Snowmageddon! The new talk-about-the-weather thread

"I think Crappy Tire is selling whole units now for about $7,500.  Which they won't have in stock, of course, but they will have plenty of the $9,500 models. "

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you sure of the 1500 watts and all bells and whistles installed?

Power and storage for electronics is one thing...heating, another. 

George Victor wrote:

"I think Crappy Tire is selling whole units now for about $7,500. Which they won't have in stock, of course, but they will have plenty of the $9,500 models. "

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you sure of the 1500 watts and all bells and whistles installed?

Power and storage for electronics is one thing...heating, another.

I could be wrong, haven't crunched the numbers but I think that the
best setup in terms of efficency for using alternative power for heating
would likely be geothermal with the turbine/battery powering the fan.   I would think that one could get away with a less powerful turbine system al la  Crappy Tire, by going that route.  In then end though it would likely cost about the same when you factor in the cost of the geothermal as well.  

 One big bonus with that sort of system though is you also get cooling in the summer.  

 Maybe I'll do some number crunching after Christmas.   

Thanks for the leather links, ElizaQ and Webgear.  There's one place in London I haven't looked, and that's Len's Mill store.  However, their web site doesn't indicate they have this kind of stuff.  

The rivets at Tandy seem to be the exact thing I am looking for, but I have yet to cross the on line shopping threshold.  Seems to me I already have the anvil and set for that type of riveting... what the heck did I get that for...?  eyelets?  Must be.

Also, (edit here, I forget things)  those "D" rings" and snap swivels and much more are stock items at your local Home Hardware, and they are marked with their safe working loads, if that's important to what you are doing with them. 

Shifting over to the windmill, I saw plans for a model on line which looked like it fell within my skill and knowledge level to put together-- a fun project for Snarfy the Wonder Girl and I. 

I noticed though that the "nacel" they recomended was just a small electric motor intended for toys.  I surmise that you mount it backwards so that it generates electicity.  I can't help but wonder that while that's an easy off the shelf product that would work for a model,  electric motors are not designed to generate electricity, and something like the dynamo from a flashlight or radio would work more efficiently.   But then, I guess due to gear ratio's, they are harder to crank-- so if I modified that part of the design, I'd have to beef up the blades...and the stand.......

Huge snow in BC's Fraser Valley for an area that does not get much! I am from Toronto area and have lived in BC for about 1 year studying at UCFV. Nice area but people dont understand the show and how to drive in it.

"Seems to me to be simple everyday physics, but who am I to cause friction?"

______-----------------------------------

A nicely turned phrase, TP.

---------------------------------------------------- 

 "One big bonus with that sort of system though is you also get cooling in the summer."

You need big bucks for geothermal, and a constant supply of power (wind does not compute) ElizaQ.  You'd better be sitting down when you cost it all.  

 "What I don't know is all the techie wattage stuff re powering the  fan system which is what I generally mean about crunching numbers.  The other option with geothermal re power outages is to have an emergency generator on hand to power the fan.  That's the thing that is a positive about geothermal you don't need the power to actually create the heat, which takes a lot, you just need it to have power to run the exchanger and the fan. "

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The devil really is in these "techie wattage stuff" details, Eliza. 

Looking forward to reading your research results.   Happy holidays.  

Huge storm here on PEI yesterday, with lots of people without power. It was total whiteout conditions, where you could not even consider driving as you could see nothing. The Confederation Bridge was close to all traffic (sixth time in history) and winds of 150 km/hr were clocked on the bridge.

 I love being storm-stayed so this was all wonderful news to me. An extra day off of work and people forced to spend time with loved ones rather than being miserable in a mall somewhere. We have a wood stove (suitable to the coop insurance company George Victor), so it was nice and cozy even with the power out. It is -20 with the wind today and they are saying 9 degrees on Xmas! This upsets me very much - I really hope it stays below zero.

 I went to university in Victoria, so I can only imagine what getting 30 cm is like there. I remember they got around 5 cm the year I was there and that was enough to close school.

wabisha wrote:

Nice area but people dont understand the show and how to drive in it.

It is amazing isn't it? And it is the same way on VIsland. I don't know know if they "forget" how to drive in the snow from one snowfall to the next, or if they all stay home and never do drive in it, until caught out.

When I lived on the Island, and worked as a home care nurse, if there was snowfall, in any amounts over 3 inches, we were not allowed to work because of worker's comp rules, and got the day(s) off with pay.

