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2020-21 Winter weather; bring it on

Parliament

By Parliament
in Daily Texan

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SubliminalHorn
SubliminalHorn

Power back on. 109 hours. I almost want to cry a little 

Machinator
Machinator
BradInATX
BradInATX

I've actually been turning my heat up a degree every time a new Surly member loses power on this thread. It's a nice balmy 94 in here.

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crimsonlonghorn

crimsonlonghorn 2299

Posted
Posted
Just now, RPM said:

I noticed gasoline jumped 30¢ a gallon overnight.

Makes sense. Refineries are affected by the cold too. They use electricity and natural gas to run, so their costs are way up, as is the risk of getting shutdown from the weather themselves and the risk that product can't be delivered on the roads in some places to replenish the stations. 

But another big part is that traders and marketers see the gas an power guys having fun so they want to get in on it, too. LOL

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GhostOfTomJoad

GhostOfTomJoad 9096

Posted
Posted
PEC out again for me. You down or have power?  Kindly bring me some power if so. I just had to bash coffee beans with a claw hammer and bust out the percolator. 
 
4C48496F-6647-46E7-8DB3-0C2770B2F77C.thumb.jpeg.c11540dfacf645616012888e27f3250a.jpeg
Sorry to hear that. We had 2 second blip around 5:30 this morning but it's been stable since then (knock wood).

One of the many large limbs that's fallen from our neighbor's tree smashed the Spectrum torpedo at the curb. Plastic everywhere but thankfully it hasn't impacted the feed to the house. I may just submit a ticket on it anyway since I don't think it could withstand another hit.
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Chet Steadman

Chet Steadman 940

Posted
Posted
14 minutes ago, Hate said:


Can’t you just put it on the porch until the power comes back?

I threw everything from the fridge in the yeti late yesterday thinking the freezer would be okay.  

Problem is, the second bottle of wine put me to sleep sometime around 10pm and by the time I awoke from my little catnap, it was 715 am and the entire contents of the freezer had gone temperate.  

This one is on me fellas.  

The wine wasn’t even that good. 

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Judge Roybeanbag

Judge Roybeanbag 11728

Posted
Posted
5 minutes ago, Chet Steadman said:

I threw everything from the fridge in the yeti late yesterday thinking the freezer would be okay.  

Problem is, the second bottle of wine put me to sleep sometime around 10pm and by the time I awoke from my little catnap, it was 715 am and the entire contents of the freezer had gone temperate.  

This one is on me fellas.  

The wine wasn’t even that good. 

spacer.png

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

i really hope we get above freezing for a couple hours saturday, i've got some branches that need more trimming.

I certainly hope you're not talking about Oaks.  

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 51914

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

Think my folks are still without power in NW Austin.  Mom has a 1:00 chemo appointment, and they can't get a car out of the garage.  One of us will have to take her....presuming the roads are clear.  It's still icy AF out there right now.

And we have a patio door that we never use - I walked by it, and the cold wind coming through was brutal.  I looked, and the gap is huge (I'd never noticed it before).  So, spent my morning shoving some weatherstripping (still had a coupla rolls) into that gap)....then when I got up, hit my forehead on the doorframe hard.  Had to spend the last 15 minutes stopping the bleeding.

Still have to put heat tape on my two most exposed faucets.  I had put it on an easy one yesterday, to see if it worked -- it did, it was throwing off heat.  So, I have three outdoor faucets that will be covered in heat tape.  The fourth....I'm wrapping like a mofo.  And I may even put a mini space heater on it before we go to bed and first thing in the morning Sunday/Monday, and Monday/Tuesday.  Dripping all indoor faucets starting Saturday night.  No idea if we're going to SA to see friends on Saturday.  We'll watch the precip forecast.  IF we go, it may turn into "late lunch, happy hour, head home" instead of dinner.

We just ain't prepared for this shit down here.  Hell, on my weather app, my first two pages are Austin, and Montreal (where the girl is in school).  They don't look terribly different for the next few days.

We will be starting our “warm up” around the time you guys get the worst of the cold air. 
 

76D9AD04-30FC-46B8-BB3B-DEBAA24AE394.png

Edited by Pato del Muerto
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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 103142

Posted
Posted

Forgot that we were awakened after midnight by a loud crack.  Turns out, one of the giant cedars at the edge of our backyard split way up high.  Now I see that we have three big limbs down, only one of them low enough on the tree so that we can reach it to trim it.

And as the power outages have been ongoing around here, we're gonna get some more firewood.  Lots of dead wood behind the house, think the boy and I will spend an hour or so this afternoon cutting and stacking.  Sheesh.

 

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hornian

hornian 5153

Posted
Posted
12 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


Can purple drank freeze?

Also, my parents power had been out for 7 hours. But man, is their house well-insulated: they have two gas fireplaces, and running them full blast got the house up to 85. They actually had to crack a window to cool off.

I’m going to finish my pipe prep on Saturday. We were supposed to go to San Antonio for dinner with friends....I ordered $300 worth of Franklin BBQ...Furk. We’re either having a big bbq with our neighbors, or I’ll chill the hell out of it for a week, and do it the next weekend. Maybe. Precip on Saturday is obviously the concern.

