Severe Weather

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Butter

Got 0.35 inches of ice in Dayton yesterday. My bushes are toast.

Luckily no branches down in my yard or on my house. I never lost power, but a bunch of people are going into day 2 with no power.

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

We lost power between 3 and 5am Wednesday night. I haven't had a chance to assess any permanent damage to limbs since it's been raining, sleeting or snowing for most of the past day, but several branches were bent all the way to touching the ground when the ice was at its worst.

We didn't lose power, but we lost more trees in our neighborhood than any ice storm in the last 10 years. At least 6-10 trees split in half. Many broken branches off of trees in our backyard, but at least we were lucky. Our trees will recover. The willow in our back neighbors house lost at least 1/3 of it's large branches, the neighbors pear split and it's laying across part of my yard. It was a rough one. I was thankful it wasn't windy, or it would have been devastating.

[Ben E Lou]

Potential for "historic" (for December) snow totals in NC and southern Virginia this weekend. Weather Underground is showing us getting 8-12 inches in GSO just on Sunday, and another couple of inches or so both Saturday night and Monday morning.

[Ksyrup]

Looks like the trend is for a further south snow, keeping us in KY out of the target zone. But we're likely going to see flakes nearly every day for the next week, just nothing too big. Half-inch expected tonight.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

Potential for "historic" (for December) snow totals in NC and southern Virginia this weekend. Weather Underground is showing us getting 8-12 inches in GSO just on Sunday, and another couple of inches or so both Saturday night and Monday morning.

still waiting to see if we going to get any snow here in Myrtle. Looks like rain though. :::sigh:::

[Ben E Lou]

Interesting week. The NWS and local TV have been hemming and hawing around the forecasts, saying stuff like "big winter storm is coming but we're not sure about the impacts yet." It's like they are unwilling to say "we may well get 10+ inches of snow and/or more than a quarter inch of ice accumulation" and as a result, people who aren't reading the social media meteorologists like Wade's guy are saying "no big deal" and "it's December..ground isn't warm enough for it to stick," etc. There's a good chance of significant icing here on Monday, and the Home Depot near me still has a ton of generators in stock and hasn't moved them to high-traffic parts of the store like they usually do when a big storm is on the way. I suspect there's going to be an insane rush Friday and Saturday to get prepared here.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola...

CURRENT NWS FORECAST FOR MY ZIP CODE

Saturday Night
A slight chance of rain and snow before midnight, then a chance of snow and sleet between midnight and 2am, then a chance of snow after 2am. Cloudy, with a low around 29. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. {BEN EDITORIAL: I suspect that the average nitwit has no idea that "between a tenth and a quarter of an inch" of translates to 1-3 inches of snow.)


Sunday
Snow before 3pm, then freezing rain and sleet. High near 32. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Sunday Night
Freezing rain and sleet before 3am, then freezing rain likely between 3am and 5am, then snow likely after 5am. Low around 30. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Monday
Rain, snow, freezing rain, and sleet likely before noon, then a chance of rain between noon and 4pm, then a chance of rain and snow after 4pm. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Monday Night
A chance of rain and snow before 9pm, then a chance of snow between 9pm and 1am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 26. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

CURRENT FORECAST FROM ANOTHER SOURCE
{BEN EDITORIAL: And this is consistent with several other places, and hasn't really changed much in 2-3 days.}
Saturday Night 12/08
Rain and snow showers in the evening, becoming all snow overnight. Some mixed winter precipitation possible. Low 27F. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precip 90%. Snow accumulating 1 to 3 inches.

Sunday 12/09
Cloudy with snow. Temps nearly steady around 30. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of snow 100%. 8 to 12 inches of snow expected.

Sunday Night 12/09
Cloudy with a mixture of winter precipitation. Low 28F. Winds NNE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precip 100%. 1 to 3 inches of snow and ice expected.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

still waiting to see if we going to get any snow here in Myrtle. Looks like rain though. :::sigh:::

hope it doesnt snow.
Supposed to take my son down Sunday for a week.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

hope it doesnt snow.
Supposed to take my son down Sunday for a week.

Looks like its just going to be cold rain here and a lot of it.

[Ben E Lou]

Originally Posted by Ben E Lou

I suspect there's going to be an insane rush Friday and Saturday to get prepared here.

Heh. I understated this. Imagine a busy Christmas shopping weekend combined with a major snowstorm. Glad I only had to go beyond our neighborhood grocery store only once in the last 36 hours. (And that little place was INSANE, comparatively. Never seen anything like it.