Which I loved as a experienced snow driver, until I came across those who could not get their vehicle up even a small incline and would have to drive it up for them, give them a short lesson on how to drive in the snow, and then go back to my vehicle and carry on with what I was doing on my paid day off.

Still no snow here worth mentioning, too cold to snow, minus 30 here. Brilliantly sunny and sparkling on the small amount of snow we do have.

___________________________________________________________
"watching the tide roll away"

Timebandit wrote:

Idiocy while driving in the snow isn't unheard of here, either. I had to venture out yesterday and some twit was trying very hard not to drive in the tracks where the tires of most cars were, preferring the ridges of gravelled snow. Sounds clever, but in order to do so, you have to be about a foot out of your lane -- basically driving in two at once, yapping on his cel and driving one-handed all the way. Then there was the guy texting at a light in the left turning lane who missed an arrow, backing up traffic about 2 blocks... Total dingbats.

Doesn't sound like the snow's their problem, you'll need to catch up with Atlantic Canada and ban those pesky things. Its only been about a year and I'm already shocked when I'm out of province and I see people pulling that kind of shit with their phones...

Well, it has warmed a bit here, and we may get some snow by Boxing Day. 

However, there was a nasty accident on VIsland, night before last, on a section of hwy that has claimed 5 or 6 lives in the last 4 years, just outside of Nanaimo. Black ice and driving too fast has caused 2 children and the family dog to lose their lives, the other 2 children and the mother are in hospiital, one child with brain injuries is at children's hospiital. The extended families are a mess, in part because they believe the mother had been drinking before driving. Sigh....

___________________________________________________________

"watching the tide roll away"

Well yesterday morning it wasn't snowing so I shovelled out the car and went into town. The sketchy weather has changed our holiday plans and we decided not to make the 6 hour drive to my Aunt's where some of the family is gathering for Christmas. We can't afford to take the chance of getting stuck there because of obligations back at the homestead. Can't say I was really looking forward to driving there in potentially crappy weather either. It will be a bit weird as suddenly a boisterous family and friends gathering which is typical for me has turned into a day just for the two of us and our menagerie of animals. Never actually done that before.

So basically I had to run out and get all the trimmings for our dinner I hadn't planned to make until yesterday. I was out for three hours and by the time I wandered home the wind and snow had started again and our 300 ft driveway was full of drifts, so the idiot that I am I didn't think and whammo, one very stuck car about halfway into it. Not such a big deal, except for the treking all the grocery bags through a couple of three foot drifts, because we have use of the parents truck while they are on holiday but I had to wait for the hubby to get home from his last minute shopping. By that time the wind was whipping, freezing cold it was hard to see and it was getting dark. So he manages to back in and we hook up the toe line. He says just keep her in neutral and keep the wheels straight so you don't slide off the side into the ditch. I say no problem and get in. Then my friggin glasses fog up and I can't see a friggin thing and then he starts pulling and I can't see!!! So I start waving out the window to stop stop but of course he can't see because he's on the opposite side of where my hand is waving frantically, plus the wind and snow of course. One big ditch a slidin'......

Then he stops and runs to my window and is yelling 'what are you doing!" "My glasses are foggy....I can't see!" I reply. And then he just starts laughing and laughing. So I start laughing and there we are in the freezing blowing snow laughing our butts off.

So now what. Now I'm not only stuck, I'm stuck in a ditch.

He contemplates powering up the snowblower and clearing a path but that seems like a big pain because he'd get it done and it would blow back again in an hour.

Oh screw it, time for some power four wheeling. So he gets in the truck sticks it in four low and just starts plowing through the drifts, back and forth, back and forth, the trucks tail end fishtailing like crazy. (I think he enjoyed that part. ) So the tow rope gets hooked up again, I make sure I can see to make sure I stay in the trucks tracks and I am pulled up out of the ditch and down the rest of the driveway.

Ah winter! Gotta love it.

I am not going anywhere for the next three days and if it snows again screw blowing out the driveway until we actually have to go somewhere. LOL

Speaking of lost skills, I am currently making my wife a leather change purse.

I will post pictures if I am successful.

Wind has been blowing strongly here over night and throughout the day, and here in the valley we get multiple cross/shifting winds, and crashing weather fronts. And thus we get a lot of "dirt devils" in the summer, if not small tornados, and in the winter we of course get "snow devils".

