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.
  • #106
Finally, no snow here!

In central southern England, our temperature went up to around 45F (7C) yesterday, and overnight there was heavy rain, which has washed away the remaining snow (and left large puddles everywhere). Now we can get back to moaning about the rain again.
 
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  • #107
Loren Booda said:
Me and my baby got Popsicle toes.

What flavor?



When God gave out rhythm
He Sure was good to you
You can add, subtract, multiply and divide by two

I know today's your birthday and I did not buy no rose
But I wrote this song, instead, and I call it "Popsicle toes."

Popsicle toes
Popsicle toes are always froze
Popsicle toes
You're so brave to expose
All those Popsicle toes

You must have been Mr. Olympian
With all that amplitude;
How come you always load your Pentax when I am in the nude?
We can have a birthday party and you can wear your birthday clothes,
Then we can hit the floor and go explore those Popsicle toes

You've got the finest North America
This sailor ever saw
I like to feel your warm Brazil and touch your Panama.
But your Tierra del Fuegos are nearly always froze
We've got to seesaw 'til we finally thaw those Popsicle toes.
 
  • #108
It was between 0-5 F tonight here. It was not snowing since I posted pictures, but the snow from the street was removed.
 
  • #109
Heat wave! We just broke through 40 deg F and climbing.
 
  • #110
So you are approaching stage two: flood.
 
  • #111
I live in Orlando. The cold finally let up yesterday, but too late to save the Citrus crop for most of the farmers.

Right now, it is in the low 70s and I have the French doors open to the porch to let the house warm up.
 
  • #112
The low in Bangor was 25 deg F today. A year ago, the low was -24 deg F. A difference of 49 degrees.
 
  • #113
sas3 said:
What flavor?



When God gave out rhythm
He Sure was good to you
You can add, subtract, multiply and divide by two

I know today's your birthday and I did not buy no rose
But I wrote this song, instead, and I call it "Popsicle toes."

Popsicle toes
Popsicle toes are always froze
Popsicle toes
You're so brave to expose
All those Popsicle toes

You must have been Mr. Olympian
With all that amplitude;
How come you always load your Pentax when I am in the nude?
We can have a birthday party and you can wear your birthday clothes,
Then we can hit the floor and go explore those Popsicle toes

You've got the finest North America
This sailor ever saw
I like to feel your warm Brazil and touch your Panama.
But your Tierra del Fuegos are nearly always froze
We've got to seesaw 'til we finally thaw those Popsicle toes.

Wonderful. Is that the jazz version? One advantage we Northerners have.
 
  • #114
Quote from a winter storm warning I received this morning:

... TODAY'S STORM WILL PRODUCE UP TO 3 FEET OF SNOW IN THE SIERRA ABOVE 7000 FEET. AMOUNTS OF A FOOT OR MORE ARE LIKELY IN THE LOWER ELEVATIONS OF THE TAHOE BASIN NORTHWARD INTO PLUMAS AND WESTERN LASSEN COUNTIES... WITH UP TO 6 INCHES ALONG THE FOOTHILLS OF THE EASTERN SLOPES OF THE SIERRA.

* AFTER TODAY'S STORM... LIGHT TO MODERATE ACCUMULATIONS ARE POSSIBLE IN THE SIERRA TUESDAY WITH SEVERAL FEET OF ADDITIONAL ACCUMULATION WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. ...

I live at elevation 6,900 feet -- looks like I can expect 7-10 feet of snow over the next few days. :smile: Typically we'll only get 1-3 feet out of a single storm. This will be the biggest dump in the last two years if it lives up to expectations.
 
  • #115
I'd like to see some pictures of this Dembadon. Can you even get out to get pictures with 7-10 feet of snow?
 
  • #116
dlgoff said:
I'd like to see some pictures of this Dembadon. Can you even get out to get pictures with 7-10 feet of snow?

Absolutely! I'll post a few over the next few days.

Edit: We'd be lucky to get 10' though. I'm not expecting much over 6'. NOAA says:

A STRONG STORM SYSTEM WILL REACH THE SIERRA THIS MORNING...WITH
HEAVY SNOW AND HIGHER WINDS AFFECTING THE MOUNTAINS FROM LATE
THIS MORNING THROUGH THIS EVENING. AS THE COLD FRONT MOVES
THROUGH THE SIERRA...SNOW FALL RATES OF 2 INCHES PER HOUR OR MORE
WILL MAKE TRAVEL DIFFICULT WITH POSSIBLE WHITEOUT CONDITIONS. ...

Most reports (weather.com, noaa.com, local news) claim that there will be constant snow; 80%-100% chance of precipitation. Storms like this were common in the 80s, not so much anymore.
 
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  • #117
10 feet snow picture preview:

deep_snow.png
 
  • #118
Borek said:
10 feet snow picture preview:

deep_snow.png

:smile::smile::smile:
 
  • #119
That's not exactly accurate. Once the windows are blocked, it's hard to see much white. Shades of gray, though.

LivingRoom.jpg
 
  • #120
From my back deck -- 30 minutes after it started snowing. 'bout .5" accumulation.
 

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  • #121
Hey turbo-1, does it ever get this cold in Maine? It sure does in the People's Republic.
http://failblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/epic-fail-polar-bear-win.jpg"
 
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  • #122
We had 0 deg F tonight, more like 10 now with beautiful Sun.

