Snow Storm Coming....Yippie!

[Jim Frye]

Well, true to form, we were supposed to be 3" deep in snow by now, but it's 34 degrees out and the change over from rain to snow was supposed to happen at noon. There is a small pond forming in the back yard drain swale.

[LCHIEN]

This was the result of the Freeze last February on my vacuum breaker manifold for the sprinkler.

We are expecting slightly subfreezing weather Thursday nite, Friday and Saturday, as low as the upper 20's which is cold for Houston.

Here's the weatherization I have done:

foam pipe insulation and tape on the main water entrance to the house.
Faucet covers
A box and some internal insulation wrapped around the vacuum breaker manifold inside this box. The vacuum breaker is emptied of water but the cutoff ball valve is what is shown frozen and cracked above from water frozen and trapped in the ball. I lost two vacuum breaker mechanisms before I learned you have to drain the things - the installer didn't warn me.



The wife meanwhile covered or moved indoors all the plants.

[Jim Frye]

First chunk of the storm was mostly by us at 7.30P and the temperature was falling. 3" of rain/snow mix, so I went out to clear it from things to hopefully prevent it from freezing to the pavement. The new cordless made quick work of the dense, wet snow and threw it 10'. Forecasters are claiming another 11" of powder is coming tonight and tomorrow. All batteries are recharged and ready to go. This cordless machine is waaaay better than the old two stroker it has replaced. Saturday night is forecasted to be -9 F.

[capncarl]

Even in S Ga I hear on the news how dangerous it is for older men to shovel snow and risk heart attacks. How does that issue play In with your having to deal with snow removal? What I hear, with the combination of strenuous work, cold raising blood pressure and cold constricting blood vessels.
Disclaimer …I usually don’t believe .05% of what the MSM publishes! But it sure sounds like you old dudes better be careful. If your ticker don’t kill you a slip on the icy sidewalk might.

[Jim Frye]

Yeah, at my age, shoveling is something of a danger, so the snowblower becomes the tool of choice. This new cordless unit is lighter and handles easier than the ICE one, but works better. It has large 11" wheels so it rolls easier. I wear rubber soled boots for traction and a face mask for really cold air. I really don't press it that much, so snow removal is actually sort of fun and relaxing. Having a headlight on the snowblower allows working a night very doable. Since the machine works so well, the job goes much more quickly than hand shoveling, so I'm outside in the cold less. Last night, I did two driveways, half of the street in front of my house, and 500 feet of public sidewalk in 45 minutes.

[furthermore]

I hope you all in TX don't get hit too hard! We're supposed to get a day full of rain that switches to snow tonight. I'm hoping it's warm enough during the day that the snow in the bed of my truck melts and I can get the tonneau cover on before it snows again.

[twistsol]

Even in S Ga I hear on the news how dangerous it is for older men to shovel snow and risk heart attacks.

My wife was a cardiac CCU nurse for many years. Inhaling sub-freezing air reduces oxygen flow to the heart as well. For a lot of people, shoveling snow is the only exercise they ever get and with the cold, no warmup, and usually being done first thing in the morning it is the worst possible time for it. That's why you make your kids shovel snow and when they go to college, you buy power tools.

Anecdotally, the stress of Thanksgiving and Christmas family get togethers bring on far more heart attacks than snow shoveling. Personally, there are times I'd have almost preferred a heart attack.

We haven't had any snow here for days, but because we live on a bluff, the sidewalk and bike path are drifted in again. I'll go clear those at noon ... with power tools.

[dbhost]

So tonights overnight forecast will be just at, or 1 deg below freezing for 8 hours, although not super likely to stay that cold that long. Tomorrow night will only have 1 hour at the freezing point, and then it goes up from there...

Wife is in absolute panic, she wants to have 10 cords of firewood in the yard sort of panic. I actually understand it, but, eh... Panic at the point of a storm is the WRONG time to stock up. She burned through our firewood stock last cold snap, I only had it to drive a chill off, not fully heat the house. :-P

I think one of the upcoming projects I need to do is a firewood rack.

[twistsol]

I'm waiting for it to warm up to minus 4F before I go clear the sidewalk today. The 10 day forecast shows us above freezing for a couple of hours next Tuesday. For perspective, one of my Canadian team members said is was -42C (-43.6F) this morning. I'm glad I live where it's warm.

[cwsmith]

At 77 I try to minimize my snow shoveling, but it still happens as the snow blower doesn't get everything. While the snowblower is great, there are still times when you have to lug it back or change position. Using the reverse gear is not really all that convenient. Heart attack? Well, I try to pace myself, I weigh 177 lbs at 5'11" and am looking at surgery on the 25th to remove a recently discovered renal mass. Not looking forward to it at all, especially because I have to be idle for a month. So let's hope there is no snow in that time.

