FINALLY! ... A Cold Day in Hell.

[GAHorn]

There’s a classic old poem “Hell In Texas” ... written by someone in a former-century when it was fun to make-fun about the best place to live in the world.... BUT... it finally got seriously COLD this week. The coldest I’d ever witnessed in my 70+ years here in central Tx was about 17-F...and that only rarely, maybe every 4 or 5 years.

In the past I’d read about the guys online that discussed ad nauseam which Diesel Anti-Gel additive to use...and after the umpteenth discussion-thread on that subject I quit “clicking” on them in search of a more interesting topic. Diesel doesn’t “gel” until it gets colder than 15-F. Never thought I’d have to face the problem. It’s Six-Degrees here right now and forecast to drop further tomorrow night.

I decided to go check on my water-well-house about 1/4 mile away before retiring last night and repaired pipe-insulation I’ve been ignoring for years. I also placed a milk-house heater out there and aimed it appropriately.... and immediately 6 baby field mice gathered around it ...No kidding! (I’ll give ‘em somthing to eat later today.).
I gave my little Diesel powered Kubota RTV about 10 secs of GlowPlug and she fired right up... but she lives in the hangar where the interior is at 40-F. After a warm up, she drove around just fine on my two trips to the well-house and back for supplies.

Citizens and “Authorities” are all acting crazy over this... They are actually deliberately instituting “rolling blackouts” as a “Preventive Measure” to “encourage reduced” energy use! (This is in an area that has 5 hydro-electric lakes, and a wholly-owned (Austin Energy) atomic energy plant down on the coast.... meanwhile warning citizens to be careful, stay warm, and look after the elderly.... while THEY reduce power. Doh).
Meanwhile, local television is making an announcement which they apparently believe is “News”.... Their statement is: “If you go out driving... You are on your own!”

Is that something new for anybody?
It seems a self-imposed idiocy is going around.

Meanwhile, I’ve got my generator fueled up and ready just in-case. The dog (a whiteGerman/Swiss Sheperd) won’t even go out in the 4” of snow.

[IA DPE]

I had to come to DFW yesterday for Max training. We’ve had so much snow this year and it’s been so cold that it’s 8” deep of hard pack. It’s going to take a while to melt all that.

[cessna170bdriver]

Colder in Texas than Michigan! I woke up to 9F this morning and maybe an inch of new snow. We’ve had a lot of snow this winter but fortunately not more than about 3-4 inches at a time. So far I’ve been able to keep the driveway, apron, and taxi lane down to the pavement with just a shovel.

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[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Down right tropical here in eastern Pa 37° yesterday falling to 29° this morning. Actually shut down my coal stove for some maintenance today.

Citizens and “Authorities” are all acting crazy over this...

It seems a self-imposed idiocy is going around.

You've only just noticed.

[mmcmillan2]

We have 9F and 4-5” in Wheelock, TX. Power went out last night. We have wood in the fireplace, but stocks are running low. That cold snap we had a month ago burned through my wood pile, that was two days with no power and 6” snow. I spent all morning hooking up my aerobic septic system to one generator. Another generator in my well house. Had to thaw the well tank pressure gauge with a heat gun. Then thaw the pressure switch to get it to actuate properly. Water was flowing but not to the house an 1/8 mi away. Heat lamp on my well filter, let’s see if we have water at the house...nope. Hot water to get the outside faucet flowing. More hot water to thaw the pipes feeding into the house. Success! Now we have cold water and can flush toilets.

Fed the cows, gave the chickens some hot water, made some coffee. Now sitting in the living room with the fireplace going, a Mr, Heater propane, and an electric heater. Looks like we won’t break 40F for 5-7days. Looking forward to that and some flying action.

[Coolin170]

Must be Global Warming…… by the way, natural gas prices rising extremely fast due to greater demand and some natural gas line components freezing limiting flow.
Many windmills shut down due to the temperature and solar not efficient due to shorter days, snow on the panels and cloudy skies.
I hear the savior in many areas power plants is……Coal.

