Your current weather?

[Spacedude]

Glad you're mostly in good shape Jim, my SIL down there is holding on but her daughter's pipes froze and their ceiling caved in, no one was hurt but oh what a mess. So sad to see folks burning their furniture to stay warm too. I fail to understand the logic of putting plumbing pipes and water heaters up an unheated attic? That's a real gamble even during warm times.

As for here, it's still freezing rain all day today but thankfully the temp is 1-2 degrees higher this time around and it appears to be melting as fast as it accumulates (around 33-34F). Tonite may tell a different story as temps turn around and drop again, hopefully it will be lighter precip during the night. Have generator and gas logs ready to go.

[Van Rijn]

I did learn a new curse word/insult, depending on context. ERCOT. Noun, verb, adjective, adverb ... wonderfully versatile.

I never knew anything about the Texas power grid until now. I laughed when I heard that “ERCOT” stands for “Electric Reliability Council of Texas” - seems they messed up a tad on reliability. Also, it sounds too much like Epcot.

I just heard of another fun situation where some fellow got a bill for nearly $7,000 for a few days of electricity. Apparently there are choices there between a market rate scheme that follows generation cost (which presumably is usually the less expensive choice) and a scheme with a fixed cost per kilowatt, regardless of generation cost. The market rate scheme has no upper bound, and generation cost temporarily went through the roof. Some people apparently have had their checking accounts completely emptied, and a draw down on their savings as well. And this when they were without power for a good chunk of time too. I’ll be curious to see how that is resolved. I can understand a market scheme where people have fair warning of rate increases or there is an upper limit on price, but in a weather emergency where normal rules go out the window, it doesn’t make much sense. Sounds like they didn’t think through the implications of an extreme weather event on their plan.

[ozduck]

For those who wonder why I so often mention the lack of rainfall here the article below highlights the reason for my concerns. It approaches the problem from an agricultural point of view. A 20 % drop in rainfall in the 'wet' seasons, since 1970 resulting in an 80% drop in streamflow certainly concentrates the mind. And as they point out if you only look since 2000 there has been a 30% drop in rainfall. This means that both sides of politics in W.A, except for the usual fringe groups, accept the reality of climate change.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-...water/13168666

[Torsten]

On top of that, I have a recollection of reading about problems with soil salination - can't remember whether it was in agricultural or forest cropping settings, but a major concern in parts of the country.

[Spacedude]

I very nice sunny lower 60's here today, if this keeps up I can resume painting the garage before gardening season heats up.

[Van Rijn]

Low 70s here, bright sun and quite windy today. I would have the windows open more but for the wind. The grass has really started growing and I’ve done some mowing today.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

In between two storms over three days.

[ozduck]

On top of that, I have a recollection of reading about problems with soil salination - can't remember whether it was in agricultural or forest cropping settings, but a major concern in parts of the country.

You are absolutely correct. If you look at a map of Western Australia there are a lot of 'lakes' shown but most of these are salt pans than only fill up after a storm and are super -saline. A lot of the groundwater in the interior is actually fairly saline. With the forests being cleared a century or so ago the groundwater level has 'risen' closer to the surface and is badly affecting some areas. The trees used to pump up the water from deep down and thus keep the water table deeper. They were also much more salt tolerant than cereal crops. The lack of rain means that there is less 'pure' water to sit on top and force the the saline water down. There is a lot of mitigation work being done but it is an ongoing problem.

For example this is Lake Ballard - with artwork installations.

[Trebuchet]

Good thing you specified artwork. I'd have thought that was what the local wildlife did to you!

[ozduck]

Good thing you specified artwork. I'd have thought that was what the local wildlife did to you!

I am nowhere near that skinny.

The artworks were done by Antony Gormley, famous for his "Angel of the North" sculpture near Gateshead in the UK. Below is the website for the Lake Ballard sculptures. They are fascinating to wander around, h owever, it was over 40C on the day we visited. It was really scorching out on the salt pan and we only saw a few of them and didn't climb the 'island' hill. Our car registered 50C on occasions but that was probably affected by the heat radiating off the stony ground. Our German friends who we took with us had been standing on an open railway platform near Stuttgart at -7C just 5 days beforehand so it was a bit of a change for them. (My father was born about 50 km south of here in a town that has left almost no traces of its existence.)

http://lakeballard.com/

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Today cold and clear at around -5 C and I took a quick walk over the field, nice hard crusty snow on the field and in other place a little softer. But the long range weather looks like it will be warming up with some day of rain and snow, tomorrow starting clear with some flurries in the evening.

