We usually get snow once or twice a year. Maybe more. But it’s only an inch or two. We get below freezing but it’s usually just a few days here and there. Not a week at a time.
I think the difference is in summer the AC doesn’t run as often at night and it only cools maybe 30 degrees. But with this weather in single digits and teens heaters are running 24/7. And they are fighting to warm it 60 degrees.
Thankfully we just need to make it to Friday or Saturday.
I have been worried about everyone affected in TX and LA. One of our old members reported on FB they have all been remanded to their homes - no travel allowed at all.
When I heard about that huge pile on on the highway I was so sad for everyone.
It’s bad and my heart goes to you guys. 
The weather is getting more unpredictable - we have seen it in the UK too but here it’s the rain patterns. Once in a generation floods are coming every couple of years.
You might want to think about how to prepare your house for when this happens again, because it will, and increasingly often.
After the ice storm in 2008 when I didn’t have power for 14 days and the last 7 were sub zero I put in a house generator. I had a small gas generator that I was filling every 6 hours to keep the furnace running. That very next summer I put in a propane generator. It runs the furnace, the sump pump, the microwave, the fridge plug and the freezer plug. The fridge plug also gives us an outlet for the coffee pot and toaster oven. Best part is it’s an auto-start genny. I don’t have to be there for it to start. It detects power off, throws a breaker to keep from backfeeding the grid line, and powers on. Haven’t been cold since and we’ve used it a lot, a day here and there, or even for several hours. Had another week a few years ago with a snowstorm in October that took down all the rest of the trees in the yard that didn’t come down in the ice storm. The neighborhood looked like a war zone. Took em 5 days to re-line the poles for that one.
That’s good advice @PrintDriver. I’m not sure if we need a full generator. But once things improve and my internet and power are more stable, I may start looking around at some options. The last time rolling blackouts happened they only lasted about 12 hours and that was about 7 years ago. This week long sub freezing temps, thankfully, only happens once every 25 years or so.
I wouldn’t bet on the every 25 year thing any more. And hurricanes happen as well.
US infrastructure is increasingly fragile. A lot of money is going elsewhere other than maintenance, let alone upgrades. A lot of the problem during the 2008 ice storm was that the electric company never maintained their right-of-way and didn’t trim back the trees for over a decade. I can’t even put solar panels on my house to offset electricity charges because their local switching station can’t handle any more. I can put them up to power my own stuff, but can’t tie them to the grid. Not to mention the tin foil hat part about how out in the open and unprotected it all is.
My genny is powered by tanks. If you have street gas lines available, consider that gas mains are often shut off after something like a hurricane, to prevent explosions. Just sayin’… Been doing this since my teens. Mom and Dad were back-to-landers as much as they could be and Dad stressed being prepared. Like in winter, always dress to walk a mile or two in the weather and never let your car get to less than half a tank of gas. Good advice to live by.
I’m in Houston and in a similar situation as CraigB. We were supposed to have rolling blackouts, but that didn’t happen. Instead, us and most people were without power for around 40 hours and last night it got below 10 degrees. Unfortunately we didn’t do any preparation except for fill up our tanks with gas. We had no cell service either, so we couldn’t track what was happening. My power came “on” today about 2pm, but every 30 minutes or so, it goes off for a few minutes.
Our power has now been on for about 4 hours straight. That’s the first time since 2:30 am yesterday morning. Hopefully @Obsidian your grid will start to “normalize” and you guys can get back to normal soon too.
I woke up this morning, saw that it was 18° F out, and thought “18…not too bad!”
@CraigB / @Obsidian Your state has been making the news quite a bit. I hope you’re both doing okay.
We’ve gotten about 16 total inches of snow at our house over the past three or four days. This morning it’s cold outside, but the storms have cleared out the air, so it’s bright and sunny. It’s one of those rare, perfectly clear days where from our house a mountain peak (Desert Peak) is visible out in the desert on the other side of the Great Salt Lake 90 miles away.
@Steve_O Thanks. I’m doing quite a bit better. We’ve had power with no outages now for 2 days straight. Tomorrow we are supposed to get to mid 30s and surprisingly by next week we are supposed to be mainly in the low 60s. So, if we can just tough it out a few more days we are good.
I think the thing that is pissing off a lot of Texans is that we have our own grid, and ERCOT who operates the grid has refused basically to put failsafes and winterizing in place to prevent this from happening because it only happens every 10 years or so and it would be expensive. So, here we are.
I know some northerners (not here on GDF) might be inclined to say it’s not that cold, suck it up. But, when we have no power, we have no heat. And when there is no power to heat the house, pipes start breaking from freezing. The cold isn’t the problem. Having no power (and therefore heat) is the problem. Throw in pipes breaking and then there’s no water.
I’m lucky in that I have power, heat and water. So, for us the snow and cold isn’t a problem. A buddy of mine last I checked was without power for 2 1/2 days and had a broken pipe, so he and his family of five had no water. They were staying warm by running their fireplace. He’s down near Houston like @Obsidian
I try to ignore most politicians since nothing but $h!t falls out when they open their mouths … but you have a few down there that need their asses kicked … hard.
I am amazed at the complete lack of empathy from people who are supposed to “keep us safe” In a way I get they don’t give a crap about another state … but their own people? Unreal 
So, bottom line … I’m sorry you guys are having it so bad.
Up here it’s running in the 20 -30ish range every day and we just had an ice storm. They originally predicted snow but it switched to a mix, then just rain. So we got a good coating.
Yuck. Ice is no fun. We do get a decent amount of ice storms down here, so thankfully ours was mainly snow and not ice, because ice would have just made things even worse.
Yeah, I’ll take snow over ice any day of the week.
Yep, sitting here at the end of February with the window open. Quite a change from last Tuesday.
Sitting here with the window cracked as well. Not overly warm but the sun was beating in the windows and it was a bit too warm for my liking 
It’s already dropped back down to 35° and gotten gray with the flurries starting again. We got about 3 inches yesterday. It was one of those odd days where the sun was still out a bit as flurries were flying … the temps were starting to drop but the eaves were still dripping lol 
There’s still folks in the Discord server I hang out in that are still at motels (or grandma’s, LOL.) But now it’s more a burst pipe issue and waiting for an available plumber to do the work. Hope everyone here is doing ok.
We were very fortunate. No broken pipes and only had rolling blackouts for a few days. I know Houston was hit worse which I believe @Obsidian is down near.
And ever since Sunday we’ve been back to high 60s or low 70s.
Unreal for Feb!
