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.
  • #141
turbo-1 said:
I suggest that instead of additional insulation, you consider wrapping that section of pipe with a thermostatically-controlled heat strip.
When I did a little modification of my incoming water line, I noticed that the copper line was really starting to get deteriorated for being too warm. The heat tape was wrapped without any space between the wraps. I replaced the copper and heat tape but this time with a shorter one that just runs parallel to the pipe that was suggested by the installation instructions. I should have know this since when I was working at a chemical plant, we would make heat tape runs of hundreds of feet parallel to the lines.

In short, too much heat can be bad.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
  • #142
dlgoff said:
When I did a little modification of my incoming water line, I noticed that the copper line was really starting to get deteriorated for being too warm. The heat tape was wrapped without any space between the wraps. I replaced the copper and heat tape but this time with a shorter one that just runs parallel to the pipe that was suggested by the installation instructions. I should have know this since when I was working at a chemical plant, we would make heat tape runs of hundreds of feet parallel to the lines.

In short, too much heat can be bad.


that's why hot water lines always freeze (and break) first just about always in colder weather before the cold water lines---the heat from warm water changes the copper


"In short, too much heat can be bad."--but I do like summer a lot more than winter!
 
Last edited:
  • #143
Plastic piping and we are talking only about one cold line which can freeze, but thanks for the remarks.
 
  • #144
I just got back from a Ski trip in Colorado where it stayed below 20 F at the base of the mountains the whole trip (so mostly single digit skiing). I was watching the sun rise monday and the thermometer stayed at 0 F until an hour and a half after the sun peeked over the mountains.

Being from Houston, I'm not used to anything like that.
 
  • #145
Borek said:
Plastic piping and we are talking only about one cold line which can freeze, but thanks for the remarks.

is that your main feed line from the street?


In the way of plastic, here in my area (Illinois), the plumbing store used to sell a plastic pipe product line called Qest, and it advertised as being 'freeze proof'---I don't know if they even make it any more---but the pipe itself could stands multiple rounds of freezing and thawing--the connections though, I had trouble with. It was gray and flexible---and if I remember it was a polypropylene.
 
  • #146
It's nice and sunny here, although the temps are in the 20's F. We had snow showers yesterday, and last night the low temp was about 10 F.

We seem to be doing better than these folks:
Heavy snow, ice bury southern Plains, cut power
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100129/ap_on_re_us/us_winter_storm
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #147
Weird weather! Yesterday was in the 40's with light snow - today we have just managed to get up to 10 deg F with 20-30 mph winds with higher gusts. Brrrr. In normal winters we don't have fronts moving through in rapid succession, and once an arctic high settles over us, the winds subside and the weather is crisp, clear, and calm for days at a time.

There has been some discussion of global warming locally, and a nay-sayer said that last winter wasn't warm and instead of citing temperature trends (the logical thing to do) he offered as "proof" the fact that Presque Isle got 200" of snow last winter. Here, winter temperatures are negatively correlated with snowfall - a fact that seems to elude the "experts" when they want to delude the public, for whatever reason. The warmer our winters, the more snow we get.

That has been common knowledge among farmers, wood-cutters, etc forever. In fact, when I was a kid, there was a common belief that if we had a "green" Christmas (no snow on the ground) the elderly would die in greater numbers over the winter. No snow=colder than normal and houses around here 50 years ago were very poorly insulated and drafty, usually with single-pane windows. "Green Christmas, full graveyard."
 
Last edited:
  • #148
Our boys are home from school today. The county canceled it early (last night as about 6ish). We've yet to see ANY snow (it's nearly noon). Blockhead Southerners. I can't believe I've had a baby with a Tennessee birth certificate. At least they know their grits and sweet-tea.

Thus far:
Soundly defeated M in Monopoly.
Did some work-related emailing... and now goofing off on PF.
Soon to come:
We have lunch.
P gets a trolley-ride (and hence little E gets her outdoor time).
 