Moments ago, I was typing a response in another thread and casually glanced over and looked out the window to see a massive one building on the front lawn and then it  started moving, like a tornado moves, towards the house. It grew while moving towards the house, it was wider at the base and taller than the house, and it literally slammed into the house, enough to shake it. It was this pure white solid swirling mass of snow and you couldn't even see through it to the trees and field behind it. Actually even gave me a elevated heart rate, watching it advance towards the house, as I have never in all the years I have been here, saw, and experienced, a snow tornado like that.

___________________________________________________________
"watching the tide roll away"

Toronto's 11 degrees set a new high for Dec. 27, apparently. The old high mark for that date was 9.4 degrees.

I hate records.

Awful weather here all day - freezing rain, snow, rain, and very windy. I'm tired of winter already.

Tommy_Paine wrote:

Yeah, well it's snowing here again, with the wind coming out of the south and temperatures rising.  All the work my daughter's and I did last night seems to have gone for naught, but of course it would have been much worse had we not done it. 

I just thought we'd have a few days of clear driveway and walkways instead of just a few hours.  

"Then there was the guy texting at a light in the left turning lane who missed an arrow, backing up traffic about 2 blocks...  Total dingbats. " 

Yeah, well Christmas. People are distracted to begin with.  But, I wonder if behavior like this speaks to a person's character-- or lack of it.   Today we were at the Stuperstore to pick up a few things, and after paying,  this person held up us, and four other people-- twice--  because that person was oblivious to the fact that peopel were behind them trying to get out, and couldn't get by. 

And of course, we all know people who enter a busy place, and stop right there, blocking people behind them from entering.

The funny thing is, Timebandit, that my nickname for people like that is Time Bandits.

 Are these people just distracted?  I mean, I'm sure I've been one of those people sometime in my life.  Or, do they think themselves so freaking special, they don't have to consider other people?  Sometimes the behavior is so bad, you can say with some certainty that this is what's going on.   And to this day, all those people wonder why all the cars they ever owned get keyed. 

Myself, I've learned not to let these things get to me when driving.  Keep cool.  Try to remember that if you get pissed, it changes your judgement and just spreads the other idiot's idiocy.   And, everyone is someone else's Time Bandit at one time or another.   

Time Bandits, hm...

 What astounds me is that the people being held up so often say nothing.  I don't mean you have to be rude or obnoxious - a polite "Excuse me, can I get past?" or the like usually does the trick.  The guy at the lights?  Nobody so much as gave a light beep on the horn.  I would have, but being as far back as I was and in another lane, it would have been useless.  Ah, well, that's Regina for you. 

After a bevy of storms and wierd wet weather that played havoc with my internet connection before and during Christmas, the weather here seems to have settled down into some kind of winter doldrum.   Sunny during the morning, overcast later in the day.   The pattern of Colorado lows seems to have abated for now.

I haven't checked the weather forcast for days now.  I probably should give it a look see.

Ah, freezing rain warning.

Many, Many years ago, I took the train from London to North Bay at Christmas.   

It would have been quicker to hitch hike.  I used to hitch hike everywhere, back in the late 70's. 

We were discussing train travel today at work during lunch, and there was a few of us who have experience with rail travel in the U.K.  The others were astonished to understand how backwards we are here.

Which is funny. The rail line that ran behind my neighborhood where I grew up was contemporary with the first rail lines in London, England.  Canada was a world leader in rail travel before we were even Canada.

And, look what we have now.  We were better served in the age of steam.  Which was before my time.   Just.

   Well it was just one of those kind of bleh winter days here. It snowed a little and was just grey.  I think I'm starting to get a bit of those midwinter cabin fever ansty blahs.  I did go for a walk but it's just not the same as being outside all the time.  Maybe I should take up cross country skiing or something.

Heavy snow here today. I haven't seen anyone outside today at all.

We* had heavy snow last night, a blizzard today, our power was off for an hour, and tonight we're forecast to get -42C wind chill, and extreme cold until Sunday at least.

*I'm just below Labrador on Quebec's Lower North Shore.

It's -30 again.  With below -40 wind chills. Walked back from the grocery store and my face was nearly frozen in under two blocks.  Should have worn the bigger scarf.

The forecast says up to -2 on Friday, but I think they're lying.  They've been stringing us along for weeks now.