The Maine coast just finished 4 days with sun and some clouds with day temps in the 20sF ; yesterday the TV weather guy said this was longest streach of weather with no precip since EARLY NOVEMBER.
Today was had a bit of snow around noon. with rain coming in tomorrow. Warm air will ride over the cold 20s air, so it will start with freezing rain until about noon (like we need more of that!) then heavy rain the rest of the day and night. This will cause snow melt leading to flooding and ice jams in some rivers. Glad I live on a 100' high hill near the ocean.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
kbkchoochSeems approprate Big Smile
Yeah, I saw they hit 125F the other day.
Steve S
Here in Charlotte is has been unseasonably cold, but other than that mostly clear blue skies.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
I double dog dare you!
In my part of southern Ontario, Canada, first we had a couple days of rain, which chilled to freezing rain, then on the weekend the temperature REALLY fell off the map. Three days now of -40 (the same in both scales) at night with respites of -30C during the day. Century-old infrastructures just can't cope, water mains breaking on major arteries. The main intersection of the Toronto Transit system was flooded by a watermain break avove it. The freezing rain brought down thousands of trees, plunging most of southern Ontario into darkness...
Me, I've got power, (now), but since it's still impossible to go anywhere by wheelchair yet, I'm finishing up my maintenance shed since my Rusty Stumps corrugated roofing came in. After I finish the window frames. And install the fans. Let it snow...
Seems approprate
Karl
NCE über alles!
Well, you asked...
Partly cloudy, coming down from a high in the 60s, expected to reach >40> at 0-dark-hundred before warming back into the high 50s.
Around here, Winter is when the eye candy wears sweaters instead of tank tops.
When I lived in South Dakota we didn't consider it cold until you couldn't drive a thumbtack into the frozen ground with a sledgehammer.
And now you know why I live in southern Nevada and not Western South Dakota.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a Clark County, NV, garage)
I instructed my co-workers not to put thier tongues on either locomotive handrails or switch handles.
It got real cold Monday night into Tuesday. I have an outdoor thermometer that has an indoor display and it got down to -11. I have a geothermal heating system which is good down to 20F at which point an electric heating booster kicks in. Even that was inadequate and my indoor temperature fell below 60F. I watched the football game Monday night with a roaring fire on one side and a space heater on the other and still my feet were cold.
Brief warm spell here in Central MD on Monday melted most of the snow, except for the large piles. Tuesday hit the single digits (*F) with 25mph sustained winds. So I wore a double layer of thermal underwear plus a ski mask in addition to my normal outdoors winter garb.
Other than that, business as usual...
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
tatans Sunshine today here in the Maritimes, now it's snowing, now it's sunny etc etc etc, 2 feet of snow(60cm) with 2.5 inches of carbon hardened ice and more snow on top, Oh, and it melted yesterday and now everything is solid ice, Now that Canadaland is metric, I cannot understand American weathercasters referring to negative numbers, is that negative below 32 degrees or negative below zero which means nothing in F., and if a temperature is negative, then is 17F. positive??? Even I can understand Celsius numbers, it's either above or below freezing. At any rate when it's really, really really cold and windy, it's cold in C. or F. And please, no more hot water thrown in the air, it really works, stop it !
Sunshine today here in the Maritimes, now it's snowing, now it's sunny etc etc etc, 2 feet of snow(60cm) with 2.5 inches of carbon hardened ice and more snow on top, Oh, and it melted yesterday and now everything is solid ice, Now that Canadaland is metric, I cannot understand American weathercasters referring to negative numbers, is that negative below 32 degrees or negative below zero which means nothing in F., and if a temperature is negative, then is 17F. positive??? Even I can understand Celsius numbers, it's either above or below freezing.
At any rate when it's really, really really cold and windy, it's cold in C. or F. And please, no more hot water thrown in the air, it really works, stop it !
Hey St. Louis Mo. US
I'm sure that you are jokeing about not reading fahrenheit but water freezes at 32* and zero is cold, anything with a negitive number you need a butt warmer. My Son took me to Chemo. in his 4 X 4 drive SUV on monday, slow going but got there. Tuesday I took my front wheel drive car and made it. We got 10" or 11" of snow. It had been several degrees below our zero, which we haven't seen in 30 years, We are driving on snow on the local roads but the freeways are mostly cleared and this is the third day after the storm.Glad I'm retired, but I can sure remember working out side in some very cold weather.