Seems like I may have to buy more firewood, last 4 weeks consumed more than 8 weeks share.
 
  • #123
Last night got down to 0 deg F and tonight looks like the same or colder, then Sunday a warm front rolls through with rain. Crap!
 
  • #124
My kale is still alive - even after several nights at 0F last week!
 
  • #125
Astronuc said:
My kale is still alive - even after several nights at 0F last week!
Wow! I may have to pot some and put it in the greenhouse to see how long we can harvest it.
 
  • #126
Tahoe got 5 feet of fresh pow, which is insane riding, and I get rained on. The slopes are going to be absolute shyte for some time until they get the snow machines started up again. Damn you mother nature.
 
  • #127
Still nights below -20 deg C, but it is about to change to minus few. According to the forecast pressure is going to drop down by 50 hPa in next 50 hours - that is 37 mm Hg. :zzz:

Meteopaths (is such a word in English?) are going to die, all of them simultaneously.
 
  • #128
The temperature (night-time mind you) is 45 deg F and rising with high winds and torrential rains. We've probably already gotten 2-3 inches since mid-afternoon, with flood watches in place over most of the state.
 
  • #129
Quite the opposite here, we woke up to -15 deg F. Unfortunately that was enough for the main water pipe to freeze, we have no water at the moment. Chances that the pipe burst are minimal, ice is most likely only in a short vertical part between ground and the house - enough to block.

I have put a heater next to it and we are waiting. It is isolated with 10 or 15 cm of rock wool, apparently when it gets that cold that's not enough. Trick is, now the heat has to penetrate the isolation, so we have to be patient.
 
  • #130
It's been around -25 °C (-15 °F or so) for a while here in Finland. It should be getting warmer later this week, up to -5 °C even, and it's also going to snow some more.
 
  • #131
Borek said:
Quite the opposite here, we woke up to -15 deg F. Unfortunately that was enough for the main water pipe to freeze, we have no water at the moment. Chances that the pipe burst are minimal, ice is most likely only in a short vertical part between ground and the house - enough to block.

I have put a heater next to it and we are waiting. It is isolated with 10 or 15 cm of rock wool, apparently when it gets that cold that's not enough. Trick is, now the heat has to penetrate the isolation, so we have to be patient.
I hope you have water again.
 
  • #132
Ice in pipe melted after about 3 hours, I have blocked ventillation opening that is close to the pipe, hopefully that'll be enough. It is already -18 deg C (around 0 deg F), it will be even colder tonight, but probably not as cold as yesterday.
 
  • #133
Relatively cold here too, so close to the sea -5C at maximum today, mid twenties, -10C or colder expected tonite. But these are records for this area. However, it did not stop Enrunwen to go to her social obligations by bike.

Success with the water Borek.
 
  • #134
Freezing pipes are nothing new here.

House was poorly isolated from the very beginning. Up to now we had similar problems twice, different pipes were frozen each time, with unexpected effects like only hot water in some taps. Two years ago we have added additional layer of isolation below the house, so now pipes that go "inside" the floor but over the isolation are safe. However, that also means that empty space below the isolation is much colder (we are not heating it from the top), and the pipe that got frozen this time is just in this free space - so I was not entirely surprised by what have happened. I couldn't decide to add isolation just in case - if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

Now I know it IS broken. I have to remember to add some additional isolation to the pipe in spring or summer.
 
  • #135
I suggest that instead of additional insulation, you consider wrapping that section of pipe with a thermostatically-controlled heat strip. I don't know if you have access to them, but you can buy them around here, and they do a pretty good job. They only turn on when the temperature falls below a pre-set level, so they don't consume that much electricity. You can get cheaper resistive heater-strips with no thermostat, but you end up paying for extra electrical consumption whenever you "guess" you should plug it in and when you forget to unplug it.

If you want to Google the stuff, it's often called "pipe wrap heat tape" or similar in the US.
 
  • #136
Thanks, will look into it.
 
  • #137
Borek said:
Thanks, will look into it.
Good luck. Places that sell heat tape often sell neoprene insulation. It looks like a pipe made of foam, with a split down one side. After you wrap the pipe with heat tape, pop the insulation over the wrapped pipe and seal the split with duct tape. It increases the effectiveness of the heat tape and saves you more money. Around here, there are lots of people who heat primarily or entirely with wood, and their cellars are cold and uninsulated, so we are pretty dependent on heat tape and neoprene pipe insulation to keep the water flowing.

I had to install extra rigid foam insulation on one wall of my cellar. We leave the floor of the house uninsulated so some heat gets down there, but we needed some extra help keeping the cellar warm enough so that our garlic and squash don't freeze.
 
  • #138
It's -7 C right now in here in Croatia, which is pretty cold, but still okay, since we've had a one-week period of an average -15 C a few weeks ago. You get used to it.
 
  • #139
Cold weather and potholes--

boy, hitting a pothole at ~65mph compared to ~30mph gives a whole new meaning of 'shocks' to the car. Another alignment for the car in April or May
 
  • #140
radou said:
It's -7 C right now in here in Croatia, which is pretty cold, but still okay, since we've had a one-week period of an average -15 C a few weeks ago. You get used to it.
Wow! I thought I was gone a while, but this is a blast from the past. You been hibernating, radou?
 

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