View Full Version : Winter storms
How is everyone doing?
Not sure how much snow we’ve gotten here in the NW burbs of Chicago. I’m right on the dividing line between winter weather advisory and winter storm warning. WFH as I’m getting over Covid. Same tomorrow.
More snow Friday and the temps hit single digits for highs beginning Sunday or Monday.
I was awakened just before dawn this morning by 60+ mph winds rocking our camper and several reported tornadoes in the area. Several trees and lots of limbs down in the campground but at least the power stayed on. The high winds and torrential rains continued for several hours until the trailing cold front arrived and dropped the temps down to the low 50's. 20 to 30mph wind gusts the rest of the day.
iris lilies
1-9-24, 9:21pm
we had snow today and cold weather hovering around the freezing mark, but not a lot of snow and nothing serious. Tomorrow we’re getting brand new windows put in at the condo, so yeah, that’ll be fine with those windows spaces open for a couple hours.
Not much weather trauma here, but it's been plenty brisk with night time temps in the teens or close to zero for the next week and the wind has been breezy. A little snow would be nice to go with things. The mountains and ski areas seem to be getting plenty of snow.
This thread reminds me of one of the big reasons I moved to the coast of California. We're expected to get down to 43 tonight. 100% normal for this time of year.
It's not nearly as cold as last winter so it's tough to compare but I'm loving our new heat pump. Last year with the old gas furnace we had $300/month PG&E bills all winter long. This year, despite a rate increase we haven't broke $200/month yet.
My gas bill won’t go above $50 at the highest. I keep it at 60.
CA has earthquakes, drought, and fires. FL has heat, humidity, and hurricanes. My water comes from Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes area has a low level of natural disasters.
rosarugosa
1-10-24, 5:50am
We had some snow last weekend, but it's warm and very rainy now and all the snow is melting. I imagine there will be some flooding issues. My cellar is quite wet after the torrential downpours last night, but not epic disaster wet.
No snow yet but a rainstorm went through last night. We lost power from 7pm-4am. I was in the shower when the power went out. Not fun at all. Husband had to stay up all night because he uses a CPAP machine that needs electricity. Accuweather is saying we might get some snow/ice/sleet early next week. Hoping for a four day weekend out of it.
early morning
1-10-24, 12:34pm
No major anything here, bit of snow a few days ago but it was gone by next afternoon. Klunick, does your husband have a battery backup for his cpap? We use a lot of ryobi tools & have have an outlet device that uses the batteries for anything that runs on 110. The battery can last quite a while, and cpap's don't generally pull a lot of power. Not too expensive, and quite useful for multiple applications. Our engine zapper thingy (power battery jump start? something like that?) also has a 110 outlet and can run small items - or at least DH says it can, I've never tried it. In the winter, I always wish we had a generator, just in case.
No major anything here, bit of snow a few days ago but it was gone by next afternoon. Klunick, does your husband have a battery backup for his cpap? We use a lot of ryobi tools & have have an outlet device that uses the batteries for anything that runs on 110. The battery can last quite a while, and cpap's don't generally pull a lot of power. Not too expensive, and quite useful for multiple applications. Our engine zapper thingy (power battery jump start? something like that?) also has a 110 outlet and can run small items - or at least DH says it can, I've never tried it. In the winter, I always wish we had a generator, just in case.
We are looking into getting a battery back up today.
We are looking into getting a battery back up today.
Something like the Jackery 300 I have. Had it for 2 years. Got from Amazon. Other good choices, this is just the one I have.
Winter storm watch just issued for Friday am through Sat am. Could have at least 6”-8” and high winds. Hoping they let me work from home Friday if I test negative tomorrow.
We are looking into getting a battery back up today.
SO's CPAP has a battery backup. It doesn't hold enough juice to run the CPAP and the humidifier all night, just the CPAP. SO really needs the humidifier because without it his mouth totally dries out and we don't have a lot of humidity to begin with. I made a homemade version of a jackery that has about 2.4 kwh of electricity (for roughly half the price and it looks half as nice...) since we're at risk of blackouts to prevent wildfire now that we're not in the city, in the worst case scenario SO could run his CPAP off of it for a full night. The downside of that is that we then don't have that much battery left to keep the fridge and garage freezer running so we'd have to gauge when we were likely to get power restored to decide if we'd want to spend that much backup juice on his CPAP.
JP, have you considered getting solar panels to be able to recharge the homemade Jackery?
JP, have you considered getting solar panels to be able to recharge the homemade Jackery?
Yes. Even just 200 or 300 watts would probably be enough to keep the battery charged if we were cautious on what we use it for. Wildfires mainly happen in summer so we wouldn't have clouds or short days. (although if the fires were close enough we'd have haze from that which might significantly lower our solar effective rate.) I just haven't gotten around to making it happen.
Something like the Jackery 300 I have. Had it for 2 years. Got from Amazon. Other good choices, this is just the one I have.
He ended up buying this: https://www.amazon.com/Zopec-Universal-Uninterrupted-AutoSwitch-Technology/dp/B08CMTHD85/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2PNJOUANU6WSG&keywords=zopec+explore&qid=1704966810&sprefix=%2Caps%2C43&sr=8-2
Should be here today.
We will have some sub-zero temps in the days ahead so hunkering down and staying inside. All I can think about is the sweet elderly Swedish Blue duck at our park pond- abandoned years ago and the only domestic among all the wild ones. I fear he will freeze to death this weekend.
Awww.
Before any big storm, winter or summer, I get all my laundry done, run the dishwasher, take the trash out. I also make sure all my electronics are charged. Tip - laptop can be used to charge a cell phone.
We got 8” of snow in my town. Town office is in, 45 min to the NW, got 11”. At one point, 96K were without power this morning. I thought my power was going to go out. Lights were flickering a lot around 8-9am.
Looks like the storm for next Tuesday will be a bust both for where I live and where I work. Was supposed to get an inch at home but up to 6 inches at work. Just looked today and it's saying pretty much less than an inch for both places now. Darn!!!
Minus nine right now, a breeze, and snowing lightly. I looks like two more days in the deep freeze. The mountains are supposed to get a bunch of snow and it's actually a bit warmer in some mountain places.
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