You all stay warm and take care.
Lee
Where I live we had 16 inches of snow with temps around -15, wind chills at -35 with 20 mph winds. I would like to say that I have been in basement but it actually was too cold down there to be comfortable. Yesterday a plow finally came through so five of us had snowblowers and we cleared the snow from the end of several driveways.
Now the weather for the weekend shows temps at 40+ on Saturday and heavy rain. That would make Saturday 55 degrees warmer than yesterday and knowing how whacky some people can be, we will see people in shorts. But the really bad news is the reported potential shortage of velveeta for the super bowl. The apocalypse can't be far behind.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
Yesterday a crew from MDU (Montana-Dakota Utilities) was in our back yard ditzing with cables and transformers and stuff. Since this was a scheduled project of a non-critical nature and we were powered by our own generator during the evolution, it is clear that there were no power emergencies elsewhere on the system. Oul last tow buildings are now on our own power system, and all of the overhead wires can come down. I don't suppose they will do that part of the contrack untill nicer weather, but at least the cut over for those two out-buildings (the Gym and Schnell Hall) is finished, and Schnell Hall will be able to benefit from the emergency generator which it could not do before.
Journey to Bismarck is planned for today.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
Im in Wisconsin and yesterday it was -15 with a wind chill of -35-40. Everything seems to be fine...mostly because were used to weather like this.
Cacole wrote:
"But out here in Arizona the skies are clear and daily temperatures are in the 60's F (20 degrees C) or warmer, depending on where you are"
Well, not necessarily! Here in Eastern Arizona (Springerville), yesterday morning was 4F, high actuall warmed up to 41, warmer than the previous 4 days. The highest of those was 38F. Not NEARLY as cold as most of the rest of the country, but certainly not 60 or warmer! Fortunately the wind has not been blowing; that will start in another month or so...
Today warmed up actually into mid-50's, but the is in advance of some wet/ snow weather the next couple of days. Some overcast tonight, so that should keep it from dipping down to far, but here, it's always colder on the back half of the storm. All of this is "normal" for this part of Arizona.
Stay warm all, however you do it, and enjoy your trains if you can!
Duane
We in Bradford, Ontario are not doing too badly. This is the first real winter we have had in several years. I hadn't used the snowblower since 2011. We did not get walloped by the ice storm that did so much damage in Toronto (45 kms south of us) and we aren't getting the white outs that have closed the major hwys in Barrie (45 kms north of us) so we are doing pretty good. Going to pass on the hot tub tonight though - it's about -30C with the wind chill. Just a bit too cool to be outside in a bathing suit! Seriously, we have been using our outdoor hot tub every day or two up to and including New Years Eve. Canadian eh!
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
In the Heartland here, we're almost on the back edge of the 'polar vortex' (ah, buzzwords...) and it's a balmy 20 F/ -6 C tonight. Monday during the day (when the winds were up and the wind chill ready to give you major frostbite if you were out in it for more than about 15 minutes). Fortunately for me, I had earlier turned in a request for a week of vacation (*this* week)... So on Monday? I stayed inside, and got a little MRR'ing done, plus some other household tasks started.
And I'm looking forward to a couple more days from now, when the back edge of the vortex starts heading back home to the North Pole!
Jim in Cape G.
Got up to 2 outside of Pittsburgh, so I spent the day working on building a former crummy into a snowplow from scrap parts on my work desk. I haven;t been outside, except to start my car to keep it from freezing up. I have a haircut thursday, and then I gotta start looking for another job.
(My Model Railroad, My Rules)
These are the opinions of an under 35 , from the east end of, and modeling, the same section of the Wheeling and Lake Erie railway. As well as a freelanced road (Austinville and Dynamite City railroad).
Here in NE Minnesota it hasn't been above zero F for 5 vor 6 days but it may tomorrow and it was -23F this morning, not thbe coldest we have ever seen and not that unusual for this time of year. Our wimpy governor closed the schools statewide yesterday, and some local superintendents closed them today, but other than that life goes on pretty much normal.
For the railroads there is some shortening of commercial freight trains, but ore trains stay about the same length. The shortening is because of air leaks at the air line couplings. Even the shortened trains here are much longer and heavier than yours in Britian.
The cold is a pain, but to quote a British poster, we keep calm and carry on.
