'Bout to get reeeaaaaal cold, who's ready?

The high winds just hit NW Jersey a little while ago. It's whipping out there pretty good and the temp is dropping quick! Time to go throw some oak in

Badfish740 said:

The high winds just hit NW Jersey a little while ago. It's whipping out there pretty good and the temp is dropping quick! Time to go throw some oak in

Click to expand...

I got lucky, just took the Murph outside, and the back deck is pretty much dry. With those winds coming in, that should finish it.

Most of the snow is gone, driveway clear, car close to the house, so I don't have to far to walk to far if everything is frozen in the AM.

Even dug out my Yak Trax

Killer winds here! Gusts above 40 mph. No troubles with weak draft tonight!

Wow. It's not often it's the coldest here, but right now NW OH is taking the prize. Currently -15 degrees, with windchills hovering around -40. Good ol' fashioned snot freezing weather. Had at one point today it was -13 outside, 73 inside. Never had an 86 degree difference before.

We're burning propane tonight, the 75000Btu/h furnace seemed to be running about 80% of the time, tonight will be a great data point on my multi-year measurement of overnight heat loss. Now I wish I'd bought that hourmeter someone recommended before Christmas...
As an other example of counter-intuitive data, my basement is warmer tonight than usual, but although I have started insulating the walls, I believe this temperature increase is due to the furnace running so much. Hopefully I'm wrong and I'm getting early payback.

Our local NWS station just reported a -23 windchill, it's howling, I really hope we don't lose power.

TE

6:30am, +2*, school closed.

Joful said:

Killer winds here! Gusts above 40 mph. No troubles with weak draft tonight!

Click to expand...

TradEddie said:

Our local NWS station just reported a -23 windchill, it's howling, I really hope we don't lose power.

Click to expand...

Wind was really whipping here last night too. Haven't heard wind like this in a long time. I was thinking the same thing about power-central wood heat is nice, until I have to drag the generator out to run the blower

-6F when I got up at 5:45. Up to -1F 2 hours later.

Inside it got down to 65 overnight but we're back up to 75 now.

UncleJoe said:

-6F when I got up at 5:45. Up to -1F 2 hours later.

Inside it got down to 65 overnight but we're back up to 75 now.

Click to expand...

Your's is rising, mine's dropping. Down to -1* at 08:10am.

There is absolutely no way to describe this weather without the use of profanity.

Woody Stover said:

It'll be interesting to see if I can recover room temp at the current level of weatherization, with the stove chock-full o' Pignut Hickory and a probable high of 2 degrees with 15-20 mph winds.

Click to expand...

Nah, not happening at all. 58 in the house now. When it's super-cold out, you can really feel where air is getting in. I've got a replacement window and some other construction that's not trimmed out yet. I think these are the two biggest losers. I need to button 'er up now. Got some warm weather starting tomorrow, but the way this winter has gone so far, I get the feeling we haven't yet seen the last of blasts, and these low room temps are not getting it.

hermancm said:

Anything less than 10 F Is cold but it is funny how you become acclimated to temperatures and then it warms up to 10 above and it feel nice.

Click to expand...

When it's 58 in the house, that will acclimate ya too.

Im maintaining 71 indoors with a 0 outside reading for the past 12 hours or so . I cant complain. Solar room is in the 60s ,not bad but struggling with 3 degrees outside and all the heat loss from 150SF of windows.

Woody Stover said:

Nah, not happening at all. 58 in the house now. When it's super-cold out, you can really feel where air is getting in. I've got a replacement window and some other construction that's not trimmed out yet. I think these are the two biggest losers. I need to button 'er up now. Got some warm weather starting tomorrow, but the way this winter has gone so far, I get the feeling we haven't yet seen the last of blasts, and these low room temps are not getting it.

When it's 58 in the house, that will acclimate ya too.

Click to expand...

It's 55 here and got down to 49 over night. Oversized stove...not. -25 windchills last night. about -15 now. We've got some serious weatherization to do.

The lake is freaking beautiful though, I've never seen it steaming before. Ice volcanos are active but I'm not walking down there to see them!!

Since today was my first day back at work since all this crazy cold began (we were closed Friday so I got to stay home) my oil furnace is likely kicking on at home by now. I have the thermostat set to 65, so hopefully only a little oil will be burned between now and when I stuff the firebox around 5:30 tonight...

That's cold. Heck- to hear the news tell it, 45F is dangerous: http://mobile.philly.com/news/nation_world/?wss=/philly/news/nation_world&id=238710861

Joful said:

There is absolutely no way to describe this weather without the use of profanity.

Click to expand...

