I have 4 space heaters for emergencies. I gave 3 of them (two oil filled plug in radiators and one 240v 30a “garage heater”) to a friend that has a house with 100% heat pump heat. Heat pumps work great, above 15F. Below that they can’t pull any heat from the outside air.
He survived last night, came home this afternoon, house was 65F, cats were happy, fitchen faucet was dripping but appeared “slushy” so he is on edge. Older house, kitchen sink is on an exterior wall, not much he can do but let it drip.
I kept ONE oil filled radiator cause I needed a backup. It’s in the barn, set to 50F, barn minisplits are useless below 15f also, but that one heater is keeping the barn at 42F. Why do I care? Well the barn is a workspace for me (not today!) and I have some plants overwintering in there that shouldn’t freeze.
I can’t believe there is 10.5 inches of snow in Lafayette, Louisiana. My cousin lives there. Thirty years ago I attended a wedding in January in Lafayette. There was green grass and leaves on the trees. Temperatures in the low-mid 60s. Nothing more than a light jacket was needed. Incredible to think that the city is covered with snow now.
My oldest is at university in a southern US coastal city (on the Atlantic, not the Gulf). The bridges over the marshes, islands, and waterways were all closed earlier tonight due to ice, and now this.
Not 10.5 inches (yet) but crazy for the locale.
Historic.
Inhabitants are trapped, and not for flooding or high tide that are common and can be navigated with casual watercraft.
It’s too bad this story has been swept off the national news due to politics.
Those people need help and they need it now.
Unimaginable loss and suffering. More than likely 50K homeless people when you add up the residents of the lost structures. Most of them don’t have another mansion to go to.
Brother-in-law lives in south Georgia about 80 miles north of Tallahassee FL. He has about 4 inches of snow tonight which is more than we have had in the South Plains of the Texas panhandle area for this entire season.
Our aunt lives in Greenville SC and was getting snow tonight. Even she is probably going to have more snow tonight than we have had all season. She isn’t a fan of snow because she grew up in North Dakota.
My current working conditions. 2 space heaters, steam humidifier, and the HVAC is working properly and still can’t get my underground office to a tolerable temperature…
Yes-but we were living in AZ by then so didn’t experience the “White Blight”, Thankfully our friends/family suffered no loss of life, caused mostly by hypothermia inside/out of residences and car accidents. The same friends I mentioned didn’t have power for more than a week in 2021, more of a loss than during recent hurricanes. They both bought generators afterward.
Part of the issue in Texas is that electricity sales were deregulated in the state 25 years ago and the state has a separate power grid, mainly because is so fossil fuel rich plus loads of generated wind/solar power, from the other upper 48. It’s managed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). The state has a complicated tri-parti system of generating electricity.
Companies offer power for sale to residents/businesses but they don’t have to generate the electricity they sell. One of our friends changes power companies twice a year, dependent on which are offering rates that are the cheapest for seniors!! Sounds irresponsible but it’s true!!
We are lucky as our little spot isn’t part of the ERCOT system. There is a part of the Texas panhandle that is serviced by Xcel Energy and part of the national grid set up. So we are not subject to the ups and downs of ERCOT like the rest of Texas. Our area tends to have issues during the spring and early summer when the tornadoes hit the area. We have a generator for those occasions and Xcel is pretty good at getting the area back up during these events.
My daughter is at UNCW (Wilmington NC), and we’ve seen snow living in Indiana but many of her southern friends haven’t. She drove her friends to the beach last night to do snow angels in the snow on the sand.
The Hughes fire about 50 miles (80 km) north of Los Angeles further taxed firefighters in the region who have managed to bring two major fires burning in the metropolitan area largely under control. In just a few hours on Wednesday the new fire grew to more than half the size of the Eaton Fire, one of the two monster conflagrations that have ravaged the Los Angeles area.
While I’m not on the ground, yes, the photos & video I have seen say this is correct. City is at a standstill cause they don’t have snow equipment (not the city/areas fault cause they never get snow!)
My cousin lives there. Thirty years ago I attended a wedding in January in Lafayette. There was green grass and leaves on the trees. Temperatures in the low-mid 60s. Nothing more than a light jacket was needed. Incredible to think that the city is covered with snow now.
