Preparing for the Big Winter Storm

Well, I've warmed up, got my car thawed out, and hunkering down for the really COLD temps tonight. Oh, and as expected my eye surgery has been postponed for a week. I've had a full day, so I'm gonna take a nap.

 

Well, just gonna say, every forecaster was claiming this would be an historic snow/iced storm. It has been anti-climatic at best. yes there are parts that got hit hard but not as big of an area as they were predicting.

Going to be watching FB marketplace in the coming weeks, there will be generators galore for sale!

 

Also, propane and wood heaters NIB.

 

We are not out of the woods yet, but I'm beginning to realize just how close we came to being without electricity. I'm talking about just 10 miles or so, Mississippi and Tennessee really caught hell from the ice, and just a little bit of Alabama is affected. We must be living right!

 

The real test will come over the next few days when everyone's electric heat-pump tries and fails to heat their homes, then the heat strips kick-in and the grid goes down. Even though I heat with natural gas I still need electricity to make it work. I'm gonna be glad that I have back-up propane heat that doesn't need electricity.
I'm betting that TVA sets a record in the next few days.

 

Almost forgot, the one item that I needed, a propane heater to fit on a propane tank was delivered this afternoon. I ordered it online when I couldn't find one locally but figured that it wouldn't be delivered until after the event. Now I have it for this year or the next. I was outside working when the truck came up and was able to ask the driver about the road conditions.

 

Diesel heater x2, check. Mr. Buddy and 20# propane bottle, check. 6kw diesel genny, check. Starlink ready to turn on,check. Ice apocalypse? Missing in action. We got lucky. As late as Friday evening we were supposed to get up to 1/2" of ice, which if you know anything about the South, would be crippling. It was 50 here yesterday with a low of 34 and just rain. I could drive 30 minutes North or West and see ice though.

You guys up North take care, looks like 7 days of real crap weather up your way.

 

Had 17 snoeux flakes fall last night, Wife has to go in at work, she's mad...lol

 

We Finally got a dusting of snow late last night; the temp dropped to 15F and wrung out the moisture in the air. The sun is out and the high today is gonna be 25F. By Wednesday things will be back to normal.

 

Here in the south of the TX panhandle, the storm has passed and left a few inches of snow. It's not going to get above freezing till tomorrow afternoon. Sweetie and I made a grocery run today and the bread aisle and pizza freezer were almost empty. Fortunately, we managed to get all we wanted and back home with no problem. I did learn that I need to check the battery in my generator more than once in two years. It was dead, dead, dead. Not a single replacement battery in town, so ordered one that will be her by the weekend. Other than that one little blip, all was just fine with us,

 

We may have snow coming for the weekend in the Eastern Carolinas.

 

I smell gumbo...and lots of it....we ready!

 

29F. here in North Florida at 04:30 Tuesday morning. Chilly.

 

Yeah, we ain't out of this yet! Just keep telling yourself, "Spring is ONLY 90-days from now".

 

It dropped to a low of 26°F. at 7AM this morning - Tuesday. It'll warm a bit, still around freezing the next few nights, then drop to low 20s, possibly 20°F, on Saturday and Sunday nights. Praying I don't get a burst pipe like last year. But at least none of that weird white stuff this year - yet. North Florida ain't always sunny and warm.

 

Guess I'm blessed! Ended up losing power Sunday morning at 8 (so the sun was up already), and got it back at 5 in the afternoon (just before the sun went down). Perfect timing!
Lots of power lines taken out by tree limbs breaking under the ice load here, when the freezing rain finally hit. Some folks in the area might be as long as this coming Sunday, before Entergy gets them back up on power again. For sure, if I'm just out driving around, and see a line crew, I'll stop and offer to get them coffee or donuts or lunch, since those guys are the real heroes after an event like this!

[edit] Oh yeah, and the Air Force base near where I used to live (that I still have on my FB feed) was putting out to insulate water pipes with foam insulation!
I quickly added a reply to that, to tell folks that foam insulation for water pipes is to keep them from sweating, NOT to protect from freezes! Amazing, how people with good intentions continue to put out BS advice, that will just end up screwing someone over!