The Weather Thread

[JeremyJ]

As I get older, I become more and more fascinated by weather. I don't know why. I'm going to end up as one of those old guys sitting on his front porch and talking about the weather with the neighbors. Given the widespread storms happening right now, let me know what your weather's currently like.

It's been pretty cold here (relatively speaking) with temps in the twenties. Over the past few days, we got almost a foot of snow, which is rare for the lowlands of Western Washington. Now it's warmed back up to the mid thirties and raining. The roads in my neighborhood are still covered in about six inches of slushy snow, but the main roads have been plowed and sanded. The forecast looks like we're headed back to rain in the low forties, which is more typical for this area.

[Midnight_Rider]

More snow here than in years past. More forecast for today and I get the pleasure of driving 300 miles in it for work. Yuck.

[04rebel]

LOL
WNY gets more than it's fair share of snow, but most roads are kept in good shape as it's MORMAL to have a lot of snow. Got a storm coming in today and tomorrow for about a foot of the white stuff along with the 9" of ground cover(not counting drift depths). It is NOT the snow that bothers me so much as the absolute COLD and WIND that does bother me. Can't wait to see a 32* day again, they forecast that to show up in about a week and a half!
On another forum, member here Black Rose Racing's user name was the Initials and when I first saw it, I thought it was a name due to our winter weather......ROFL

[JeremyJ]

I can't imagine getting that much snow here. People panic if we get a couple of inches. My parents live up north of me and they got fifteen inches. My mom refuses to leave the house, despite the fact that she drives a Jeep. I think driving in the snow is fun, as long as no one else is around me.

[occasional demons]

Had snow covered roads this morning, getting another 8" tonight.

Winter tires and a Subaru make it a breeze.

It's supposed to be well below normal temps over the next week. I can also do without the extreme cold, but maybe it will be like winter when I was younger, the snow was there from december to late April...

I pwned a newer Jeep this morning, thinking he was going to keep me from passing him. He pulled out in front of me to begin with, then was barely going 25 mph. Comes to a complete stop at a set of perfectly smooth RR tracks. So I go around the douchebag, he hammers it. I left him behind like I was on dry pavement, and he was on black ice.


Had to be embarrassing AF!


And I hadn't even shut off traction control. (TC on this car shuts off the throttle, killing any kind of fun or performance)

The TC light didn't even flash, which it will if you lose too much traction. Basically if you really want to launch from a dead stop on slippery surfaces, you need to turn off TC.


The weather isn't as annoying as the other people on the roads like the one this morning...

[occasional demons]

My mom refuses to leave the house, despite the fact that she drives a Jeep.

My wife won't go out unless I am driving, and even then she has a firm grip on the seat with her butt pucker.

I'll take 6" of snow on the road over a coating under an inch. This was more true with my XJ, than the Subie, as it absolutely sucked until there was enough snow for the tires to get a bite. With light snow it was a white knuckle adventure. Too much torque from that 4.0 six. The Jeep was better suited for snow that was 3 feet deep. My neon did better than the XJ on under 6 inches of snow.

And the deeper snow takes the wind out of most of the idiots that think they can do 70 mph.

So depending on the Jeep, it could be understandable, especially if she has all season tires. My Jeep had winter tires, and it still performed horribly on light snow.

Lets face it, pavement is not their strong point. Put mud tires on them, add light snow, and you are wishing for death....

[MyNeonSaysHi]

^Jeep story is hilarious

I always turn "VSA" off in my TL in snowy/ice weather. I don't like feeling the ABS engage all the time when tires are spinning. Car drives so much better in bad weather when it is off.

As I type this message at 3:26 am it is currently -9 with a windchill of -24. Eastern Kansas is getting hit hard with the cold weather. Weather guy said it has been 10 days with temps below freezing in a row and like 8 under 15 as the high. Luckily it is finally going to warm up by the end of the week. I called into work Monday and will probably do the same today. I very rarely miss but I don't like working in this frigid cold one bit. We do have about 3'' on the ground which is going nowhere since it is so bitter cold. My fiance got off of work early Monday and I think she is going to miss tomorrow due to the bad roads. She HATES/refuses to drive in bad weather. I am ready for Spring, hopefully its decent this year.

I couldn't imagine living in a northern state with lots of snowfall and bad winter weather. That would drive me nuts. Would take a hot day over a bitter cold day any day!

[occasional demons]

We didn't get as much snow as they were calling for, but there was a period of freezing rain, and some ice pellets, so that likely cut into the snow total. Still 6 or 7" on the secondary roads this morning, the primary roads were plowed, so no worse than yesterday for those....