  • #149
It's 16F outside and snowing. :frown:
 
  • #150
Just above zero C, so we are thawning a little bit, somewhere between 5-10 cm of new snow in the last two dys. But we are to expect new wave of low temperatures.
 
  • #151
physics girl phd said:
Our boys are home from school today. The county canceled it early (last night as about 6ish). We've yet to see ANY snow (it's nearly noon). Blockhead Southerners. I can't believe I've had a baby with a Tennessee birth certificate. At least they know their grits and sweet-tea.

Thus far:
Soundly defeated M in Monopoly.
Did some work-related emailing... and now goofing off on PF.
Soon to come:
We have lunch.
P gets a trolley-ride (and hence little E gets her outdoor time).

so, when school's out, there's an EMP
 
  • #152
Correction:

18° F
Feels Like: 4° F
Wind: From NW at 17mph gusting to 27mph

I just walked down to the river and the wind was blowing rather strongly at about 20 mph. It felt less than 4° F.
 
  • #153
Harsh weather for the birds. They can tolerate low temps when there is little wind, simply by fluffing up and lofting their feathers and keeping their feet tucked close to their bellies. Food was running a bit low, so I took our more seeds and suet for the chickadees. The 'dees are hitting the suet feeder pretty well, but they are being blocked out of the seed-feeder by the goldfinches. As soon as the goldfinches notice other birds at the seed-feeder they know that it has been re-filled and they swarm it and hog all the perches.

I guess we have already hit our high for the day (10 deg F) because it is cooling back down, and the winds are very strong. When the high has moved in, perhaps we'll be back to a more normal winter weather pattern (below zero every night, highs below freezing every day). I hope so. I don't want any more blizzards like the last two winters.
 
  • #154
Love this brisk cold, with clear sky's. The stars are going to be nice tonight.
 
  • #155
hypatia said:
Love this brisk cold, with clear sky's. The stars are going to be nice tonight.
And tonight's full moon will be the biggest and brightest of the year. This full moon coincides with the moon's closest distance to Earth (perigee), so it will be marginally larger in appearance than other full moons this year. Glad there are no off-shore storms rampaging toward our coast because with the moon at perigee, we get astronomical high tides and if there is a coincident storm-surge, we have coastal flooding.
 
  • #156
The night before last my heater broke down. It had to be replaced and that set me back 7 grand. My wife and kids sat huddled around the fireplace while the workers installed the new heater. They finished at 11 in the evening last night and left. The new heater works, but not well. It never gets above 55 in the house now. They'll be by to fix it anytime now. It's 21 F right now.
 
  • #157
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/no-power%3F-warming-center-open-in-redford

Yep that's where I live. Power came back on, now its off again. I'm so sorry that I got upset with my Hubby when he bought a second generator.:redface:
 
Last edited by a moderator:
  • #158
jimmysnyder said:
The night before last my heater broke down. It had to be replaced and that set me back 7 grand. My wife and kids sat huddled around the fireplace while the workers installed the new heater. They finished at 11 in the evening last night and left. The new heater works, but not well. It never gets above 55 in the house now. They'll be by to fix it anytime now. It's 21 F right now.
I hope you have some space heaters!
 
  • #159
Tell me about it.

I have had to wear long pants this winter.
 
  • #160
Evo said:
I hope you have some space heaters!
No, just the fireplace. However, they came and fixed the heater today so the place is warming up. We're up to 62 now and we keep the thermostat at 65 so we'll be toasty soon enough. Thanks for your concern.
 
  • #161
The Washington DC area is going to get 20 - 30 inches of snow this weekend.
It started at 10 am this morning and is expected to end around 10 pm Saturday night. We're going to have high winds and whiteout conditions throughout much of the night. Yeeha.
 
  • #162
Borg said:
The Washington DC area is going to get 20 - 30 inches of snow this weekend.
It started at 10 am this morning and is expected to end around 10 pm Saturday night. We're going to have high winds and whiteout conditions throughout much of the night. Yeeha.
I've read about it, I hope it's not as bad as they're predicting.

