How's the weather?

It's been snowing here in Northern Rhode Island since early morning. Heavier now @ 2"/hr. There is approx. 8" accumulation. It's very windy.. but not too cold (30F). The snow is expected to taper-off around 6:00 p.m.

It’s COLD!  Only left the house to snowblower the drive, so my wife could go to work! My truck has a flat tire, and I haven’t tried to unbury or start the Mercury. Weatherman says it won’t be above freezing until late next week.  Drinking hot coco, and cruising the inter web. Found this for Rusty:



Caption reads: South Carolina has dispatched it’s snowplow!

balogh wrote:We have an unusually mild and sunny January in Central Europe, and some of our meteorology gurus claim this is the consequence of cyclons sent over the Atlantic by the cold weather in North America...sorry for you guys in the US and Canada I swear we are innocent here for all this weather anomaly

Here is a snapshot taken from my office overlooking river Danube...around 10C and sunny Thursday noon.

Nice photo of your city. We could use a little of that 10C around here. The temperature is heading for -16F -26C  here tonight.

Wow, nice view from your office window Andras! All I can see is the parking lot and the next factory on the opposite side (automotive glass manufacturing). Fortunately the glass factory is a low building, I can at least see the horizon... And sometimes the Air Force F/A-18 Hornets when they are training approaches and such.

I actually quite like to have a window in my office, most of my colleagues work in cubicles in the inner parts of the building, so only artificial light and for them and no view.

The weather here has been mild, some snow, sometimes watery sleet, but there is still snow on the ground. Roads are slippery but both of the cars have studded tires

How fortunate Kari. My home state of New Hampshire banned studded tires back in the 1950's because of damage to road surfaces.

And, I agree. Nice picture overlooking the Danube Andras. I have never lived in a big city in my life but have often thought how nice it would be to walk to a bar "Where everyone knows your name" (Cheers), or take a train/tube/subway shopping rather than a car.

Bob

Studded snows are still allowed in Pennsylvania but very uncommon these days. I don't really know why. What comes to mind is storage, additional rim expense and the hassle in switching over. It took some finding, but 5 years ago I purchased a pair for the rear. Even my auto mechanic thought I was out of my mind and the knowledge on properly using them and when you can use them were unknown or not experienced. I also discovered that these were not sold already studded. I had to purchase a capable tire for studs and then they were sent out to be studded. Studs can only be applied in new unused tires on tires capable of their installation. The use of studs is limited here in the city, they can be used from late Nov to mid week April. The projection from the tire is also limited. They can't project beyond a 1/16". They can be quite noisy on dry roads and very noisy on the highway. They were the staple for rear wheel drive vehicles in the 70's in these parts and I don't recall people getting stuck like I see nowadays. It seems like snowfalls of even 1" cripple this area anymore.


All municipal vehicles around these parts used strap on chains. Police,school buses, fire, trash trucks, ambulances etc. I haven't seen their use in nearly a decade. I always wondered why I don't see them any longer. I think laziness plays a more important factor into why the use declined opposed to the fact they're hard on the roads. The freezing winters and lack of road maintenance are more of a problem then the alternatives that allow us to get around. I was shocked to see a neighbor of mine using them last winter. It snowed Wednesday all day leaving us with 4" of wet snow which froze in short time. I essentially drove home sideways the entire ride. It certainly must've looked scary to those headed towards me. On a side note studded snows certainly made burn outs exciting at night time.

More and more people are using non-studded winter tires now that tire technology has advanced and most cars have some kind of traction control and other electronic helpers.

The studs really are bad for the road surfaces but I am so used to having them that I would probably end up in a ditch or on the median if I chose not to use them. Besides, I sort of recycle my tires nowadays. Whenever the winter tires on my Saab wear out, I have the ones from the wife's Volvo mounted on the Saab and get new tires for the Volvo. This way the "family car" will always have decent winter tires, and I want them to be studded too. Winter tires are quite expensive, a set of 205/55-16 that our cars use are typically around 650-700€ mounted. They stay good for 4 or 5 winters and "acceptable" (for my car and use) for another couple of years. It is not just the miles, they do deteriorate over time too.