[Jens]

I very nice sunny lower 60's here today, if this keeps up I can resume painting the garage before gardening season heats up.

I hope you mean Fahrenheit.


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[Spacedude]

^^^ Nyuk, I always mean Fahrenheit...and I'm still an inch, foot, yard, ounce, pound, pint, quart, etc. guy too ;0)
Today it's a cold rain, way above for the annual rainfall spilling over from last years surplus. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever experience a drought again, but then again the weather seems to be full of surprises.

[profloater]

^^^ Nyuk, I always mean Fahrenheit...and I'm still an inch, foot, yard, ounce, pound, pint, quart, etc. guy too ;0)
Today it's a cold rain, way above for the annual rainfall spilling over from last years surplus. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll ever experience a drought again, but then again the weather seems to be full of surprises.

We seem to have the habit of F for hot weather and C for cold. Oldies like me were raised in both because science was ergs, dynes, grams and centimeters, with C but engineers were still in pounds, slugs, and feet. And degrees F. We spent a whole term practicing conversions into common and arbitrary units, it was a good drilling.

[Spacedude]

^^^ Before I retired from my lab work metric was always used 100% for the job at hand. My "homework" still revolved around the old school measurements. Having rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, measuring cups, scales, etc. at home forced me to become ambidextrous in the world of measurements, as I suspect many who are involved in the scientific community, esp so here in the US.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Tonight it is windy night after a day of rain and tomorrow it i going down to -29 with a wind chill in the morning, tonight sitting by the fire and reading, brought in some firewood earlier.

I usually use C unless I doing a report on an article or book and I usually just use what they have used.

[ozduck]

Yesterday, 1 March, we had more than the entire average rainfall for March in one day. This is not quite as apocalyptic as it sounds as just 26.2 mm (a little over 1") of rain fell. The average for March is 19.7 mm. Our sandy soil soaked it all in with no flooding. Still it was nice to get a little rain at this time of year.

[PetersCreek]

Woke up to this:





As good as it is, we weren’t sure how my wife’s car would fare on our unplowed hill after 16 inches of snow. So I took the day off and drove her to work.

[Spacedude]

^^^ UGH, None of that here please......A nice sunny stretch of lower 70'sF going on here this week. I just now came inside from putting the last coat of paint on the garage. Planting the cabbage transplants after lunch.

[PetersCreek]

Well, if nothing else it gave me a bit of a workout. I shoveled a path to my truck, then changed to a lighter shirt-jac because I got too warm, even though it was 17°F. I shoveled around the truck, broomed the snow off, and shoveled around it again.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

11C just walked to the mailbox with a ballcap on and just a t shirt under my jacket instead of sweater also, almost out of our winter of discontent maybe.

[Torsten]

Woke up to this:
...

Wow, that in March.

I was just standing at my open garage door, happy for the fact that the temperature has finally risen to 10C for the first time in months, and that my driveway only has a small patch of snow left on the shady side of my pickup truck.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Today cold and windy about -13 C right now without windchill, and in couple days sunny and about 10 , typical late winter early spring weather.

[publiusr]

Tornado threat for the Deep South in the US-chance of long track events. Great-more sky-kaiju...

[Trebuchet]

Bit of frost on the pumpkin this morning! Winter's not quite over.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Today sunny and about 10 C, tomorrow rain to come. Friday looks like cold day and I might be working waiting to hear from the auction company they probably will call in the morning. But after that the temperature highs will be in the teens for the next week.

[publiusr]

Here is footage of one storm https://abc3340.com/news/local/torna...uries-reported

[Spacedude]

The major storm threats have been pushed a bit more south of us so it's looks like we'll dodge the worst of it. A rain squall went thru an hour ago and dumped 1/2 inch on us. more to come later today and over night ending as snow showers tomorrow. After 2 weeks of drying out and planting a good portion of the garden we needed the rain to tuck it in. Spring starts on Saturday, hoping March goes out like a lamb.

[ozduck]

We are having the last little flare up of summer. Today was around 38C and tomorrow will be around 36 C before the temperature begins to drop.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

We are having the last little flare up of summer. Today was around 38C and tomorrow will be around 36 C before the temperature begins to drop.

Kind of the opposite here, suppose to cool down for a gay then warm up.