Will the Arctic Cold Front Cause Severe Weather and Damage to Crops?

In summary, the weather is gradually changing from cold to warmer temperatures. The forecast for tomorrow predicts that there will be winds between 20 and 25 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. This will create significant blowing and drifting of snow with near blizzard conditions possible at times. Visibilities will be reduced to below one half mile, making roads near impossible to travel on. The cold wind chill values will be widespread, ranging from 20 to 30 below zero. There is a potential for life-threatening situations due to the dangerously cold temperatures. Additionally, my aunt and uncle own a large strawberry farm and citrus orchard near Tampa, FL and stand to lose the entire crop due to the hard long freeze.
  • #736
Jimmy Snyder said:
Right now it's in between freezing rain and snow. I'm sure the Eskimos have a word for it. My leaves haven't even turned brown yet.
Our leaves turned brown and fell off long ago, which is good if heavy, wet snow is coming. It won't save us from power outages if the snow is heavy, and this is usually the next-to-last road to have power restored in an outage. The power company concentrates on restoring electricity to as many customers at a time as possible, and this road is sparsely populated.
 
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  • #737
snow_oct.jpg


Woke up to that this morning. Does this mean winter has moved up a few months? We usually don't get snow until xmas.
 
  • #738
My wife and some friends of hers are on a pilgrimage to Salem today. Something they wanted to do for Halloween. Last night I told her that some sloppy, slick weather was on the way, so they should leave their car home and just ride their brooms. It was an off-hand comment that took her by surprise, and she started calling the other women to pass on my suggestion. They all seemed to have fun with it (hoping for no secret curses!)
 
  • #739
We're apparently looking at 6 to 12 inches of snow.

The last time we remember snow in October was 23 years ago in 1988. Apparently some areas may set a record for snow fall in October.

This seems to be consistent with the level of precipitation we've been getting this year. We had a two or three week dryspell in July. But since Irene, we have had way too much rain. There are still areas that haven't fully recovered from the flooding.
 
  • #740
I don't know how much snow we'll get. Things are still 'way too unsettled. I remember trick-or-treating in the snow several times when I was a kid, but not trudging through a foot of the stuff.

One year, the creep who ran the local "visitor cabins" business in town gave all of us kids popsicles. We were frozen to the bone in our makeshift costumes, and we either had to throw away the popsicles or eat them. Certainly couldn't put them in our little candy-bags to melt and ruin our treats. What a sick old guy.
 
  • #741
We've passed 6 inches. Many trees are still with leaves, and the snow is wet, so we've got lots of branches breaking and trees falling over in our area. There are frequent interruptions in voltage/electricity, but we're more fortunate than others who have lost power ostensibly due to downed lines or trees on power lines.

I shoveled the driveway, and kicked or shook trees to know the snow off.
 
  • #742
Astronuc said:
We've passed 6 inches. Many trees are still with leaves, and the snow is wet, so we've got lots of branches breaking and trees falling over in our area. There are frequent interruptions in voltage/electricity, but we're more fortunate than others who have lost power ostensibly due to downed lines or trees on power lines.

I shoveled the driveway, and kicked or shook trees to know the snow off.

I just spoke with a friend in the Poconos - not going anywhere this weekend.
 
  • #743
WhoWee said:
I just spoke with a friend in the Poconos - not going anywhere this weekend.
I have to travel tomorrow.

Apparently the last time we had such a storm was October 1987, however I was living in Texas at the time.


I'm hearing more branches snapping.
 
  • #744
Hope it's not as bad as some of the storms we've had here, the storm of 2002 damaged or destroyed ~500,000 trees just in Kansas City alone! After everything melted, it was surreal, it looked like a nuclear wasteland. Only stumps of huge trees lefts, trees split in two, or completely stripped of branches, a very sad time. You can still see the evidence from weird regrowth from the trees that survived.

Hope all of you fair better.
 
  • #745
Astronuc said:
I have to travel tomorrow.

Apparently the last time we had such a storm was October 1987, however I was living in Texas at the time.

I'm hearing more branches snapping.

Doesn't look very promising.
http://www.flightstats.com/go/Airport/delays.do?airportCode=PHL
 
  • #746
Wow, you all have my sincerest condolences.


(We had a high of 91 F here today :smile:)
 
  • #747
WhoWee said:
Doesn't look very promising.
http://www.flightstats.com/go/Airport/delays.do?airportCode=PHL
I'm not flying through PHL fortunately. I'll usually fly out of EWR, or airports further north or east.