NWS has upped the forecast for my specific location to around 13 inches. Hunkered in here. It's going to be a wet snowstorm, too, so power outages are likely even if we don't get the icing that was expected. Ugh.

[miked]

Get yo milk!!

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Thomkal

Looks like its just going to be cold rain here and a lot of it.

Holed up at HGI at coastal grand mall...watching Dallas be morons

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Holed up at HGI at coastal grand mall...watching Dallas be morons

You could have stayed home to do that

[miami_fan]

https://weather.com/news/news/2018-1...see-earthquake

[Kodos]

Do earthquakes really count as weather?

[bhlloy]

I’ve been in ATL since Monday and so far everyone has lost their god damned mind about a morning in which it was 10 degrees above freezing and there may have been some light ice on the ground, and now an earthquake in the mid 4’s. I thought y’all were supposed to be tough in SEC country *ducks*

[MizzouRah]

11 inches of snow and counting here in Troy, Mo

[PilotMan]

Nothing like starting the day on the beach in Punta Cana and ending it with a three hour drive (normally less than two) in the middle of the night, from Louisville to Cincinnati in a blizzard.

Cars in ditches, semi trucks jackknifed on hills, and roads where no plow or salt truck had touched. Good times.

[tarcone]

The storm mizzourah mentioned saw the same thing in my neighborhood as what you went through, pilot.

But worse. I44 was a literal parking lot. People spent the night in their cars.

[stevew]

Thank god we don’t get ice really but I had something like 14 inches of snow in my driveway/on my car.

[Coffee Warlord]

4+ foot drifts in my driveway today. I haven't had to shovel snow in a long, long time.

[miami_fan]

I know you guys in the Midwest and Northeast are tough hearty souls but damn this does not seem to be the time to challenge Old Man Winter. I just heard a news report where they were advising people not to talk while outside. WTF

Stay warm.

[Butter]

Already cancelled school at most schools around here.

I legit remember standing outside waiting for a bus in a Starter jacket at -5 air temp when I was maybe 14.

Now, wind chill gets below zero and we're shuttin' 'er down.

[hoopsguy]

Supposed to be high of -15 tomorrow in Chicago, low of -30. As much as I like to recollect my hardiest weather moments from days of yore, I think that is an acceptable threshold to keep kids at home.

Wind chill below zero and my junior high school daughter is wearing shorts and crocs (with socks) to basketball practice, much to her mother's chagrin. And the same is true for most of her teammates, or classmates getting dropped off in the morning. It isn't really the kids asking for the schools to be shut down ... at least not because it is cold.

[PilotMan]

Guess who's got a long (36hr) Chicago layover starting tomorrow? Guess who is probably ordering Dominos for food?

[PilotMan]

I honestly don't remember cancellations for cold weather in North Dakota. Cold was expected. Maybe the buses didn't run, but unless there were snow drifts or life threatening conditions it seemed like we were there.

[Carman Bulldog]

Here in Winnipeg right now, it is -32 Celsius (around -26 Fahrenheit). It was -51 Celsius (-60) with the windchill around 9:00 AM this morning but presently sitting around -48 Celsius with the wind. The temperature is supposed to drop to -39 Celsius (-38 Fahrenheit) overnight, with the windchill feeling like it's -52.

I can generally deal with regular temps in the -15 to -20 Celsius range. This is just too cold right now though. It's pretty uncomfortable outside.

School and everything else today was still on.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Guess who's got a long (36hr) Chicago layover starting tomorrow? Guess who is probably ordering Dominos for food?

Order good Chicago pizza.

[cougarfreak]

They just shut our schools down for tomorrow in NKY as well. And my Girls Hoops is #1 in the state, and we were due to play the #5 team in the state and they cancelled that already for tomorrow night. That stinks.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Order good Chicago pizza.

You're right, but I've got freebies I can use!

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Guess who's got a long (36hr) Chicago layover starting tomorrow? Guess who is probably ordering Dominos for food?

There's just something very wrong about this. The food part, I mean.

[lungs]

Can't say I miss the cows in weather like this..... Talk about misery.

Now I have a 73 degree grow room to work in

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Order good Chicago pizza.

So...Dominoes?

[Edward64]

Schools were closed in my county in GA today. As I predicted to wife and daughter, a total bust. Cold weather but weatherfolks got it wrong.