Damned straight

eclecticcottage said:

The lake is freaking beautiful though, I've never seen it steaming before. Ice volcanos are active but I'm not walking down there to see them!!

Click to expand...

I hear ya. Several ice volcano's on the shoreline here - haven't seen these built like this in several years. Only got to about 8 or 9 feet high before things froze right over though.

The clipper that came through last Saturday broke up a lot of the ice on the lake and piled it along the shoreline. Pics are on my wife's camera so technically it didn't happen I guess . Huge clear-blue sheets of ice piled up like some giant just tossed them around. Looks like the fortress of solitude down there. Ice flowed back in from the big lake and things were frozen over again by Sunday. Spectacular to look at, but hearing the ice crack miles out into the lake in the pitch dark will scare the bejeezuz out of you, and the wind along the shoreline will literally pick you up and carry you away. Even the dog was hesitant to venture out there.

Just recently happened. Basically a 70 degree diff in outside temps inside of 24 hours. NUts weather. BTW, I fell bad for you guys in the South. Seriously crazy cold. Stay safe.......................How's Al Gore doing with the whole Global Warming thing???

flyingcow said:

Just recently happened. Basically a 70 degree diff in outside temps inside of 24 hours. NUts weather. BTW, I fell bad for you guys in the South. Seriously crazy cold. Stay safe.......................How's Al Gore doing with the whole Global Warming thing???

Click to expand...

I think he understands what the terms "global" and "trend" mean, so I'm sure he's fine

7 Degrees here this morning. My wife (high school teacher) has another 90 minute delay. Her district owns their own buses instead of leasing new ones, so they're older-anybody who knows anything about starting old diesels in this kind of weather knows that it requires quite a bit of "persuasion" They should have just them run all night...

bag of hammers said:

I hear ya. Several ice volcano's on the shoreline here - haven't seen these built like this in several years. Only got to about 8 or 9 feet high before things froze right over though.

The clipper that came through last Saturday broke up a lot of the ice on the lake and piled it along the shoreline. Pics are on my wife's camera so technically it didn't happen I guess . Huge clear-blue sheets of ice piled up like some giant just tossed them around. Looks like the fortress of solitude down there. Ice flowed back in from the big lake and things were frozen over again by Sunday. Spectacular to look at, but hearing the ice crack miles out into the lake in the pitch dark will scare the bejeezuz out of you, and the wind along the shoreline will literally pick you up and carry you away. Even the dog was hesitant to venture out there.

Click to expand...

I don't think the lake here ever really freezes. We do get ice floating around, and we'll get ice frozen along the shoreline for 20-30' out. I'm betting we get a LOT of it floating by soon from what blew over the ice boom by Buffalo and is currently jammed up in the upper river. Every darn spring they let that thing go JUST as it's warming up here and it throws up back into colder temps for a few weeks while it works it's way through (I can leave work and it's 65/70 and get home to 40/45 degrees).

last couple days forecast has stated wind chill up to 45º below, I'm sure it's possible to walk or even skate across our little lake. Even though it's supposed to snow today and tomorrow, at least it'll warm up to do that.

Badfish740 said:

7 Degrees here this morning. My wife (high school teacher) has another 90 minute delay. Her district owns their own buses instead of leasing new ones, so they're older-anybody who knows anything about starting old diesels in this kind of weather knows that it requires quite a bit of "persuasion" They should have just them run all night...

Click to expand...

A block heater would be a much cheaper option,besides diesel is expensive and i dont think its good for the motor to idle for hours on end.

Seasoned Oak said:

A block heater would be a much cheaper option,besides diesel is expensive and i dont think its good for the motor to idle for hours on end.

Click to expand...

In theory yes, but logistically challenging. Let's say it's a fleet of 25 buses (I don't know the real number) which would be 25 block heaters drawing about 9 amps (That's what my old 7.3L drew) each = 225 amps. Not to mention the mess of cords stretched all over the bus yard. Idling diesels is common practice in very severe cold climates like the Upper Midwest/Canada, but it's usually only needed on older equipment. There is also the risk of a phenomenon known as "wet stacking" where unburned fuel deposits accumulate on valve stems due to the cool running temperature at idle and the cold outside temperatures, but it has to be much colder than single (positive) digits for that to be an issue Newer diesel technology, better glow plugs/intake heaters, and fuel additives help immensely. LOL...she just texted me as I write this that she had to move her class across the hall due to a burst pipe...

Just got up to 7 here, too. Unfortunately, both stoves were left go cold. Got in from work at 11pm last night, after two nights of less than 6 hours of sleep, was too tired to reload and wait out cat light off. In a rush to get back out the door this morning, both stoves sit cold today.