I'll help you eat the BBQ. Assuming the hills don't completely ice over. 

 

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 51914

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Forgot that we were awakened after midnight by a loud crack.  Turns out, one of the giant cedars at the edge of our backyard split way up high.  Now I see that we have three big limbs down, only one of them low enough on the tree so that we can reach it to trim it.

And as the power outages have been ongoing around here, we're gonna get some more firewood.  Lots of dead wood behind the house, think the boy and I will spend an hour or so this afternoon cutting and stacking.  Sheesh.

 

tenor.gif

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 88750

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

The other thing is that weather is, as much as, or moreso than, any other "newsy" item on the intergoogles, clickbait.

Which is not to say that this weather isn't srs business.  But the news seems to stoke fears pretty well lately.

I would normally agree with you, but we seem to be running even cooler than the weather people predicted, and I’ve been through this kind of weather before.   Our houses here in Austin are not made for this shit.  

Oh, and we’ve got a shitload of people with out power   Hard to keep the walls and pipes on outside walls warm if there is no power and it’s below freezing   

I kind of feel like this, when explaining what prolonged single digit weather is like

007.gif

 

 

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Hpara759

Hpara759 1777

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, RPM said:

JFC, have you guys never lived through a hard freeze? Cover exposed outdoor faucets and lines, open bathroom/kitchen sink cabinets if they are against an exterior wall. If you're still worried let a faucet drip. If you have a wellhouse make sure there is a heat source (heater/heat lamp/ lightbulb).

this guy gets it....

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SquishMitten

SquishMitten 10368

Posted
Posted

Doesn't look too bad today and tomorrow. Highs in Austin supposed to be in the mid-upper 30s, and lows just hovering a bit below freezing.  Little to no precipitation. That should take care of all the ice. Sunday is when it starts to get scary. That being said, predictions were pretty far off yesterday with it not warming nearly to what was expected, right? Is there something about this system that makes it much harder to predict than normal?

 

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crimsonlonghorn

crimsonlonghorn 2299

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

Doesn't look too bad today and tomorrow. Highs in Austin supposed to be in the mid-upper 30s, and lows just hovering a bit below freezing.  Little to no precipitation. That should take care of all the ice. Sunday is when it starts to get scary. That being said, predictions were pretty far off yesterday with it not warming nearly to what was expected, right? Is there something about this system that makes it much harder to predict than normal?

 

I've heard the weather models always struggle with extreme cold in Texas because the average is usually biased to the high side. So when really cold air comes in, they tend to ignore it and come in higher than the actual turns out to be. 

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mchookem

mchookem 15429

Posted
Posted

late last night i thought to just double-check our pool pump manual...we got a new one about 3 years ago, our old one had an auto temp gage where the pump came on if it got to be like 30 degrees or something. i just wanted to make sure the new one was set as well...

after an hour of trying to find it in the manual and online...i realize our new pump does NOT have this feature...so i was outside in freezing temps and ice at midnight with a flashlight and the manual resetting the pump so it will run 24 hours/day for the next few days.

so that was fun 😐 lol

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crimsonlonghorn

crimsonlonghorn 2299

Posted
Posted

This is 7:00 Tuesday morning. Brutal. Single digits in Harris County. 

Only the extreme southern coastal RGV and far west Texas stay above freezing. Everywhere ranges from damn cold to ridiculously below zero. 

My kids are excited about the possibility of a snow day on Monday. They'll probably get a snow WEEK due to the disruptions this is going to cause. 

image.thumb.png.7dae1fc5706fe769bd5b29e85b95e08d.png

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8011

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, Helobious said:

I’ve never lived north of SA in my entire life. This talk of temps in the teens and power outages and bursting pipes is stressing me the fuck out. I can’t imagine living somewhere where this occurs more than once in a lifetime. 
 

The houses are built to adapt to the cold further north.  I lived in Virginia and we had basements under the pier and beam houses.  You could go down there and shut off water that went to the outside spigots and then open the spigot to drain it. We also heated the basement.  Garages had insulated garage doors and better insulation in the walls and adjoining living spaces.

 

My concern is the water pipe to an outdoor spigot that is in a garage wall that is under-insulated.  The garage gets cold the outside is cold and the pipe is in the wall between the two.

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Trey3216

Trey3216 15298

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Posted
7 minutes ago, TexasEd said:

The houses are built to adapt to the cold further north.  I lived in Virginia and we had basements under the pier and beam houses.  You could go down there and shut off water that went to the outside spigots and then open the spigot to drain it. We also heated the basement.  Garages had insulated garage doors and better insulation in the walls and adjoining living spaces.

 

My concern is the water pipe to an outdoor spigot that is in a garage wall that is under-insulated.  The garage gets cold the outside is cold and the pipe is in the wall between the two.

I've got a small space heater I ordered on Amazon arriving today that I'm putting in the garage in the vicinity of my front outdoor faucet/pipe.  Hopefully it will keep it just warm enough to not freeze up too badly.  