[GAHorn]

Down right tropical here in eastern Pa 37° yesterday falling to 29° this morning. Actually shut down my coal stove for some maintenance today.

Citizens and “Authorities” are all acting crazy over this...

It seems a self-imposed idiocy is going around.

You've only just noticed.

I’m only FAST when I’m in my RED 170!

(The rest of the time...according to some.... I’m half-fast...

[hilltop170]

It was 3° in Fredericksburg this morning and my heat pump hasn’t shut off in 3 days. And with 1”of ice on all the trees and powerlines around the county, they have been falling down all over. 7000+ homes with no power for the last 3-5 days. I bought $100 worth of 2x4s of various lengths and propped up the 40’-50’ horizontal branches on my 200+year old live oaks in the back yard that were drooping to the ground hoping to keep them from breaking off. So far so good but the wind started blowing so we’ll see. A young deer died in my back yard 3 days ago and the Game Warden who came over to look at it said it died of cold weather, and that was before it got really cold! There were about 25 people in line at the Vapo propane dealer with their empty propane cylinders, reminded me of the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s. And to top it all off, Spectrum cable service is down so no internet, TV, or land line phone service. Luckily AT&T cell service is still working!

My power has been on the whole time and I’ve had friends stop by to get drinking water, take showers, and wash clothes while I’m hunkered down. This is as bad as I have ever seen it in Texas. I could stay in Alaska and get weather like this but Anchorage was 15° warmer this morning than it was in south Texas! Go figure.

Now, the latest weather forecast says two more systems are coming with freezing rain and high winds for the next two days, and we thought it was over today, nope!

[hilltop170]

The rolling blackouts are managed by ERCOT and not by individual electric utilities. (Wind and solar contributions have not kept pace with demand.)

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers -- representing about 90 percent of the state’s electric load. As the independent system operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and 680+ generation units. It also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. Its members include consumers, cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities, transmission and distribution providers and municipally owned electric utilities.

[sfarringer]

Maybe they should prioritize the blackouts for the people that think we should only generate electricity from wind and solar.

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

I'll be thinking of my friends in Texas. Hoping it warms up to PA temperatures. Never thought I'd be able to say that.

[4583C]

Pretty sure it’s dropped below zero a couple of times in my 68 years but I don’t remember when.

[mmcmillan2]

Well after living here 6 years, I installed a door on my well house. It was always on my to do list, but never happened. You see, we just don’t get many hard freezes in central TX. My laziness has cost me two mornings of thawing pipes and the task of building a door in the snow with gloves on. My drill batteries are frozen, so I had to use an electric drill with a keyed chuck. Progress was slow. I figured out that my well pump pressure switch doesn’t operate properly when frozen, so I now have a lamp pointed at it. I also have one pointed at my filter housing. Now with the door, we just might have water tomorrow am.

The cows aren’t happy, but lucky for them I had the good sense to stock up on feed last week.

We have plenty of wood to burn, and plenty of food. It may be a 3-5 more days before we go back to flight instructing. Once the temps are above 40f, I may pull out my 170 and see if my feet still work.

[Hineywheel Bill]

Lawrenceburg, TN report: Presently it's 15 deg. F, but it was 7 degrees this morning around 4am. 1/8th inch of ice with about 1 1/2 inches of snow and another 3/16" of ice on top of that. More snow and ice predicted for tomorrow and Thursday, 1 to 4 inches. I'm used to this type of weather in the areas that I travel to, but not here in Southern Middle Tennessee. This type of weather has me wishing I had a engine heater, something I've put off every single year so far. Annual time is coming up... this might be the year.

[170C]

Coldest and the most ice we've seen in the 8 yrs in Murfreesboro (Middle TN). Ready for some sunshine and above 32 deg temps. Guess we will have to wait a few more days because as Hineywheel Bill said, there's a possibility of up to 4 additional inches of snow this afternoon and into Thursday. That isn't a lot for folks used to and equipped for it, but here that is a lot.