Polar Vortex 2014

gonna be gettin real cold soon

http://vortex.plymouth.edu/uschill.gif

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20140104/DAB3UT982.html

This was Canada's plan of attack all along.

I'm secretly hoping I don't have to go to work in -20 degrees weather

I guess an upside is that the mosquitos will be knocked back on their heels a little bit this year.

The trick to walking on ice is keeping your center of gravity over your feet instead of in front of them.

cool, makes sense- lets try and keep this thread PG-13

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/01/03/an-astonishing-dangerous-cold-snap-is-about-to-descend-on-the-u-s/

yeehaw

This probably won't help Texas get any colder.

getting real cold here

My trick to walking on ice is to hop like Roddy McDowall in Planet of the Apes

hoping to god they close the office tomorrow

It was 18F when I arrived at work in downtown Cleveland this morning. I haven't been outside since, but it's currently -4 (or, with the wind chill, -21). I am going to see if I can set a land speed record getting from the building to my car.

btw can we send the windchill packing? No one knows what -21 feels like anyway.

Au contraire! http://jezebel.com/this-is-what-40-f-feels-like-1495629103

This probably won't help Texas get any colder.

After living in Texas for 14 years, I've become a real wimp about cold weather. Temps in the 20s today felt bitterly cold. Pretty sure I'd die if I were anywhere in the midwest right now.

Hello from California!

72 here

wind chill -20 tomorrow on my wind tunnel walk to the office

Hello from California!

― polyphonic, Monday, January 6, 2014 4:55 PM (34 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ gross

http://i.imgur.com/O5yGNdJ.gif

i'm actually jealous of cold winters. i really enjoyed december in minnesota. i wouldn't mind a couple of months of freezing temps. my issue with cold places is that the cold weather seems to last waaaaaay too long.

december is kind of the preseason

why is it none of us have HEARD of a polar vortex til now?

privilege, probably

The basic theory is not new:

Climate change -> warmer poles -> more erratic jet stream -> more extreme weather events like this.

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/arctic-warming-is-altering-weather-patterns-study-shows

yes, i've read that before, just the phrase seems new

Yeah, for some reason the media have latched onto that this time, instead of the more typical "arctic air mass" or "polar air mass".

polar vortex sounds cool

I guess maybe it's a "Day After Tomorrow" reference? Too bad that isn't available on Netflix streaming. Would make for appropriate viewing this evening.

10 degrees inTennessee right now, headed for 5 overnight. This doesn't happen very much here. Roads are clear, but my kids' school is closed tomorrow on account of it's too cold.

yes, i've read that before, just the phrase seems new

― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Monday, January 6, 2014 4:17 PM (53 minutes ago)

I sent NOAA a bunch of emails about it but they turned down my suggestion of Arctic Titty Twister.

Today was five minutes of fun with sub zero temperatures, and several hours of killing time. Looks like it's around ten below right now.

POLAR VORTICES
VELOCIRAPTORS

i am envious of the midwesterners who get to complain about minus 40 temperatures. that's hard as fuck. it's only like -12 here

otm

I think we're outside the official vortex limits in Toronto, but no school busses today, so somewhat of a day off--fewer than 30 kids for the whole school (and only half my class yesterday, even though busses were running). 20 below here (C).

46 degrees here in Miami-Dade County. Lots of girls with jeans tucked into Peter Pan boots.

u shaddap

up to 8/-11 in Brooklyn. Picked today to stay home and nurse my cold etc.

at -9/-32 here, having to fuel up my car in this and nearly lose my hand in the process was pretty brutal

so are you most of you home? Work cancelled?

i thought we'd at least have a delayed open, but nothin--wore my balaclava in to work.

My right wing friends are filling up my facebook with the reasoning that since we've not heard the phrase 'polar vortex' before now, it stands to reason that it's yet another media propagated lefty lie.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/01/rush-limbaugh-global-warming-polar-vortex-hoax-101792.html

idk, seems more like the weather channel-esque tendency where every major weather event has to have a name now, and they were just lucky enough that there was a meteorological term that worked

p sure the phrase will soon turn up in backpacker rap, most likely rhymed with "cerebral cortex"

other hyperbolic weather phrases from the 21st century

SUPER STORM SANDY

adding an e to the front of tornado ratings TO TAKE IT TO THE EXTREME

ie the tornado in moore oklahoma was an EF5 instead of an F5.