We got hit yesterday with a heavy, wet snow, but with temperature hovering around freezing, it was a delight over the snow we got with temps near zero.

It took me a few tries to pull into my parking space due to the amount of snow yesterday. We're supposed to get more snow tonight through Monday with temps much colder. :frown: I will be leaving in a bit to hit the store for necessities.
 
  • #163
It is really warm here. I don't know the exact temperature but it makes this unshredable:
100_1170.jpg

snow is too grabby and makes the pipe stick.
 
  • #164
Evo said:
I've read about it, I hope it's not as bad as they're predicting.

We got hit yesterday with a heavy, wet snow, but with temperature hovering around freezing, it was a delight over the snow we got with temps near zero.

It took me a few tries to pull into my parking space due to the amount of snow yesterday. We're supposed to get more snow tonight through Monday with temps much colder. :frown: I will be leaving in a bit to hit the store for necessities.

It was. We got about 24 inches where I live and there are some places west of here that got closer to 40. We finally got a plow through here this morning but, he dumped a five foot wall of snow at the end of our driveway. Snow is predicted again on Tuesday night. Time to shovel again...
 
  • #165
Apparently the area around Dulles Airport in northern Va got 32 inches of snow! Reagan National Airport reported about 18 inches.

We didn't get any snow - just got cool weather - ~16 F.
 
  • #166
We're inching up toward 15 deg, though the north wind is brutal. I'll take the arctic high pressure instead of snow any day, though. I can always bundle up for it - heavy gloves, Air Force helmet liner to protect the ears, etc.
 
  • #167
We (N.E. OH/W. PA) caught the northern edge of the front and averaged 12" to 20" across the region.
 
  • #168
Phil (the large rodent) says 6 weeks until spring--I just checked--he speaks the tooth
 
  • #169
we're supposed to get a 4-8 inch snow tonight and tomorrow in Illinois --then its supposed to move off to the east (maybe the northeast again)
 
  • #170
Warm and sunny here no sign of snow since before christmas - unfortunately we are also trying to hold a winter olympics !
http://www.nbcolympics.com/mm/photo/sports/general/40/57/10/405710_m03.jpg
 
  • #171
mgb_phys said:
Warm and sunny here no sign of snow since before christmas - unfortunately we are also trying to hold a winter olympics !
http://www.nbcolympics.com/mm/photo/sports/general/40/57/10/405710_m03.jpg

is that snow that they're trucking in?
 
  • #172
They're bringing in snow to make the special terrains for the xtreme sports. Practice time will be strictly limited, to keep the courses in the best shape possible for actual competition.
 
  • #173
I am wellinformed guys :biggrin: I am happy to realize that I am not liveing in a desert right now. I like snow to ski on
 
  • #174
Borg said:
It was. We got about 24 inches where I live and there are some places west of here that got closer to 40. We finally got a plow through here this morning but, he dumped a five foot wall of snow at the end of our driveway. Snow is predicted again on Tuesday night. Time to shovel again...
Aaaarrgh, that reminds me of when I lived in upstate NY. I had a contract every winter for a private plower that would follow the street plow and he'd plow out the wall created by the street plow. It only took one storm for me to realize that this was an excellent idea, I lived in an area that got lake effect snow.
 
  • #175
Evo said:
Aaaarrgh, that reminds me of when I lived in upstate NY. I had a contract every winter for a private plower that would follow the street plow and he'd plow out the wall created by the street plow. It only took one storm for me to realize that this was an excellent idea, I lived in an area that got lake effect snow.
I managed to catch the plow on Sunday morning and got him to clear out what was left.
rewebster said:
we're supposed to get a 4-8 inch snow tonight and tomorrow in Illinois --then its supposed to move off to the east (maybe the northeast again)
Unfortunately, we might get another foot from this one on Tuesday night through Wednesday. I really didn't think that I needed a snow blower in DC but, I might have to rethink that.
 

Similar threads

Mall Madness: Why Do They Stay Open During Hazardous Weather?
2
Replies
64
Views
14K

Hot Threads

Recent Insights

Back
Top