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Steamboat1874

Steamboat1874 4008

Posted
Posted (edited)
29 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

Doesn't look too bad today and tomorrow. Highs in Austin supposed to be in the mid-upper 30s, and lows just hovering a bit below freezing.  Little to no precipitation. That should take care of all the ice. Sunday is when it starts to get scary. That being said, predictions were pretty far off yesterday with it not warming nearly to what was expected, right? Is there something about this system that makes it much harder to predict than normal?

 

Unfortunately it will have to get warmer than the forecast for the ice in trees to melt.

That highest temperature prdeicted (36 to 38 degrees) will happen late today and it will get dark soon after which means everything will still be frozen especially without any sun.

Edited by Steamboat1874
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TexasEd

TexasEd 8011

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Homercles said:

As I stand outside chopping up limbs and hearing more fall across the neighborhood...

image.gif.20319b9756ac37157559bc1f09c8e463.gif

My observation - the ones that lost their leaves in the fall like Red Oaks are fine.  The live oaks and cedar have leaves and are holding more ice and screwed.

 

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atomheartbevo

atomheartbevo 88750

Posted
Posted

Friend in a condo complex nearby said the maintenance guy came around and made sure there was hoods on the faucets.  He asked the maintenance guy about wrapping the faucet/pipe and then putting the hood on, rather than just a hood on the bare faucet, because the hood can’t even seal properly to the wall because of how the faucets were installed. Maintenance guy said they’d be fine.   

I asked if maintenance guy charged by the hour, he said “yep”.  I told him his HOA would be shelling out the bucks for repairs next week, and he should figure out his water cutoff now.  

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ztejas

ztejas 42744

Posted
Posted
11 minutes ago, YChang said:

Was trying to drive back to Houston for Lunar new year... and 183 was completely shut down for me to get on. Was stuck on the feeder for almost 45 minutes. Gave me escaping Rita in Houston flashbacks. Turned around and went back home. 

When will you Chinese learn to celebrate our American holidays?

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8011

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

I've got a small space heater I ordered on Amazon arriving today that I'm putting in the garage in the vicinity of my front outdoor faucet/pipe.  Hopefully it will keep it just warm enough to not freeze up too badly.  

yes, I have some already and will do the same.

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SquishMitten

SquishMitten 10368

Posted
Posted
24 minutes ago, mchookem said:

late last night i thought to just double-check our pool pump manual...we got a new one about 3 years ago, our old one had an auto temp gage where the pump came on if it got to be like 30 degrees or something. i just wanted to make sure the new one was set as well...

after an hour of trying to find it in the manual and online...i realize our new pump does NOT have this feature...so i was outside in freezing temps and ice at midnight with a flashlight and the manual resetting the pump so it will run 24 hours/day for the next few days.

so that was fun 😐 lol

I just walked inside from doing the same thing. Only lived here about a month and never had a pool before. Cancelled all the timers and set it to run all day. Maybe dumb question amnesty, but is there any risk to the pump equipment or pipes in the cold? I'm assuming very little risk in the upper 20s since the constant flow of water is going to keep the pipes well above freezing. But if the temps are really in the single digits for an extended period of time? Seems like there's eventually a point where the water temp can't keep up with the elements. I tossed some blankets and a tarp over everything. That good enough?

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RPM

RPM 26073

Posted
Posted
31 minutes ago, mchookem said:

late last night i thought to just double-check our pool pump manual...we got a new one about 3 years ago, our old one had an auto temp gage where the pump came on if it got to be like 30 degrees or something. i just wanted to make sure the new one was set as well...

after an hour of trying to find it in the manual and online...i realize our new pump does NOT have this feature...so i was outside in freezing temps and ice at midnight with a flashlight and the manual resetting the pump so it will run 24 hours/day for the next few days.

so that was fun 😐 lol

Pool humblebrag?

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8011

Posted
Posted
3 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

I just walked inside from doing the same thing. Only lived here about a month and never had a pool before. Cancelled all the timers and set it to run all day. Maybe dumb question amnesty, but is there any risk to the pump equipment or pipes in the cold? I'm assuming very little risk in the upper 20s since the constant flow of water is going to keep the pipes well above freezing. But if the temps are really in the single digits for an extended period of time? Seems like there's eventually a point where the water temp can't keep up with the elements. I tossed some blankets and a tarp over everything. That good enough?

head over to the pool owners thread

 

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utee94

utee94 15671

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, SquishMitten said:

I just walked inside from doing the same thing. Only lived here about a month and never had a pool before. Cancelled all the timers and set it to run all day. Maybe dumb question amnesty, but is there any risk to the pump equipment or pipes in the cold? I'm assuming very little risk in the upper 20s since the constant flow of water is going to keep the pipes well above freezing. But if the temps are really in the single digits for an extended period of time? Seems like there's eventually a point where the water temp can't keep up with the elements. I tossed some blankets and a tarp over everything. That good enough?

Your pumps are circulating water from the pool itself, and the pool won't freeze in the conditions we're expecting.  It doesn't need to be circulating warm water, it just needs to be circulating non-freezing water, to be okay.

 

 

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