The trees in the yard across the street has been losing branches all day. Some or our fir trees have lost a few branches from high up. I'm going to have to remove them. The maple tree in the backyard lost a few more large branches. Fortunately none of them fell on the neighbor's cars. One fell between one car and the shed next door. :rolleyes:
Evo said:
Hope it's not as bad as some of the storms we've had here, the storm of 2002 damaged or destroyed ~500,000 trees just in Kansas City alone! After everything melted, it was surreal, it looked like a nuclear wasteland. Only stumps of huge trees lefts, trees split in two, or completely stripped of branches, a very sad time. You can still see the evidence from weird regrowth from the trees that survived.

Hope all of you fair better.
I think there are hundreds or thousands of trees in the NY metro area that are being damaged.

Ever since we had a severe spring storm, the utility and local governments have been trimming trees along utility rights of way.
 
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  • #748
My friends near Pittsfield were unable to make it home from the market, second time in twenty years they could not make it up the mountain. They had six inches on the ground before they left for food. Lots of fun.

Rhody...
 
  • #749
rhody said:
My friends near Pittsfield were unable to make it home from the market, second time in twenty years they could not make it up the mountain. They had six inches on the ground before they left for food. Lots of fun.

Rhody...
The local governments and law enforcement discourage people from going out. Usually, they declare an emergency so that travel is restricted. Some people don't listen, then get into accidents. I saw a wrecker with a crunched SUV pass by the house. He passed another wrecker with a Mercedes on it. I couldn't tell if the Merc was damaged.

There was a young person, a 22 yr-old, who recently graduated, who lost control of his car and was killed early today. What a tragic waste. :frown:
 
  • #750
Are the salt trucks out? People just don't realize how dangerous this slushy stuff can be.
 
  • #751
Evo said:
Are the salt trucks out? People just don't realize how dangerous this slushy stuff can be.
The plows have been out once. In our area, they've declared a state of emergency, so folks are supposed to stay home. The objective is to prevent accidents and keep the roads clean. The roads are very bad because they are above freezing and the air temp is only 30F. The snow was a heavy wet snow for about 5 hrs, then is turned to a granular, powdery snow or sleet, and now it's back to small flakes, and the snowfall is not as heavy.

They may wait until the snow stops to plow again.

We've got about 8 inches, and about 15 miles north of us, they have 11 inches. Lots of trees are down, and about 85,000 people are without power, which is not fun at night, and without heat.
 
  • #752
Why is every normal variation in the weather these days a "national state of emergency?"

When I was young, it snowed, we shoveled. It rained and flooded, we sandbagged. We had multiple days above 100, power outages, water outages, thunderstorms, gust fronts, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

When it subsided, we cleaned up and moved on.

A couple of things we did and didn't do: We didn't build on a flood plain, or if we did, we built on stilts. If we built in tornado alley, we had an underground shelter, and didn't put tons of money into the house. In hurricane country, we chopped down any trees which posed a threat to the house, and kept our cars garaged.

We stockpiled water in jugs. Food in cans. We had a gas-powered chainsaw, and a block and tackle for clearing debris. Some of us had a generator, and we'd sometimes gather in one person's house for comfort because they could run A/C. We'd bring food and water as a way of saying "thank you." We'd work at night if the heat during the day was too much.

I recall one summer during a power outage we merely stayed wet in cotton clothing just to beat the daytime heat for three days until power was restored. In the old days, they did the same thing, but simply sweated into their clothing.

Every variation in the weather is normal. It's happened millions of times over the billions of years. Since when did normal become a crisis or a disaster? "Disasters" are normal. If people aren't prepared, it's Darwin's fault.

Back to the question: Since when did normal become a crisis or a disaster? Since media became involved? Since people lost the skill/art of basic human survival? Since people figured out how to scam the government for big bucks to cover what they were too lazy to prevent with a few simple and cost-effective measures ahead of time?

Call me stupid, but when I couldn't afford a tree guy, I watched one for two days then bought a pair of spurs and cut my own. "Sacrilege!" you say. Guess what his training was? He watched a guy for a day or two, and started doing the same.

Have we lost the basic survival skilled called "self-sufficiency?"

What's going on, here?
 
  • #753
DoggerDan said:
What's going on, here?

Welcome to the 21st Century.
 