Right now it's just a moderate rain here but tonight the temperature is expected to drop rapidly and everything will turn to snow, which will continue through Friday and into Saturday. I topped off the gas tank on the snow blower and checked the oil this morning.

We were originally forecast for a foot of snow, but that has been downgraded to seven inches or so. We have a drama-queen for a weather-man that's 'cried wolf' so many times that I don't pay a whole lot of attention to him, but it's always good to be prepared.

Early it was mentioned about the joys of sleeping in the snow. My wife does not like the outdoors, but back when I was single (and much younger) I spent as much time as I could outside in the winter, hiking and camping; and, I've attended three Winter Survival Schools up in the Adirondacks, all of them in February. We were allowed a sleeping bag (mine was only a 3 lb bag). Four days in the woods, always great fun, but not something I would relish today.

CWS

[Jim Frye]

Well, the storm has passed us and delivered 12.5" of snow. I cleared the last of it today and now the sun is out. Only going to be -2 tonight.

[LCHIEN]

Its back up to 32° now and there's no snow in Houston (no need to sleep in the snow)
It'll get back down to 29° overnight but no precipitation is predicted.

The grid has survived.

[cwsmith]

For all the excitement about the snowstorm forecast in our area, it didn't amount to much of anything. Last night it was mostly rain and somewhere around 1:00 the temperature dropped to freezing. This morning at 8:00 I found about two-inches of fluffy snow on top of about two-inchs of frozen snow and ice. The frozen snow is still there and isn't going anywhere until it warms up. Makes for a great base if you are a skier but not for clearing from the driveway or walk.

It took me about 30 minutes to clear our driveway and walk along with the neighbor's. Tonight it's supposed to be more snow and maybe some minus-zero temperatures.

CWS

[cwsmith]

Well today was really cold with heavy wind gusts. When I went out doors this morning the wind almost grabbed it from my hand, and it took two hands to close it. Yesterday I cleared the walks and driveways as well as de-icing the car which had about a quarter-inch of ice coating. The doors were frozen too. This morning I found the usual bank of snow the city so graciously plowed there from their street activity. They must have made at least four or five passes on our street last night with the plow and salt trucks.

Today was a beautifull day if your just looked at it. Bright blue skies and a solid base of white. Running through it with the snow blower left a nice smooth walkway, almost looks like it was paved. That frozen base isn't going to get off the drive or sidewalk until we get a day or two above freezing, which should happend in the mid-part of the new week. The end of the driveway where it's plowed in, took some effort though. The snow blower wouldn't touch it, just coming to a halt. It's like trying to grand up an ice wall. I think I spent at least a have hour with a steel shovel chopping the stuff so the blower could handle it.

So right now (7:40 PM), the sky is clear and it is quite cold, about 4-degrees here in the city, and reporting 7-degrees from the weather station.. (The local U.S weather station is up at the airport which is on a hill about seven miles away.) The wind at least has stopped. Reallly with all the hype, this storm didn't amount to much here.

CWS

[Jim Frye]

Here's what the township plows left on our street after the 12.7" of total snowfall last week. They ask homeowners with a fire hydrant in front of their homes to clear space around hydrants for fire crews. The new cordless snowblower chewed through it without pause. The old Toro two stroker would have stalled multiple times on this. I'm loving this machine more and more with each use.

[dbhost]

If I remember right, Loring is north if I-10, and I am a bit south in the NASA area, so temps can vary a few degrees, and can rain / snow / sleet / etc...

You could call it the weather economies of scale as Houston Metro is just so stinking huge...

Anyway, our forecast low here tonight is above freezing, maybe 34 deg F or something like that. Yesterday was cold, for Houston, but not cold enough overnight to leave the heater in the shop on. Meaning when I got out there to work, I had to wait while the radiator did its thing for a while.

I mentioned it elswhere, but I did something stupid, and made a LOT of cuts without dust collection, just a mask and the air cleaner / scrubber going.

I am going to need to get everything connected, shop vac up what I can, open the door and take the leaf blower to clear out the sawdust. There is a LOT of it there....

Honestly I don't think the way dust was shooting off of this not through cut, straight back and no real way to put overhead dust collection on there, I doubt without designing a custom dust hood for the SMT, I seriously doubt there was any way to capture that anyway...

And if I did, I would have to be changing bags on the DC by now.

Mind you I am weekend warrior here, and not doing a LOT of projects, most of them have been cleanup and equipment sorting since November when the bag got started.

[LCHIEN]

Actually 2 miles south of I-10 but we are on opposite sides of Houston. You are probably much closer to the coast.
Its scheduled to hit 31 or 32 tonite.

[dbhost]

I am literally directly south on the other side of Clear Lake from NASA.... So yeah, very close to the coast...