Hope all are fine in the South

Man, I have a heavy heart for the awful weather our friends are having in the southern states. I wish you all the best and hope it doesn't get any worse.

Best wishes for those from myself also. I like to pick on my southern friends when they complain about cold weather, but this is a new level of cold for them. Dangerous cold and the infrastructure is crumbling around them.

Quite a bit of talk in the media up here even. All the best folks! Forget the name of the place but only below zero 5 times in history.

Dangerous cold in the deep south and a tornado in SE NC last night. 3 confirmed fatalities so far as the search through the damaged area continues.

Bet wood stove sales go up in Mississippi.....Can’t depend on the government keeping you warm anymore

I see a tornado in NC I believe also. A sad for many, I couldn't imagine all those events and not use to weather like that.

The cold doesn’t bother me. It’s the damage it does. We are not set up for it. Most of us here don’t even have a house or roof due to the hurricane. A lot of us are living in trailers and tents. My father n law , called a said he has frozen pipes and my son n law said, his parents and grandparents, don’t have power. And I’m a little worried about or cars and equipment! So , well see what we have to do now.

It's pretty bad in Texas. Texan's are not used to snow or the cold. The electrical has been out and it's impossible to get propane for those who use it for heat. Tomorrow has rain in the forecast which will make things much worse. It's hard on the animals who are not used to the cold and the water is frozen.

^ that is too bad. For us in the north is is just another Tuesday, dealing with frozen water and icy roads and all the winter weather is a normal. Not good it not use to living in those conditions and homes aren't built there for the extremes as they are in the north. GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

The power companies are now shutting power down to avoid overloading the system. Alot of people are going to be really cold... I will be in a camper, on an air mattress with no electricity. May have to build a fire in the bedroom...

Airport Trapper sounds like you might as well pitch a tent and build a big fire, take advantage of the weather and get your BS winter camp badge...

This kind of weather sucks if you're not prepared for it. Stay safe, stay warm..

Expecting up to ten more inches of snow starting tonight. 4 degrees here. Hope the power holds.

Talked to my kids today, they are outside of Fort Worth, minus 1 this morning. They don't think its a big deal, but they're used to it living here most of their lives. Been checking on their old neighbors and so far everyone is getting by. They're mostly worried about the brown, black outs, seems the electric companies don't want to spend the money to winterize, and keep up their emergency generator systems and electric grid.

So every ten years or so, when they get a cold snap, stuff won't work. Then, there's no snow equipment, salt, spreaders etc. not even a snow shovel. Not to mention they can't drive when it's raining much less in the ice..Different world there...

White gas lanterns and camp stoves will work when propane won't if your nervous about a water line freezing let the hot faucet drip and that will help keep your water going in your house .

The old single or double mantel lanterns will emit a lot of heat just be careful filling them with fuel I always started with 2 lanterns one running the other as backup , then remember these need to have the fuel pressurized so if it starts to go dim pump it up carefully so the mantels don't become damaged.

Or melt snow just not the yellow stuff !
Hang in there and if all else fails take turns licking a flag or clothesline pole ha ha humor helps is weather like this trust me !
Allan

This is retribution for all the Lower 48 business who have, over the years, refused to ship to Alaska.....!

Pete

Evidently the windmills aren't working too well.

Windmill turbines froze up. Green energy at its best.:)

The worst part I think is the electric black outs. The system is overloading so the power companies are having to shut down parts of the grid. It could be really bad for all the total-electric folks. -7 this morning.

Heard on the weather channel last night that Dallas could see -5 temps overnight. That's dangerous conditions to be in without heat if you lose your electric.

yea it's shattered alot of records for coldest temp on that date, lot of old records from back as far as the 1800's.

Got power here but alot without out just north of me a few miles, power company trucks been running up all day long, must be some major mess's up that way. It's in the coldest part of the state also, think was about 4 degree's up there this morning!

Haven't had water since Sunday, think a pip down the road burst. On the bright side I got two cases of bottled and my lights are still on. I will say though I hate the fact my house has a raised foundation walking around without shoes for more then 5min can't feel my toes also forgot to buy another sack of kibble for my out side dogs and I gotta ration it better. 30 grackles will swoop down and eat a scoop of dig food in 5min

Catch22. Can't just have crews and equipment sitting around idle for 9 years waiting for a10th year event.