[occasional demons]

Would take a hot day over a bitter cold day any day!

I look at it like this: You can only take so much off...

But I would rather have neither extreme.

68 - 74ºF is perfect for me. Comfortable enough for shorts, but not so hot you can't get some work done without sweating your nuts off.

I love the people that go on about how much they love 90º weather, but sit in the A/C, or just sit on their rocker all day. If they actually had to do some hard labor, they wouldn't like it as much.

Sure it's great if you can relax at the pool...


But then the humidity is rarely low in my neck of the woods, so that plays a huge factor.

[04rebel]

Just got done snow blowing my driveway and front yard temp. parking lot(2.5 hrs.). We didn't get the high inch count as the snow was heavy wet granular and not the flakey powder type. HOWEVER, the winds were high thru the night and the 3.5" of actual snow fall drifted badly in the driveway and front yard. Some drift areas were 1.5' deep! Say we have another similar coming for Thurs./Fri. Got a bit of temp reprieve the last 2 days, mid 20's day and mid teen's night Sure beats the more extreme cold temps we've had the last 2 weeks!

[JeremyJ]

My snow is almost completely gone now. Back in the rainy low-mid forties during the day. It should hit the fifties this weekend. It's crazy how much snow was here, and how quickly it went away.

[04rebel]

And why don't I spend my money on doing "upgrades and mods" to my vehicles???? WELL could it be the roughly $3,000. needed for the winter heating/electric costs for almost 6 months of the year???? And it's going to get worse with Biden in the WH, Next will be a ban on wood burning and my heating oil is already over $3.50/gal delivered at 150 gal min. that lasts about 3 weeks without the air tight wood stove going 24/7 Gotta LOVE NY to stay here. I've told the wife for the last 25 years that NC was the place to go...and I get the hot tongue and cold shoulder every time I bring the subject up!

[occasional demons]

YES it is best that on an automotive forum that "politics" be best left out...even on an "off topic" page.

[MyNeonSaysHi]

I look at it like this: You can only take so much off...

But I would rather have neither extreme.

68 - 74ºF is perfect for me. Comfortable enough for shorts, but not so hot you can't get some work done without sweating your nuts off.

I love the people that go on about how much they love 90º weather, but sit in the A/C, or just sit on their rocker all day. If they actually had to do some hard labor, they wouldn't like it as much.

Sure it's great if you can relax at the pool...


But then the humidity is rarely low in my neck of the woods, so that plays a huge factor.

That is true.
But cold weather has many more disadvantages. 1.Usually there is snow/ice you have to deal with. Which is a PITA. 2. Have to layer up to stay warm. So more laundry. 3. U?sually get sick. Have a running nose all the time due to the cold air. 4. Humidity is stupid low in house, so have to run a humidifier. Literally got down 10% in our house without a humidifer. 5. Can't really or want to do anything outside in bitter cold/snowy area. More able to work on my car in the heat then in the stupid cold. No stupid salt/crud all over the underside of your car either. 6. If you are active and like to do outdoor activities, can easily wait for a cool off in the evening on a hot day. During the winter its just cold all the time. No random warm up at times.

I personally work in a hot warehouse during the summer \. And during the winter its stupid cold. Would take the hot any day over the cold!

[INVUJerry]

Within 2 months we’ve gotten 3 snow storms all over 6” here. Ultra uncommon for this area. We’re expecting more snow Monday; and then it’ll be mid 50’s on Wednesday. Pretty upset my suburban is DOA, but the neon on snow tires is still pretty effective.

I work in Northern Virginia these days and they barely have a few inches of snow. It’s crazy how an hour and some change south will change the weather so dramatically.

I’d still gladly take this snow and the cold over the heat of the summer. I’m pretty much miserable from late May to early September with the heat and humidity here. Heat without the humidity isn’t so bad. I worked outside in Texas when it was 90+ outside and didn’t mind it too bad.

my heating oil is already over $3.50/gal delivered at 150 gal min.

That’s nuts. I just paid $2.64 a gallon for heating oil here, but I get it myself. Fill up 6 gas cans and lug them over to the pipe on the side of the house once a week from the driveway. Occasionally I get my fuel drum and put it in the middle of the van so I can get 40-45 gallons at once. Still expensive but I’m saving on the delivered costs.