It got down to 22 degrees this morning here near Hempstead which is rare for this part of the country. My biggest concern was for my three dogs - one of which is up in age so I put a heating pad under his house to help keep him warm and old blankets in the houses of the others. I then spent all night out in the train room drinking gallons of hot tea, watching old movies and running trains...
Tracklayer
In my part of southeast Michigan it got a few degrees above zero today according to my outdoor thermometer. Last night's low was -12. I've spent some time in the basement this afternoon in the train room and realized I was getting pretty darn cold. While the basement is finished, insulated and heated it does have two walkout entrances in rooms on either side of the train room. There's some amount of glass that lets the cold seep in. I'm thinking it's an evening for some upstairs activities.
At least the snow stopped Monday. We got about a foot from the storm.
George V.
Sunday morning going to my clubs show the road I had to go on was closed due to ice. Had to detour 15 miles. Went home from the show worried about black ice on the roads.
Monday morning I walked my dog wearing Jeans and a T shirt, 56 degrees. Later that day I couldn't walk on my driveway as the ice was 1/2" thick
Today I went and paid my school tax and worked on the layout at my towns museum. 8 degrees now
The last three days my woodstove and my wood pellet stove were on high and never shut down.
Tomorrow it may get up to 12 degrees. Wednesdays are meeting nights at the club, An hours drive away.
The weather doesn't bother me. A tornado might but not the temperature
Heartland Division CB&QIt's a good time to work on model railroads and try not to think about our next heating bill.
"A good time" and "our next heating bill" don't belong in the same sentence. The oil man left my place about 30 minutes ago. Let's see: 222 gallons at $4.249/gallon. There goes this month's hobby money.
Was -23F yesterday (air temperature, not wind chill) when we left for work yesterday in St.Paul Minnesota. Governor Dayton announced over the weekend that all state schools would be closed Monday and Tuesday due to the dangerous temperatures - but I guess it's OK for us state workers to try to make it in. Last I checked, it was up to 2F.
Really, if you're not out in the wind, it isn't that bad. In the winter here when it's really cold it's because of a high pressure cell, so the sky is perfectly clear and sunny - and it's dry. When it's below zero, the humidity can get as low as in a desert.
Last week on the Maine mid-coast, temps were single didgets or below zero F which froze eveything solid. I had to wear my boots with the ice grippers al week when I was walking the dog just to be sure I kept upright. The prior weekend we had rain that turned to sleet and freezing rain - coated everything causing a lot of power outages inland. After the storm, it warmed for a day and they had to close the Penobscot Narrows bridge, near Bucksport, because chunks of the size of basketballs were falling off the cables. 2 cars were hit so bad they were totaled and many were damaged. The closure required a 50 mile detour up through Bangor and back
Last saturday we started the day with cold temps then a low pressure system passed to the west of us, putting us on the warm side of the storm. Heavy rain overnight melted a lot of snow and ice, and sunday went almost to 50F. I finally cleared the last of the deck of ice. Temps droped back to around 15F Monday morning but the sun was out. Like MrB and Cowman said, a weather roller coaster! Fair and cold for the rest of the week, but more freezing rain expected for Saturday.
A reliable source tells me the BNSF rotary snow plow is headed for Galesburg/Mendota IL to clear the line for Amtrak and other trains. There are some cuts on that former CB&Q line that I can imagine would likely fill with fine snow given the cold and high winds -- a fine snow mixed with fine dirt from the farm fields can become almost rock-like.
I wonder when the last domestic rotary snow plow was built in this country.
The highest temp we recorded at our house yesterday was -11 F, which is about -24 C, and the winds were very strong. I went out a few times to fill bird feeders, get the paper, get the mail. But apart from that I sat down at the workbench and attended to projects that have sat there for a while, including a Roco 6-axle flat car in an attractive, if perhaps not totally prototypical, New York Central paint scheme. I think the actual prototype for the car is DODX. It should not be too difficult to add KD couplers (famous last words). I think it is a nice looking car, just a little different from the run of the mill flatcars on my layout.
Oddest event of the afternoon - a tiny detail part (rear view mirror for a truck model) in tweezers went flying beyond the workbench, where it got caught in a spider's web of all things. When I went to retrieve the part, the rather formidable spider appeared and looked ready to fight me over it! I try to have a peace treaty with the basement spiders (except on the layout) on the theory that if they aren't starving to death they are doing more good than harm. But this guy crossed the line so it was his (more likely, her) last afternoon.
Dave Nelson