  • #754
Borek said:
Welcome to the 21st Century.

So everyone needs their hand held these days?
 
  • #755
DoggerDan said:
So everyone needs their hand held these days?

Stick with your buddy, and hold hands as you cross the street.
 
  • #756
Supposed to snow tonight and tomorrow morning.
 
  • #757
Local towns have opened up fields where folks can dump branches, and I saw lots of people hauling branches in pickup trucks and/or on trailers. I even saw branches/trees on power lines - still - after 6 days. And there are still people without power. Most of the snow has melted. I've go a bit of cleaning up to do myself. Two of our trees lost one or more branches.

It's been below freezing the last several nights, but 40s or 50s during the day, and it's supposed to warm up to the 60s during the next couple of days.
 
  • #758
I finally got my garlic in the ground today. I didn't want to wait any longer in case we got more wild/cold weather. There are still too many leaves on my fruit trees to make pruning them viable (visibility problems), but that has to be done soon, in part to address storm damage and properly balance the trees before winter. Lost branches due to the heavy wet snow.

Central Maine Power sent line-crews to NH to help restore power, and now they are headed to CT to help out there. As of Friday, there were still over 300K customers without power in CT. CMP is volunteering 30 two-man repair trucks with buckets, so that should help.
 
  • #759
I saw an out-of-territory crew in our area this morning. I couldn't tell if they were from out of state, or just a neighboring utility.

There is still a lot of work to do around our area.
 
  • #760
Astronuc said:
I saw an out-of-territory crew in our area this morning. I couldn't tell if they were from out of state, or just a neighboring utility.

There is still a lot of work to do around our area.
I believe that there was a crew form Kansas City that went there; KCPL.
 
  • #761
It's not cold, but cool enough for rain. YEA! It's been so long since I've heard thunder.
 
  • #762
dlgoff said:
It's not cold, but cool enough for rain. YEA! It's been so long since I've heard thunder.
You've got thunder?? No fair, I've just got rain. :frown:

Make sure our chicken child, Roger, stays warm and dry.
 
  • #763
Evo said:
You've got thunder?? No fair, I've just got rain. :frown:

Make sure our chicken child, Roger, stays warm and dry.
Well, only three of four lightning bolts ... wait, there's another.

I closed Rogers windows, put in a higher wattage bulb, and adjusted the lights timer about a week ago when the temps starting to dipping to freezing. When it starts to get really cold, she'll have a heat lamp and a water heater in her house.

A happy Roger will give us good eggs.
 
  • #764
dlgoff said:
Well, only three of four lightning bolts ... wait, there's another.

I closed Rogers windows, put in a higher wattage bulb, and adjusted the lights timer about a week ago when the temps starting to dipping to freezing. When it starts to get really cold, she'll have a heat lamp and a water heater in her house.

A happy Roger will give us good eggs.
:!) You are so good to her!

I can not thank you enough for the delivery of Roger eggs! I have been eating grits and Roger eggs every day. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
 
  • #765
Evo said:
I have been eating grits and Roger eggs every day.
How have you been preparing them? Lately I've been using my steamer and poaching two, covering with salsa and having with wheat toast. YUM
 
  • #766
dlgoff said:
How have you been preparing them? Lately I've been using my steamer and poaching two, covering with salsa and having with wheat toast. YUM
Over easy in butter. I wish I had some salsa.

I think I'm going to make a quiche.

I wish I had asked you to include a feather. I've never had a chicken before. I'm pretty excited.
 
  • #767
Evo said:
I wish I had asked you to include a feather. I've never had a chicken before. I'm pretty excited.
I've haven't seen her shed a feather since the encounter with the fox. And since there's no roosters, she's slick and shinny.

BTW. This was a little while ago for Roger and I.

attachment.php?attachmentid=40762&stc=1&d=1320712962.jpg
 

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  • #768
dlgoff said:
I've haven't seen her shed a feather since the encounter with the fox. And since there's no roosters, she's slick and shinny.

BTW. This was a little while ago for Roger and I.

attachment.php?attachmentid=40762&stc=1&d=1320712962.jpg
Good grief, hope she's not afraid of thunder!

Looks like that won't get here until 9pm.
 
  • #769
White roofs in the morning, but they are wet and steaming now.
 
  • #770
Wednesday night and yesterday morning, 15 cm (6 inches) of snow fell here. This morning, I had a 25 minute walk at -16 C ( 3 F).
 
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