Fogbow

After -20° last week, it hit 41° today.

And all the Upper Midwest windmills worked just fine last week. No rolling blackouts up here.

We are above freezing for the first time in more than a week, and it looks like we are staying there for at least the next week. We now have a passable driveway, although the turn-around is going to need some work.

Freezing, that's what happens in my fridge

A week ago we were in a major snowstorm with record low temperatures.

Today it got up to 70F with strong sunlight. Had drinks and snacks on the patio.

High of 73 yesterday. Had jury duty call at 8:30 yesterday morning and I walked the 2 long blocks from my studio in a tank top.

We still have no water. Today marks one week. "Hopefully, it will be restored by the weekend" the mayor says.

sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:07 am High of 73 yesterday. Had jury duty call at 8:30 yesterday morning and I walked the 2 long blocks from my studio in a tank top.

We still have no water. Today marks one week. "Hopefully, it will be restored by the weekend" the mayor says.

How does that work -- with no water? I mean, I have a canal behind my place I could use for like flushing a toilet, but it's not potable water. I wouldn't bath in the canal. Is everyone on bottled water?

neonzx wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:16 am

sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:07 am High of 73 yesterday. Had jury duty call at 8:30 yesterday morning and I walked the 2 long blocks from my studio in a tank top.

We still have no water. Today marks one week. "Hopefully, it will be restored by the weekend" the mayor says.

How does that work -- with no water? I mean, I have a canal behind my place I could use for like flushing a toilet, but it's not potable water. I wouldn't bath in the canal. Is everyone on bottled water?

Pretty much. What water we can get (think "dripping faucet" pressure) is under a boil water notice. I have about 2 dozen plastic Folgers cans that I leave under the dripping faucets so we can flush the toilets and we boil a couple of gallons a day for coffee making, brushing our teeth and drinking. The City was giving out water from the fire dept pumper trucks parked in strategic locations until the fire hydrants stopped working to refill them. Now they are trucking water in but you have to bring your own containers for the non-potable and it takes FOREVER for people to line up and fill their individual jugs. Then they run out. The city set up a bottled water giveaway the other day from 8-1. They ran out of water by 9:30 and the people who had been waiting in line for hours in the cold were told to go home. The most recent count of broken water mains is 23 city-wide. The city asked us the other day to call and report if we were out of water and gave a list of about a dozen phone numbers to call. So many people called in that it shut down the entire city phone system for several hours. One local restaurant had 300 cases to give out and over 1000 people showed up before they even started handing it out. The police had to shut that one down because they had traffic backed up onto the interstate with people in line.

We were lucky and never lost power (we did for over 2 weeks after Katrina) or heat and the lack of water is bearable for a few days, but a week of it is a strain. So far, we've not been able to find any at the grocery stores either. We almost scored some at Kroger the other day but we were too far back in the line. They are limiting it, but there are more people than cases of water.

Forecast high today is 76F.

That was a wild weather week.

Thank you, Texas. For driving my gas price up $.30 this past week.

zekeb wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:50 am Thank you, Texas. For driving my gas price up $.30 this past week.

In normal times, that would impact me but since I only get gas every 4-6 months now, not so much.

zekeb wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:50 am Thank you, Texas. For driving my gas price up $.30 this past week.

We do what we can.

I was behind an SUV with Texas license plates the other day. It was on a day when the daytime high was somewhere between zero and infinity below zero. I wondered why he was up here when the smart thing to do is head to Cancun.

neonzx wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:16 am

sugar magnolia wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:07 am High of 73 yesterday. Had jury duty call at 8:30 yesterday morning and I walked the 2 long blocks from my studio in a tank top.

We still have no water. Today marks one week. "Hopefully, it will be restored by the weekend" the mayor says.

How does that work -- with no water? I mean, I have a canal behind my place I could use for like flushing a toilet, but it's not potable water. I wouldn't bath in the canal. Is everyone on bottled water?

I have a distiller for making clean water out of our pond (I wouldn't drink that water even if it's boiled). I've actually had to use it for realz. I distilled the water using heat from a wood-burning camp stove, but it was designed to work over electricity or gas. It works. The one I have is a Waterwise 1600. I got it on Amazon about five years ago, and didn't pay anywhere near the $387.00 they're asking for it now (I think it was around $250 back then).

They say you shouldn't drink distilled water because it contains no minerals and flushes electrolytes out of your system. But if it means the difference between life and death, I'll take it for the short term.