In Finland winter rated tires are mandatory from November to April or March and allowed from October to April. So just about everyone has two sets of wheels for their everyday cars.  

As for the weather, around here it has been a bit chill but not near as bad as the Eastern USA is going through. Just a few degrees below freeze. The only unusual thing has been the humidity, we have had fog in the morning and the trees have a beautiful frost.

A couple of pics:

The first one I snapped when walking out of the office the other day. It is pretty dark already at 5pm.



This one is from the morning walk with the dogs, Thursday morning at around 7am.



Here is a close-up of the frost. About 3/8" "spiky" crystals:

Studded tires are not legal in WI. Only US mail carriers , school busses, and emergency vehicles can have them. Tire chains can only be used when the roads are slick. Don’t get caught with them on dry pavement.

I remember when I lived in the Middle East in the 1980-s where snow is only known in cities at high altitude above sea level, I saw people driving rather obsolete cars (British Hillman Hunter replicas of the 1960-s) who thought putting chain on only one of the driven rear wheels - to save cost and hassle of chain installation - will help. With no interlock in the differential gear on the rear axle, they were stuck even in thin snow with the unchained wheel helplessly spinning, without the driver knowing why???

Just stay warm indoors and eat plenty of maypo... Remember, open the hanger Marky.

Thanks for that, Mark. Some of us remember Maypo.
I even got the hanger reference.

Yep, they still make it.
Bob

Hello friends, here in the center of Argentina, today around 35 degrees centigrade ... we are melting!

First snow of 2018 here expecting 3-5 " all day they say !!  

 https://weather.com/weather/today/l/USNC0349:1:US

Snowbound here in West Virginia measured in feet. Well over the skids of the helicopter sent in to rescue me.



Bob

Snowbound........not kidding, got stuck trying to get out. Hence the helo.

Koi pond frozen to 2 inches deep, no flow to the pump....had to shut it off....now pipes to waterfall will freeze and break....bad mojo for me when it warms back up

we do get a few arctic very cold air events a couple of times each winter--- but this one is longer lasting below 20F for a 4 days now...14.5F this morning......... brrrr

Because of the rock soil most water feed pips to the house 3/4" schedule 40 are only a few inches deep

I had mine redone a few years back with a big rock saw and now buried 18" for the 200 Foot run

Two neighbors yesterday had to have water to house shut off becaus of gyser in yard from broken lines
We do enjoy 80~95Psi water feed from our rural co-op supplier...

The winter came kind of late this year, but it is beginning to improve now. I really like the seasonal changes, i.e. proper winters and summers. Here is what it looked like at 4:30pm today on my way home from work;

Just for balance, another heatwave for us. 39 C today and 41 (105 F) forecast tomorrow. Full day of car repairs planned today out in my workshop. I wouldn't mind just a little bit of that snow.

Update ::;  i think were done ,  about 8*9* "  not bad !!?? for NC how bout you WV and SC ? had to go to the store , milk Hot pork skins BEER GAS !!!In case the power goees 14* tonight .>> not good for me but about 80* in my room LOL Shoot for got the pics LOL ...

Wowzza Eric, you got whacked.  

About an inch here despite the picture of my "car" getting stuck.  I sent that picture to about a dozen of my friends and most of them thought the picture real.    

Ok, so what if most of my friends are in their 90's and 100's.....



Bob

It was actually quite a good picture Bob. If you squinted you could almost imagine a real MG TC stuck in the snow.

While I am in New Mexico at the moment, back in Oklahoma the low last night was 3F so all the pipes in my house froze. Luckily nothing burst and my wife and kids are fine. Everything freed up around 1PM
You
Here in NM I have been fishing for trout, the local stock pond was frozen over with 1/2” thick ice. I didn’t know that at first and made a cast thinking the ice was thin. I watched my bait bounce across the surface. The real kicker was seeing nice sized trout chase my hook as I reeled in... I had fried rice for dinner

A very rare winter scene in my frontyard this morning...it will not stay long because it is hardly below freezing temp here. Yesterday was so sunny as if it were spring already..the changing weather takes its toll on me in the shape  a fine little headache..