it's pretty common to have no or almost no heating. I think I've never been freezing as much as when I spent the Christmas in Italy a few years ago. It was only around 0°C but the family where I lived turned the gas heating off during the night and on again in the morning. It didn't help that the walls was made of concrete with insulation about as thick as a paper bag.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
Even the Amish have heat and hot water.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Tankless (flow-through) is quite popular, but so are storage units - anywhere from 10 liters to the 60 or 80 liter monsters we had at home when I grew up. The tankless are painful to use - the water flow is like a 3-year old pissing. Anything more and the water temp drops drastically.
My understanding from family that have toured England and many parts of Europe is that it's pretty much the same there: hot water only in the bath, that too at specific times of the day. And this is in hotels that cost £200 a night. You wouldn't call England 3rd world, would you? What North Americans who haven't traveled don't realize is that the rest of the world is neither as affluent nor as spendthrift. Ask DD; he's been around.CougTek said:
As for why I moved back, it was for non-material reasons. Money can't buy some things - never will. It's a trade-off that's unique to each individual or family.
ddrueding
Fixture
The only places I've been where my affluent American self would have expected hot water and it wasn't there was Asia. Nepal, India, Thailand, Burma, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, etc. Even the cheap places in the UK (even Scotland!) had warm water at the bathroom and kitchen sink. Mostly this was a small unit directly under the sink in question that was lucky to manage luke warm, but it wasn't cold.
The biggest exception to this is Moscow. Hot water is a utility provided by the city along with cold water and electricity. I'm assuming this is the result of combined heat&power plants, and works really well. Except for the 2 weeks a year when they simply turn it off for maintenance. For those two weeks you are boiling water on the stove to take showers with. There having a hot water heater is a sign of luxury, and you will have friends and neighbors asking to borrow your shower.
The biggest exception to this is Moscow. Hot water is a utility provided by the city along with cold water and electricity. I'm assuming this is the result of combined heat&power plants, and works really well. Except for the 2 weeks a year when they simply turn it off for maintenance. For those two weeks you are boiling water on the stove to take showers with. There having a hot water heater is a sign of luxury, and you will have friends and neighbors asking to borrow your shower.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Speaking of cold, anyone want to swap?
(That's outside at 2pm today).
PS. We don't need a hot water unit today, the water from the cold water pipes is piping hot... (We need to run it for a few minutes to get the cold water).
(That's outside at 2pm today).
PS. We don't need a hot water unit today, the water from the cold water pipes is piping hot... (We need to run it for a few minutes to get the cold water).
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
No thanks. That's even worse to me than the kind of weather Coug is having right now. Whatever minor complaints I may have when it gets colder outside than I find comfortable pale next to my complaints when it gets too hot. I can always add layers, but when it's hot I could run around stark naked and still sweat like a pig. BTW, "hot" for me is anything over about 60°F ( 15.5°C for those outside the US). I'm suffering by the time it gets into the high 70s or 80s, especially if the humidity is high.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Meh. Did you put a lighter under it? That's the kind of temperature I would expect in the middle of the australian desert, not near the East Coast. -55°C, I could manage, but 55°C, I'd die.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Nope, just lying on the ground for 10 minutes in the sun.
It was above 45C in the shade...
Even for us it was hot.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Chewy roasts while the folks in the US East/NE are getting frostbite. Oh, the irony.
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Actually I wonder how Time is doing in the heat?
time
Storage? I am Storage!
Sorry, been a bit preoccupied, and also living vicariously through the national cricket team's thrashing of their English counterparts: five matches of up to five days each with the risk of serious injury - cricket really is the ideal gladiatorial sport for nations to settle their differences, unlike the brief 105 minutes of soccer (including break) where the outcome is semi-random. This Ashes series has been pretty much like this movie. I'm not even a cricket fan, but I enjoy reading the comments from the English commentators and fans; the English aren't happy unless they're moaning about how badly they've been playing while being soundly beaten, whereas Australians like to gloat about winning. So everyone's a winner!