We are going above 50 degrees tomorrow! Woohoo!

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watc ... -time-lost

Dozens of employers in Texas have told workers who were unable to come in to work due to the extreme winter weather last week that they must either consider the lost days as vacation days or go without pay, The Daily Beast reports.

It said that the businesses that have given such directions include aerospace manufacturer Bell Textron Inc., BAE Systems and United Ag & Turf, which has 53 locations in the U.S.

“Employees who are unable to fully dedicate their time and attention to company business due to current conditions should use available PTO, vacation, or holiday flex time if they wish to be paid for today,” an email from a Bell executive obtained by The Daily Beast read.

“Otherwise, employees who do not have any remaining PTO, vacation, or holiday flex time or do not wish to use their unused PTO, vacation, or holiday flex time will not be paid for today.”

Weather-related, but not sure this is the best place for this.

northland10 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:00 am

zekeb wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 7:50 am Thank you, Texas. For driving my gas price up $.30 this past week.

In normal times, that would impact me but since I only get gas every 4-6 months now, not so much.

Yabutt. My first rabies shot is scheduled for this Friday. I might take a real vacation this upcoming summer. We shall see. A trip to WI is definitely going to happen if my cuz can come back over from Germany.

Farmers around Houston, rest of Texas face damage caused by historic winter storm

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/food-c ... 973862.php

Constant Ngouala pulled carrots from the ground on his farm, a Plant It Forward site in Southwest Houston, and held up the intact bunch victoriously for his team to see. The vegetable is one of the few that survived the winter freeze in Texas last week. Ngouala lost 80 percent of his crop.

In the raised beds around him, vegetation was wilted to the ground, some slimy and still wet from the snow and freezing rain, others dried and a lifeless shade of brown.

Snip-

Within the larger food system, shoppers will feel the freeze’s effects at the grocery store in the weeks to come.

“Prices for consumers are going to go up, there’s no question,” said Texas Department of Agriculture communications director Mark Loeffler. “The vast amounts of gaps that have been caused in the food supply chain are pretty amazing.”

The farms most affected are small ones that sell via CSA memberships and farmer's markets.

zekeb wrote: ↑Tue Feb 23, 2021 12:02 pm I was behind an SUV with Texas license plates the other day. It was on a day when the daytime high was somewhere between zero and infinity below zero. I wondered why he was up here when the smart thing to do is head to Cancun.

The city is saying we should have water back by the weekend. Another week of boiling water after that and then we should be good to go. I can't wait.

It's actually above 60 degrees out there today. But it's a chilly, damp 60+. I'm not complaining. I can well remember last week.

Good luck on the water.

AndyinPA wrote: ↑Wed Feb 24, 2021 3:21 pm It's actually above 60 degrees out there today. But it's a chilly, damp 60+. I'm not complaining. I can well remember last week.

Good luck on the water.

Thanks.
78 degrees here right now.

South Carolina



Katherine Phillips WMBF
@KatPhillipsTV
A look at the flooding from Rosewood Dr in the Socastee area. HCPD are out keeping people who don’t live in this neighborhood from coming through. Neighbors here are trying to keep the rising water out of their homes.

Matthew Cappucci
@MatthewCappucci
Breaking: NOAA is considering moving the start of Atlantic Hurricane Season up to May 15.

Already, they've announced plans to begin issuing routine outlooks starting on that date, matching custom for the Pacific.

More early-season storms in recent years.

Volkonski wrote: ↑Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:07 pm South Carolina

As an aside, the truck has a ThreePer sticker.

About 30 vehicles involved in pileup on icy Montana bridge
Dozens of vehicles crashed into each other on an icy interstate highway bridge over the Yellowstone River outside Billings, Montana, making the span appear like a wrecking yard with mashed cars and trucks

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/30- ... itter_abcn

The pileup involved about 30 vehicles, the Montana Highway Patrol said on Twitter. No fatalities were reported but two people were injured, the highway patrol said. It blamed ice on the bridge as a cause for the wreck which closed Interstate 90 for a time.

First responders found the two injured people under the bridge, the Billings Gazette reported.

The Montana Highway Patrol said on Twitter that the two injured people “jumped from the bridge during the incident to avoid being struck by a vehicle. They suffered serious injuries but are expected to recover.”

A Billings city bus was sent to the scene to move to an events center several travelers whose vehicles were wrecked or were pinned by other crashed vehicles.