[NobodyHere]

I get to go to work when it's -7 outside. I am now pro global warming.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

I honestly don't remember cancellations for cold weather in North Dakota. Cold was expected. Maybe the buses didn't run, but unless there were snow drifts or life threatening conditions it seemed like we were there.

Yeah I'm not quite sure I understand closing school simply due to cold, unless we are talking about somewhere fairly south where they don't have furnaces or something. If the inside of the school is otherwise as warm as the inside of the kids' house, why can't they go learn something?

[Butter]

I guess the concern is for locations where kids have to gather at a central location and wait for the bus. Since you can get frostbite in "less than 10 minutes", there is a liability risk. Nobody wants to get sued.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Butter

I guess the concern is for locations where kids have to gather at a central location and wait for the bus. Since you can get frostbite in "less than 10 minutes", there is a liability risk. Nobody wants to get sued.

Or a bus breaks down, or drops a kid off at home and the parents aren't there and they forgot their key, etc...Too many liabilities for the school and bus companies.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

I get to go to work when it's -7 outside. I am now pro global warming.

That's what got us here. Polar ice melts = the jet stream goes all screwy = cold air that's usually locked to the poles gets loose and cries havoc.

[PilotMan]

The worst of all this is that I'm on the beach in Puerto Rico right now and I am supposed to leave this, for the frozen tundra of Chicago in a couple hours. I'm calling shenanigans.

[Thomkal]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

The worst of all this is that I'm on the beach in Puerto Rico right now and I am supposed to leave this, for the frozen tundra of Chicago in a couple hours. I'm calling shenanigans.

Ask for Asylum?

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Or a bus breaks down, or drops a kid off at home and the parents aren't there and they forgot their key, etc...Too many liabilities for the school and bus companies.

Is it just like people don't have the right kind of jackets? Or don't have toques or mitts? I remember when they tried to cancel recess because it was sub -30. Parents complained, kids were able to have recess outdoors again.

At least with the cold I can dress to stay warm, with the heat short of sitting in an air conditioned room what can you do?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

I honestly don't remember cancellations for cold weather in North Dakota. Cold was expected. Maybe the buses didn't run, but unless there were snow drifts or life threatening conditions it seemed like we were there.

Schools are definitely cancelled more often. Guessing its a liability issue today.

I only remember school being cancelled a few times. A couple blizzards and one time when it got so cold the pipes burst at the school. Then again, I don't remember any -20 degree days when I was a kid.

I absolutely love winter and the cold. But this is too much. Not sure how mail carriers are doing it today. I took the trash out earlier and it hurts to breathe. The beams in my house were creaking last night which was a bit unnerving.

[PilotMan]

The biggest thing I remember is that your body can't sense change in temp below about -20. So if it's colder, you can get real damage and frostbite, but not know it's that bad until it's already done. All it knows is that it's really cold, that's part of what makes the temps so dangerous.

[RainMaker]

You Canadians don't count. When I lived in Minnesota and knew a bunch of you it was clear you're a different species. You're like polar bears.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by nilodor

Is it just like people don't have the right kind of jackets? Or don't have toques or mitts?

Most closures in the U.S. South are due to travel concerns (and associated liability), not cold.

[henry296]

I've heard too that it can be related to even having the buses start in the cold weather since they are usually parked outside.

[JonInMiddleGA]

This 2014 story -- with some 8,000 students in AL & GA stuck on the road or in schools overnight -- almost certainly has something to do with the erring on the side of caution we've seen in the years since.

Freak Southern Snow Storm Strands 8,000 Students - ABC News

[nilodor]

Originally Posted by henry296

I've heard too that it can be related to even having the buses start in the cold weather since they are usually parked outside.

We had a construction project slated for January in Northern Alberta. The owner decided to put it out to an open bid, hoping to save some money. Contractor from the southern US won the job, looking to expand into the Canadian Oil market. Time comes to start the job, contractor shows up, it's around -20 F and going to be in around there for the rest of the month, as is pretty typical. Site guy tells the contractor they can get their winter diesel over there. Contractor was like, winter diesel? What's that? Needless to say a lot of the equipment wouldn't start, and when it did, hoses were freezing. Wound up with a whole new contractor coming in a month later to do the work and changes to the bid process.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by henry296

I've heard too that it can be related to even having the buses start in the cold weather since they are usually parked outside.

Back in the day they used to just run the bus through the night.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Back in the day they used to just run the bus through the night.

Back in the day gas was a bit cheaper

Then again, back in the day people wouldn't have lost their minds at the carbon emissions from buses running all night either