I thought Mercutio's graphics summed it up quite well. Our nearest airport weather station broke a 74 year old record on Saturday by topping 110F. Obviously, we get far higher temperatures than that in Australia, but not so much in coastal cities, especially this far north.
A couple of months ago, I decided to replace our 3 high-wall (split system) air-conditioners and 1 'portable' unit with a ducted system, because I believed we were likely to experience a record Summer in Brisbane. Climate change has been obvious for decades here to everyone except the simple-minded - unfortunately, there's quite a few who fit into that category. BTW, the ducted system is more efficient than our old mess, so I'm not being completely irresponsible. Indoor temperatures peaked between 84F and 88F, so it was sapping, but not crushing like it probably was for Chewy.
I thought Mercutio's graphics summed it up quite well. Our nearest airport weather station broke a 74 year old record on Saturday by topping 110F. Obviously, we get far higher temperatures than that in Australia, but not so much in coastal cities, especially this far north.
A couple of months ago, I decided to replace our 3 high-wall (split system) air-conditioners and 1 'portable' unit with a ducted system, because I believed we were likely to experience a record Summer in Brisbane. Climate change has been obvious for decades here to everyone except the simple-minded - unfortunately, there's quite a few who fit into that category. BTW, the ducted system is more efficient than our old mess, so I'm not being completely irresponsible. Indoor temperatures peaked between 84F and 88F, so it was sapping, but not crushing like it probably was for Chewy.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Since Australia is in the southern hemisphere, shouldn't be hotter in the North than it is in the South, being closer to the equator?
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
Luckily, we:Indoor temperatures peaked between 84F and 88F, so it was sapping, but not crushing like it probably was for Chewy.
1, have a really good air con unit, so we experienced about the same temps as you indoors, and
2, went to the cinemas and saw Frozen (which as a cool 22C/71F indoors)... Surprisingly the cinemas weren't that crowded... (like they are in summer).
Besides the record temperatures, the Brisbane area also broke another record on Saturday. MegaWatts used during a single day... the power companies would have loved that one!
Chewy509
Wotty wot wot.
@Merc, My wife loved the pics, especially the first one!
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Meanwhile I just spent the last four hours cleaning off my car so I could go get groceries, driving approximately 10mph to the store, driving 10mph to another store that was actually open, cleaning off my car again, driving 5mph back to my apartment and then getting stuck in the completely unplowed parking lot.
I think we got about 14" today.
I think we got about 14" today.
ddrueding
Fixture
And I mounted a weather station to my roof. 71F (20C?) and sunny with a light breeze. Cooled down quickly an hour after sunset though.
Grabbed this screenshot at 7:45PM:
Grabbed this screenshot at 7:45PM:
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Awesome. Which weather station is it?
Am puzzled by the 99% outside humidity, though.
Am puzzled by the 99% outside humidity, though.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
It's -14 F this morning. Walking and waiting for the train was pretty cold.
ddrueding
Fixture
The fog was rolling in, so that humidity reading makes sense.
The unit is an Acurite Pro Digital, combined with another temp/humidity sensor for the kid's room. Amazingly cheap for what it does.
ddrueding
Fixture
Test:
<a href="http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCASALIN15"><img src="http://banners.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/banner/ban/wxBanner?bannertype=pws250_both&weatherstationcount=KCASALIN15" width="250" height="150" border="0" alt="Weather Underground PWS KCASALIN15" /></a>
<a href="http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCASALIN15"><img src="http://banners.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/banner/ban/wxBanner?bannertype=pws250_both&weatherstationcount=KCASALIN15" width="250" height="150" border="0" alt="Weather Underground PWS KCASALIN15" /></a>
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ddrueding
Fixture
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It's -22 on my balcony right now. My office closes if there's a snow day at the community school so I already know I won't be working tomorrow, either.
My nose froze shut while I was cleaning off my car this morning.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
Sheesh, you guys are going through some freaky weather. Shades of The Day After Tomorrow!