Posted on 02/14/2025 11:55:20 PM PST by Morgana
America is bracing for a brutal Arctic blast as a massive polar vortex smashes the country bringing deep freeze and catastrophic winter storms.
Meteorologists are warning this will be the most punishing Arctic invasion yet, cementing this period as one of relentless, record-breaking cold.
Frigid forces in the Arctic are converging, pushing what should be confined to the North Pole deep into the US, several meteorologists tell The Associated Press.
This will be the 10th time this winter the polar vortex - which keeps the coldest air at the top of the world - stretches like a rubber band to send it south, said Judah Cohen, forecast director at the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research.
In a normal winter, it happens maybe two or three times.
This winter, with record snow in New Orleans and drought and destructive wildfires in Southern California, has not been normal.
The latest projected cold outbreak should first hit the northern Rockies and northern Plains Saturday and then stick around all next week. The cold will likely concentrate east of the Rockies with only the far American west and central and southern Florida exempted, meteorologists said.
On Tuesday, expect the Lower 48 states to have an average low of 16.6 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8.6 Celsius), and then plunge to 14 degrees (minus 10 Celsius) on Wednesday, calculated private meteorologist Ryan Maue, a former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
In fairness, he’s from Michigan, I looked. It’s flat as a pancake. It’s a lot easier to deal with driving in snow when it’s flat as a pancake. N. GA including ATL, not so much.
When I was up north, I used to laugh at “you southerners” because you’d have pile-ups in the rain. “They’d never be able to drive in snow!” I’d say.
Then I got here.
See, I discovered the rain mixes with all the road-oil and it pretty much becomes snow... at least at first.
I laugh no more.
Decades ago, mid 90s, I did a 360 at speed in the middle of 400 headed to Buckhead because of that. Learned a lesson, I did. Really lucked out I didn’t hit anything.
Yes, but, we got this stuff here called “lake affect”. When you all get a snow storm, it stops after three or four hours. Lake affect keeps piling it on for double the dump. It’s fun.
Talk like Yoda, you do.
Glad you lived. I like having you as a pal.
I was in Rochester most of my young adult life. I remember Lake Effect. (spit)
You’re welcome! Hope you enjoy it.
Two thermostats failing simultaneously seems unlikely. Perhaps there is a loose wire at the furnace.
...and those biracial(black guy/white girl) couples...
OMG! We overdid the Green New Deal. We have caused Global Cooling! I knew Brandon Biden would screw up the climate!
Heh, we have a PDS out for flash flooding. So far, it looks like an accurate assessment!
Then it gets wicked cold - the coldest in several years. I hope the heaters in the chickens’ nesting rooms are enough...
The Day After Tomorrow?
I stepped on the brake hard and we spun around like a top. I announced..."and that's why you don't slam on the brakes". Then I taught them how to pump the brake....
Same - although with anti-lock brakes you are supposed to just hold them down and they do the “pumping” for you. I told them to drive like you have a raw egg taped to the bottom of your shoe and hands and you don’t want to break them. Easy, gentle, smooth motions.
And if you feel yourself going into a skid - aim for something cheap!
Had one of those in my 10x20 (uninsulated) wood shop; -20 outside and it still stayed nice and toasty in there.
Many thermostats work off what’s called a bimetallic strip. Basically it is a conductive metal strip that bends depending on the temperature, causing a contact to close.
The problem is (outside of a defective thermostat / strip), these strips “bend” and stiffness will change with many flexings. Also, the contacts can be damaged by the arcing which occurs as the contacts make (connect) and break the circuit. In my experience, usually the “shift” is that the contact “break” gradually shifts lower in temperature. For example, I’ve had “quartz” space heaters that after a little use / cycles, had the “overtemp” thermostat shut off at 45 deg. F. New, that didn’t happen even at 80 deg. F.
If the thermostats are new, they are likely defective.
Oh, many modern thermostats use a electronic sensor or a thermistor based sensor. Those can be defective too.
Funny winter panic story. Long ago, straight out of Brooklyn I moved to UT Knoxville having never been west of New Jersey. Major culture shock for everyone involved. The first winter I couldn’t believe the city shutdown because an inch or two of snow was PREDICTED. Schools and roads were closing, local news was urging people to go the store to buy gas and groceries. It was like the world was coming to an end. Then the storm hit and the University stayed open. Getting off the bus to campus I saw one of the few people I knew walking ahead of me. I picked up some snow and was making a snowball to throw at my buddy when a cop pulled up and told me to drop it. He threatened to arrest me because throwing a snowball was “against the law”. It was crazy.
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