Was like a water dept. just up the road, were going to have to shut off water last night for some reason. Alabama Power loaned them a generator so they could keep the water on. Always amazed at what poor planning this bunch down here does.

What are yous gonna do when the sun starts to burn out and it gets real cold?

Hope everyone is ok in North Carolina!!!

Heard a tornado went thru.

Thank you for askin that is very considerate of you. I am fine, in fact the women usually say I am finer than frog hair split 3 ways! Well they don't actually say that but they think it I can see it in their eyes. Especially if they were really thirsty and drank more than usual LOL.

But I'm cold. Very cold. I cant feel my fingers or my toes and my stache and my beard are both icicles. I need to pee too but I dont think this will go very well. My bladder is about 45psi but I might have to go inside and squat when I pee like a woman opps I mean Canadian to pee on this cold day

^ that is funny. Just don't leave it out to long it might just fall off.

Yeah me too!
Just don't hear much on how bad etc. it was.

Pipes froze 3 days ago at temps well above zero... Caught me completely off guard because they didn't freeze 10 years ago when it got down into the -20's. Our city water tastes horrible at the best of times so we usually keep a good supply of bottled water on hand... And we've been running out to the farm to fill jugs for flushing toilets and washing dishes.

So other than the frozen pipes, we're fine. We put central heat/air in the house last year... but knowing our vulnerability to major ice storms and power loss I was adamant about keeping the wood burner as a backup. Wood supply was a little lower than I cared for it to be but we will get by.

At this point I'm more aggravated/inconvenienced than anything.

I try to live by "two is one, one is none." And so far it has pretty much paid off.

Mike

Too bad yous guyz don't have some good fur to wrap up in. Maybe yous could double or triple it up to stay warm. 😙

Oh crap you had to say that? I am gonna just pee my Carharts for safety reasons

Thank you, Sir. The information is very helpful

11 degrees in TN this morning with 4” of weird white stuff on the ground - ready for spring to get here..

I cannot remember seeing sparrows and what looks like a big wren eating on other dead birds but I have now. Both male and female red birds and spanish doves, then mourning doves were freezing to death and the others birds are eating them.

A neighbor called yesterday and said he had found several black buck antelope froze to death.

I left water faucets running slow in the house and it still froze somewhere plus the septic system is frozen. I have a small heater going in the well house, so still have water there.

Water troughs have frozen solid so I am having to get water out of the well house and get to horses.

I have slipped and fell every day for the last three days. We have a solid sheet of ice under snow and have to be really careful getting around. My feet went out from under me yesterday afternoon and I landed flat of my back. I was lucky that my head didn't hit. Sure does hurt today.

Pretty tough when you are pushing 80. I can remember one time in the 1950's, once in the 1970's and once in the 1980's it was really bad cold similar to now but I was a lot younger then and it wasn't as hard as now.

EF3 with 3 confirmed fatalities and 10 more injured is what the news is reporting. Struck a little after midnight and did not appear to stay on the ground for a great distance but it laid waste to everything in it's path while it was on the ground.

It’s not to bad in Florida. Did have to put on a long sleeve this mornin, got down to a crisp 62.

Cedar you make me feel like a sissy, lol. Don't be bouncing around off the ground too much, not good for 'seasoned' citizens like yourself.

Seasoned thats good

Leftlane, the cold your are experiencing is BBQ weather up here...if you weren't that far South I would bring you my 5000 Watts generator so that you could turn on the heat and warm up your fingers...you may just be able to you pee like us Canadian that is standing up while holding a cold beer...

All jokes a side, I hope you guys make it ok. Also very sorry to hear the number of fatalities resulting from this cold weather. We never know when mother nature will turn on us.

This ain't right....