[04rebel]

[

That’s nuts. I just paid $2.64 a gallon for heating oil here, but I get it myself. Fill up 6 gas cans and lug them over to the pipe on the side of the house once a week from the driveway. Occasionally I get my fuel drum and put it in the middle of the van so I can get 40-45 gallons at once. Still expensive but I’m saving on the delivered costs.
[/quote]

Well I do similar. There is a major Indian reservation between our home and our daughter. I have a 55 gal. drum and 3 5gal jugs that last trip a week ago was 2.38/gal for "non road use diesel(dyed). Normal Diesel is now $2.54/gal there. I'm all for doing my share for the local businesses...BUT I REFUSE to be RAPED in doing so.
It's an hours ride easy to this "res" and my daughter is just 15 minutes ride further. So we drop in and visit with them to make a "day of it" and not just make the specific run. Don't know what I'll do when I have to retire my 04 T&C for this duty and to trailer the 4 face cord trailer load for 4-5 35 mile round trips...IF we will still be allowed to emit such high carbon emissions from burning it!

[INVUJerry]

Well I do similar. There is a major Indian reservation between our home and our daughter. I have a 55 gal. drum and 3 5gal jugs that last trip a week ago was 2.38/gal for "non road use diesel(dyed). Normal Diesel is now $2.54/gal there. I'm all for doing my share for the local businesses...BUT I REFUSE to be RAPED in doing so.
It's an hours ride easy to this "res" and my daughter is just 15 minutes ride further. So we drop in and visit with them to make a "day of it" and not just make the specific run. Don't know what I'll do when I have to retire my 04 T&C for this duty and to trailer the 4 face cord trailer load for 4-5 35 mile round trips...IF we will still be allowed to emit such high carbon emissions from burning it!

Psh don’t be such an alarmist, I doubt anything will change with home heating for quite some time.

And what part of NY are you in again? I find it really hard to believe you can’t find any off road diesel closer to you. It’s everywhere down where I live, I can find like 5 gas stations with it locally. Definitely do anything you can to save money, nobody else is going to look out for you.

[04rebel]

Psh don’t be such an alarmist, I doubt anything will change with home heating for quite some time.

And what part of NY are you in again? I find it really hard to believe you can’t find any off road diesel closer to you. It’s everywhere down where I live, I can find like 5 gas stations with it locally. Definitely do anything you can to save money, nobody else is going to look out for you.

LOL I have a 13 mile drive one wat JUST to get gasoline at stations that do not sell Diesel.
I live 30 miles northeast of Olean NY AND they have traffic code law of type and amount of containers for private transport in NY. The Indian stations do not enforce them like normal stations do. Road use Diesel at "normal" stations(where available) is at $3.00/gal It's the SAME fuel ...so if you want , try and explain the disparity.
And I wouldn't write off about being an alarmist about things just yet, look at what is already being done and said by certain "political leaders" and NET ZERO emissions!

[occasional demons]

LOL...

A weather thread, and discussing carbon emissions...

Go figure.

Looks like the snow pack may finally be disappearing in my area, at least a large part of it.

Maybe the postman will be happier/less angry.


OT...
The dillweed got stuck in our level driveway in 3" of snow. My wife lent him our shovel, and he damn near broke it, cussing and swearing like it's our fault he has near bald summer tires on his POS rear wheel drive car.

It runs on about 2 out of 4 cylinders.

She said he had it hammered for 5 minutes straight trying to get out. It smelled like something was burning.

The dude absolutely hates to get off his butt and leave his car to deliver any sort of package. Most times if he can't shove it in the mailbox, he marks it as "undeliverable" and we have to go to the post office to get it.

Being Union, it does no good to complain, because they do nothing to repremand him. The beauty of Unions, rewarding bad behavior...

He almost hit out mailbox once he got out of the drive. I'm sure that would have been our problem too.

I'm sure he makes good money, just too cheap to at least put snow tires on the rear, or has made poor choices with what he does with his money.

The substitute carrier that fills in when he is off says he is a piece of work...

[INVUJerry]

LOL I have a 13 mile drive one wat JUST to get gasoline at stations that do not sell Diesel.
I live 30 miles northeast of Olean NY AND they have traffic code law of type and amount of containers for private transport in NY. The Indian stations do not enforce them like normal stations do. Road use Diesel at "normal" stations(where available) is at $3.00/gal It's the SAME fuel ...so if you want , try and explain the disparity.
And I wouldn't write off about being an alarmist about things just yet, look at what is already being done and said by certain "political leaders" and NET ZERO emissions!