forecast for NYC Saturday: 55 degrees and rain

I'm going to make a grocery run noe, it's 12

Let's dust off this link: http://ifglobalwarmingisrealthenwhyisitcold.blogspot.com/?m=1

egyptian food cart in chelsea didn't make it today : /

13 here, really not so bad when you think about it

I am thinking about it, and it really is so bad.

bout to go out, we'll see if that cuts the mustard for me

brilliant

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rpiegz3et3E/S2EP3FeEYzI/AAAAAAAAALI/yGktwwyuK0w/s400/33o18ud.jpg

http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/1504953_10152005032682933_1446939051_n.jpg

cool that yall are finally getting a taste of what a Real Winter is like

I'm finding these cold threads so confusing w Fahrenheit. why when it goes below 0 does it get closer to C?

think of it like the dirty old man rule

F = 1.8C + 32

I made a nice graph but workplace websense prevents me from uploading anything to the web, so you'll just have to imagine it.

I'm finding these cold threads so confusing w Fahrenheit. why when it goes below 0 does it get closer to C?
--the Bronski Review (Trayce)

This is the thing, in positive temperatures I'm fine with either but in negative I find myself asking but yes is that c or f, then one it goes under minus 40 I know what's happened but it still doesn't really go in

As a middle-aged Brit, I'm OK with either but above 10C, I do occasionally mentally convert to F. Negative temperatures in F seem ridiculous. Unless you really want to reference the freezing point of brine.

"It's cold enough to freeze BRINE today!" "Do you see the BRINE icicles on the side of that building?" "Don't slip on that patch of black BRINE." Etc.

http://i.imgur.com/ucOQh.jpg

just started roof shoveling at my folks' place - that is a whole other ballgame, damn.

Fun fact: -40 F and -40 C are the same temperature!

Yes plz

http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2014/01/Poehler-Vortex-320x240.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1e65T8k.jpg

well it should be a little warmer in there shouldn't it

so this thing is coming back for more now?

only one way to combat repeated assaults by polar vortex...

http://www.thepetcollective.tv/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/sharknado-vs-polar-vortex.jpg

lol, the Upper East Side got shafted in plowing! The socialists HAVE arrived.

@pareene
in addition to plowing I suggest we bulldoze the UES

It's snowing in Austin! Then raining again, then sleeting, but still. No work tomorrow!

Yeah, tell me about it! My son has the day off from school, but alas, my work is not cancelled.

Lol, my firms Houston office closed because of the weather.

-14 with the wind today in Cleveland. Cleveland Public Schools are closed, along with some of the close 'burbs, but here I sit at work. Wish we had a work-from-home policy.

. . . I guess we do, actually. "No working from home."

Aw, sorry you didn't get a snow day too Moodles. I slept in (way in... 12:30) and now I am going to brave the elements to find some tacos.

I was able to chill out at home in my PJs, but still was very busy work-wise

that whole telecommuting thing is a bitch!

planning to corral the family in a bit to go check out the new Whole Foods at The Domain. Will wear a sweater.

. . . I guess we do, actually. "No working from home."

Ha, my firm's policy as well. Which is mostly fine, being an architect does rely on a great deal of collaboration, but its tough since my wife's job has a very flexible work from home policy.

unless some of you are posting from the dakotas or alberta or something i don't want to hear too much bitching

we're already well over our yearly average for days below zero, and we've had these great 'warm' blasts where it'll get up to 30-some degrees for a day, just to snow.

http://blogs.mprnews.org/updraft/2014/01/friday-clipper-and-warming-trend-wintery-numbers-piling-up/?from=weather

unless some of you are posting from the dakotas or alberta or something i don't want to hear too much bitching

Um, pretty sure it's been much colder here than much of Canada or Dakotas. Alberta hit 50 today.

i'm sorry josh but that post qualifies as bitching

Can I bitch that I'd rather be in Alberta than here?

Just read that this coming Tuesday's low (excluding wind chill) is on track be lower than anything from the previous wave of this bullshit.

lol goole

Don't live in Canada or Dakotas so didn't come to bitch...but to gloat. It's 65 and sunny for 40th day in a row, bitches.

Please forgive me for that. Chicago guy spending 1st winter in new locale.

hahaha, you're right! looks like snow is in the forecast again next tuesday. awesome!

i am timing my walks to the grocery store based on whether the temperature for the day is positive, i feel like laura ingalls wilder if she had grocery stores

goddamn snow

the weather continues to be schizophrenic down in Austin: freezing rain and sleet on Friday, sunny in the 70s on Sunday and then back to freezing rain today. Annoyingly, my son's school is delayed by 2 hours this morning, so I have to skip out in the middle of work to get him there.