Decided it would be fun to shoot some video in the snow and no no no just no. Guys I'm of a tropical people ,not to mention I'm born and raised in satan's hot sweaty arm pit, I DONT FUNCTION PROPERLY IN THIS CRAP! Heck I can't feel my toes still my bad knee sounds like a bowl or rice krispies after you poured the milk in, the 15% Irish I have in my is telling me to break out the liquor to warm up and everything else is saying go hibernate .And ya know I've delayed with 12 degrees in the desert, dry cold isn't that bad but this is wet sticky cold it didn't just go away it sticks to you I Swear if I have kids and they start saying they want alot of snow there's gonna be problems

Deerhunter, it was 5 degrees here in middle TN this morning but finally got up to 17. We have had lots of freezing rain and snow on top of it. I guess more is coming too. My house is an old farm house that is drafty and very cold.

Gotta be careful. Of course I'm talking to myself as much as anyone else...

I made a firewood run the other day. Found a deadfall Hackberry and figured I would add it to the woodpile. It had fallen across a small branch of the creek which was fortunately frozen solid... I knew it wasn't stable so I was being careful, but not careful enough. It rolled and I caught an 8 inch branch across the head and wound up flat on my back on the ice... My head, left ear, and left shoulder look like they went a round with a jackhammer. But the worst part is that when I went down my foot kicked something and pretty sure I broke my left big toe.

My wife was with me, I think I took a few years off of her life with that one.

Stuff sure hurts more than it did 10 years ago. Good times.

Mike

I hate to here about you guys suffering down there like this but it is a little humorous to hear your guys describing what you think about the cold. It was minus 16 up here this morning, the morning before minus 10 with a negative 30 wind chill and never got above zero. Had to spend almost a hour and a half on the four wheeler bringing heavies up. About the second coldest I ever remember seeing it up here but we are use to single digits at least once most winters. I was shedding clothes at -5 yesterday because I was getting too hot, never would have that was possible.

Snowing and 17 in Dallas so not as bad as last few nights. The cold doesn't bother these Michiganders of old, but our home in SA had the Mrs. up in the attic thawing (and guarding) water pipes that homes down here run in the top of the house for some odd reason. Plus our water heaters sit outside like we're in Phoenix.

Donna finally took a breath today as she was "after it" these last three COLD nights. I got me a good Mrs. and I couldn't even attempt to find a road to go 300 miles south because the parking lot at seminary has the gate frozen shut and since DTS is closed this week, the ancillary lot where I park my rig is not a concern.

8 in SA is way colder than the pipes appreciate and we have a fairly large casa with all sorts of "hot weather" finery that needs TLC this week.
Rolling back outs made using heaters tricky Missy told me.
The people are rugged. Stucco with exposed piping is not.
Did I mention I really, really, really like fossil fuels.

Blessings,
Mark

Stick your water pipes on everything you own out in the elements and it takes on a whole new meaning.

Your hot water heater sets outside??

We have had a few waters froze up each morning here but again we are use to it so we have the equipment and know how to thaw them out. When nothing is built for extended frigid weather it doesn't sound good for you guys. I'd hope it warms up fast down there for everyone.

That is not uncommon in the Deep South. Very efficient to have radiant heat all year warm your water. We have two outside plus our softener also. Donna built a tent city over them with a heater but the power is out quite often so the electric heater comes and goes. I got rid of my big space heaters when we moved from Nebraska.

Grandpa made it. So will we.

Can those of you with vulnerable plumbing depressurize your water system and drain out the system before it freezes? I do that occasionally in bitter cold as my crawl space, though insulated, can get below freezing in bitter cold, and I don't really trust heat tape.

With a week or more predicted, trying to keep the water functioning to some degree.
We can dip water out of our pond, which in South Texas, they call a swimming pool.

I see now another mess is hitting the south and eastern states. I hope all are doing fine.

Great idea and perfect form.

More snow last night, more now, & more to come. Deep freeze again tonight & tomorrow night. First, everyone was being asked to turn down thermostats, etc. to conserve supply. Then the blackouts. Now the gas companies are shutting off gas to some customers. My brother works for one of the largest hospitals in the region. Their gas was cut yesterday & they went to diesel generators. AOG says their natural gas supplies are down by 1/3 but the demand is greatly increased.

Thanks for the thoughtfulness

It is definitely a beating for us as these kinds of temps are unheard of

It was 0 here yesterday morning, I don't know if it has ever been that cold here

Power grid is down, mine was just out for 39hours but as of now back on.

^ not sure why this shortage has to be. Unacceptable.