Zero emissions for corporations would be one of the best outcomes. Only 30% of all the world emissions come from privately owned vehicles IIRC.

The difference between off road diesel and regular diesel is that off road diesel has zero tax applied to it, and it’s dyed red for off road use. But they are the same functionally.

I just looked up the laws, and that is kind of annoying that they want to limit you to 4 fuel containers per vehicle. But you could argue that your 55 gallon drum is a cargo tank and they should let you get away with it, and since it’s less than 115 gallons you don’t need a placard for it.

I have mine set up so I lay it on it’s side and then have a ball valve on the bottom to put into gas cans. When my suburban was running, I could just back it up through the yard and crank the ball valve open and it would siphon the fuel out and into the fill tube on the side of the house. Was way easier than carrying those gas cans around the yard. But it ate a lifter last year and my yard had a foot and a half of snow in some parts now. Not gonna even try it now.

[JeremyJ]

It snowed last night, but it didn't stick. The car was iced over like crazy this morning. It's supposed to be in the low fifties all next week. The weather here won't make up its mind.

[MyNeonSaysHi]

Thats not bad ^ Low fifties is nice IMO

We got a huge swing in temperature that will beat everyone. On the 23rd it got up to 70 degrees. 8 days prior on the 15th it was -40 with the windchill at 7am. That is 110 degree spread!
Going to be sunny and in the 60's tommorow! Weather guy is saying first half of March is going to be above average and nice! FINALLY! But I am sure we will get another snow storm in mid to late March. Or crazy low temps.

[JeremyJ]

That's a crazy temp swing. I've never experienced anything like that before.

[04rebel]

Sorry, but please keep the snows in your area and not send them East. We are just starting to get daytime highs in the mid 30-40^ range. With night temps in the low 20's.
On Weds. we got a rare help for snow/ice melt with temps that hit 58* and bright sunshine during the day, but the night brought 30mph winds and temps back to 20*.
I'm down to 1 3/4 face cord of wood and no more than 50 gal of heating fuel, and night temps to be below 32* for the next 2 weeks.

[occasional demons]

I don't miss fuel oil and wood.

Geothermal is so nice. The only downside is if you want to be immune from power failures, you need a heavy duty generator.

But for ~$7000 installed, that can be had. Overall, it isn't a bad price for a generator that can run an entire house needing ~200 amps.

Still a bit out of my price range for a while.

If we do have power outages, I have used a 4000 watt generator and a few space heaters and made it livable. We have had power outages for over 24 hours from the pines down the road taking out transformers when they fall onto the power lines in high winds. Makes for an awesome light show.


But the monthly electric bill is less than what we paid in our 2 bedroom apt 95% of the time, and we now have central AC, and the house is warm. Couldn't say as much for the apt.

The bill ranges from $80 to a max $200 a month, if we really use a lot of extra stuff beyond the normal. But the average bill is $100ish. In our crappy apt, it was always over $140/month, and we hardly used anything.

So glad the previous owners paid for the geothermal install.

[JeremyJ]

Mid fifties during the day and mid thirties at night. Lots of clouds. PNW Spring is basically here. I'm really looking forward to warmer weather.

[occasional demons]

Supposed to be in the mid to high 50's here next week. At least my week off before starting my new job will be fairly nice.

[INVUJerry]

We’re supposed to be having weather in the mid 60’s next week, but since the sun isn’t cresting over the pine trees behind my house I’ll probably still have snow/ice out there until next weekend.

Just got 30 gallons again last night, the 275 gallon tank is now showing 1/4 full . Hopefully some of this warmer weather sticks around for a bit.

[04rebel]

It's SUPPOSED to warm up here for the week into the mid 50'e (daytime) with nights still in the low 20's. Sunday I made an early am emergency run to get 10 gal diesel($3.03) as we ran out in the night. After worship I then took our barrel and 2 5 gal jugs and got 65 gal at the "res" station at 2.67/gal. Was an expensive Sunday with a total of $200.00 for Diesel and another $25 for GAS for the T&C (at $2.37)
This mornings low was 6^ !!!!

[MyNeonSaysHi]

Yikes ^ Very cold. Fuel is going to continue to go up. I paid $3.18 for 93 octane a couple days ago. I don't remember the last car I owned that didn't take premium. Probably my 2001 Dodge Neon SE Auto LOL
hit 72 today. Going to be in the 70's tomorrow too. Stupid windy, like 50mph wind gusts. (Flat Kansas for yah) Going to drop down to the 40's as the high by Friday. Rollercoaster midwest weather!