weather The Weather.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

We had much nastiness pass through the DFW area this morning. Around 7 tornadoes, possibly as many as 12. Lots of damage in spots. Some injuries, none life-threatening, no fatalities, and none in the Garland area. In fact, in my immediate area, the weather wasn't terrible, and the squall line that brought it passed quickly. We got lucky.

It's now mostly cloudy and cool outside. Temps are going to get much colder later on.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Did the United States have a below average year regarding the number of Tornadoes?

Why else throw out a handful in December if not to make up the average?

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

A correction of my post from yesterday: the weather service has surveyed the damage from Tuesday's storms and has determined that we had not 7, not 12, but 14 tornadoes during the outbreak. They were a combination of EF-0, EF-1 (the majority), and EF-2 tornadoes. Scary.

[mlooney 3,417]

Thursday next week is forecast to suck.  Forecast to get 2 inches of snow and have a low of -7 (Freedom units) [-22 rest of world].  Going find out if the furnace is really fixed.  Crossing fingers!

[Darth Fluffy 302]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

(Freedom units)

Lol, shades of Dubya ...

 

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

Going find out if the furnace is really fixed.  Crossing fingers!

... perhaps permanently, if the furnace is not up to snuff. What is the conversion factor for n dog night to m cat night? I think the assumption is that the dogs are approximately dingo in size.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

perhaps permanently, if the furnace is not up to snuff

I have plenty of space heaters and electric blankets so even if it does go tango uniform I'm not in any real danger.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Was below freezing overnight Saturday night, ice on the windshields Sunday morning. Not a big deal for much of the US; here it is not uncommon each winter, but noteworthy. Was our first for this season.

 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

The weatherpeople have been warning us residents of the Dallas/Fort Worth area of a very nasty cold blast due to come through overnight this coming Thursday. Lows are supposed to get down around 10 with wind chills below 0, and then highs won't get above freezing until Saturday. They're not expecting any precipitation to accompany it - just a lot of freezing cold.

[mlooney 3,417]

We aren't forecast to get above freezing until Monday next week.  A cold front is due to hit town about 5 in the morning Thursday and not leave until Monday.  Wednesday next week is forecast to be in the 50s 

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

Wednesday next week is forecast to be in the 50s 

I feel it.  Our lows tonight will be in 50s.  Lows in the 60s later this week.

I may need to turn off the AC

[Darth Fluffy 302]

25 minutes ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

I feel it.  Our lows tonight will be in 50s.  Lows in the 60s later this week.

I may need to turn off the AC

Way to rub it in, dude.

 

4 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

The weatherpeople have been warning us residents of the Dallas/Fort Worth area of a very nasty cold blast due to come through overnight this coming Thursday. Lows are supposed to get down around 10 with wind chills below 0, and then highs won't get above freezing until Saturday. They're not expecting any precipitation to accompany it - just a lot of freezing cold.

That seems awfully cold for Dallas, but then again, I've never lived there. I was four hours south in San Antonio for a while, and we rarely got a hard freeze, just often enough to preclude growing citrus. A couple of hours south of there, grapefruit grows reliably.

 

[mlooney 3,417]

Snowstorm due to hit around 3:00 AM tonight with 3 inches forecast.  I know that's not a lot to you frozen north types, but it's a lot here.  Not as bad as Tulsa when it comes to winter weather freak outs, but there still is freaking out going on.  Fortunately I live on a semi major road so it's going to get plowed and sanded soon after the storm stops.  Not that this really matters to me as I don't have a car, but it does mean fewer fender benders scaring the cat.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

3 hours ago, mlooney said:

Snowstorm due to hit around 3:00 AM tonight with 3 inches forecast.  I know that's not a lot to you frozen north types, but it's a lot here.  Not as bad as Tulsa when it comes to winter weather freak outs, but there still is freaking out going on.  Fortunately I live on a semi major road so it's going to get plowed and sanded soon after the storm stops.  Not that this really matters to me as I don't have a car, but it does mean fewer fender benders scaring the cat.

When you get almost no snow, nobody knows how to drive on it, and nobody has proper snow gear. We have that problem here, too.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, Darth Fluffy said:

When you get almost no snow, nobody knows how to drive on it, and nobody has proper snow gear. We have that problem here, too.

We get snow, roughly 10 days a year.  Some years more than other.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

3 hours ago, mlooney said:

We get snow, roughly 10 days a year.  Some years more than other.

We get some icy roads most years;  it does not last, but it is treacherous. Some years it happens several times. It will thaw and refreeze for several days. More rarely, se get actual snow, usually fairly light, and it tends to either not stay or do the same thaw and refreeze nonsense, so more icy roads.

I don't think they even stock snow tires here. I know you can order them, for instance if you were planning to travel. But in the Northeast, it was an advertised item, here they are not mentioned.

They salt the hell out of the highways. That said, the Northeast uses relatively less salt for the amount of ice and snow, but there is still so much more that the salt tears vehicles up in the Northeast. I don't know if it is still true, but when I lived there, a two year old car with no body rust was unusual. (I assume rustproofing has improved over the years.) Here, body rust is atypical. I still do the full car wash in a commercial spray wash to remove road salt, I know the damage salt can cause.

'Snow plows' is another thing they are unfamiliar with. They press road graders and anything with a blade into snowplow service. In the Northeast, there are designated snow plow trucks that are well designed to deal with snow.

I tend to plan to not shop when we have ice or snow, minimize exposure to traffic, just sit out the duration.

You also don't see snow mobiles, snow blowers, barely able to buy snow shovels, and they are generally crappy, no ice chopper blades, even car scrapers are minimalist and not easy to find. I bought mine on my last trip to the Northeast.

Oddly enough, ice skates are not difficult to find. We have rinks, and both figure skates and hockey skates are available. I can tell you where to take them to get then sharpened. The Hurricanes home arena is about forty minutes away, if the traffic is moving. (Aptly named, we do get a few hurricanes wandering through, every several years.)

The Appalachian chain several hours west of us mitigates most of the weather that happens in the middle of the country.

 

 

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

We get snow. We just treat it like a national emergency and shut everything down. Snow tires? What are those? We don't even have snow chains.

They "treat" the roads with some sort of liquid compound down here, but frankly I think it's a liquid sacrifice to the snow and ice gods, begging them to not snarl traffic. It inevitably fails. At least it doesn't rot cars. Snow plows? What are those?

We do all our shopping in a mad rush at the first mention of the possibility of winter weather, stripping the shelves, necessitating "price gouging" police. Snow mobiles? What...oh, you get the idea.

One thing we're about to get is the annual "Wintermaggedon" event (replace "Winter" with your favorite wintertime situation - snow, sleet, wind chill, etc.).  This time around, it's a sudden temperature drop. We're going to go from the mid-40s down into the teens in the matter of an hour or two at around noon today. Most of the rest of the west is already there - we're just joining in this time. At least it's only low temps and sub-zero wind chill off 45mph winds this time, and it'll only last for a few days. Here's hoping our famously-stressed Texas power grid can handle it.

[mlooney 3,417]

The snow has started ans it's starting to stick.  Actually I suspect that the snow started a while ago, but I just got up...

[mlooney 3,417]

It's 5 degrees out (actual, in Freedom Units) [-15 rest of world]. I had to go out because my trash bin has blown over. Thankfully it was empty. Not going out again if I have any choice in the matter

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

Earlier this morning, we were at 43 degrees F. Then the front blew through. We now sit at 21 degrees F, just a couple of hours later, and the temperature is slated to keep going down all day into the night. Yum.

[mlooney 3,417]

2 hours ago, mlooney said:

It's 5 degrees out (actual, in Freedom Units) [-15 rest of world]. I had to go out because my trash bin has blown over. Thankfully it was empty. Not going out again if I have any choice in the matter

And I had 2 packages arrive, one unexpected and one 3 days early so I've been out side three times today.  Not liking it and plan on getting under covers and electric blanket soon.

[mlooney 3,417]

It's down to 1 and it's not forecast to get higher for at least 24 hours.  Actually expected to hit -1 with in the hour, then "rise" to 3, then drop to -1 around midnight and stay there until at least 8:00 AM.  Snow is supposed to stop around 2:00 PM today.

 

[Don Edwards 548]

Most of the country just was, is being, or soon will be hit with this.

Phoenix, and places south and west of it, not so much. Our ceiling fan is running and in an hour or so I'll probably open a window.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

40 minutes ago, Don Edwards said:

Most of the country just was, is being, or soon will be hit with this.

Phoenix, and places south and west of it, not so much. Our ceiling fan is running and in an hour or so I'll probably open a window.

Aim the fan toward mlooney.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

We have rain today. The weather service describes it as heavy, but I've seen worse; I'd call it 'steady'. I guess I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas.

On the plus side, I got most of my Christmas shopping done today. Have a TBD I won't know until the last minute.

[Darth Fluffy 302]

Davan looses his $!7# (not an unusual occurrence).

Expected mitigation of your plains effects isn't fully happening; we are expecting the temperature to drop to around zero F on Saturday.