I take that back, school is now cancelled

I don't have gloves so I put a sock on my hand to use the gas pump.

"gas pump"

yeah, UT blew it too. didn't send notification that opening was delayed until noon until 8:15. we decided to compromise by working until noon and then going home.

-11 here, -30 or something windchill, nbd. schools closed but not work, of course.

i work at a school, but haven't heard any news of closing.

so is NYC and New England going to get 12+ inches next Sun/Mon, Y or N?

Cuomo: DIRE NY SALT SHORTAGE

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/weather/stories/Winter-Weather-Snow-Ice-Forecast-Wednesday-New-York--243634611.html

I received a package yesterday, and the usual small-talk with the delivery guy about the weather took a strange turn when he told me that the weather we've been having lately is caused by something called "HAARP". "H. A. A. R. P. Look it up.", he said and gave me a meaningful look. So I did, expecting some kind of meteorological acronym. Not the case.

i work at a school, but haven't heard any news of closing.

― clouds, Tuesday, January 28, 2014 9:28 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

my school sent out a crabby pass-agg email about how we were never going to close.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Frequency_Active_Auroral_Research_Program

This part is great:

Former Governor of Minnesota and noted conspiracy theorist Jesse Ventura questioned whether the government is using the site to manipulate the weather or to bombard people with mind-controlling radio waves. An Air Force spokeswoman said Ventura made an official request to visit the research station but was rejected-"he and his crew showed up at HAARP anyway and were denied access".[25]

oh shit my macos dashboard thermometer says the temperature for -today only- is

NaNº

what does that even mean what is going to happen am i safe inside

oh sweet the temperature is not a number

now truly a polar vortex

feel like they're just gonna start calling winter polar vortex now, guess im down w/ that

people will stop asking "how's the weather?" and start asking "which vortex is it?"

solar vortex is my least favorite season

♫ walking in a polar vortex wonderland ♫

the polar vortex olympics

"ricky just did a SICK indy nosebone off of the vortex! 10s across the board! do the DEW! check out this single from NANNYFINGER!"

lmao

here in austin we are getting an unprecedented third day of weather-related university shutdown. only a two-hour delay today, but there's freezing rain in the forecast tonight and early tomorrow morning. I am still enjoying the ride but a lot of people are starting to get really annoyed.

I'm definitely tending more towards annoyed. My son's school gets cancelled for negligible weather and then I get to listen to him complain all day because he's bored. Meanwhile, work never gets cancelled for me because of the magic of telecommuting.

yeah, most of our faculty have kids and/or ongoing research and have to come in regardless, it probably grates when staff is sitting around rejoicing about the chance for more snow days, but hey, we wanna not go to work and still get paid.

all things considered, I'd guess that faculty have it better than staff

though it definitely depends on the staff position. some staff positions in engineering are pretty awesome!

true, they do, but shutdowns fuck up their schedules way more than ours. xp

and yeah, my position in engineering would pay 50% more, but then I couldn't wear pajamas to work anymore.

nice. you at UT austin? everybody seems to use Ben Streetman's semiconductor textbook.

anyway, don't know why I'm asking people about work details and posting their possibly former boss' name. nvm, sorry about that.

meanwhile, chances of snow by morning are increasing!

Guessing it's gonna be one more day of working at home with a bored kid

so Austin schools are officially closed tomorrow because.... it's going to be slightly below freezing. I suspect there will be little or probably no precipitation. I don't really understand what's going on at this point.

Portland, OR schools will most definitely be closed tomorrow because things are a huge mess atm with temps tonight dropping in the teens, high winds, about half a foot of snow, and more snow on the way tomorrow.

Q: So how cold was Thursday?

A: The national average temperature of 11 degrees is the coldest of this winter and will likely be the coldest of the season, according to calculations by Weather Bell Analytics meteorologist Ryan Maue. It was computed from temperatures at 7 a.m. EST in the Lower 48 states.

The lowest was minus 34 in Montana and several areas were minus 20, according to the National Weather Service.

Q: Has this been a record winter?

A: No. Given the unusual heat in the West and the cold in the East, they almost balance each other, Masters and Arndt said. So when the final monthly statistics come out, January in the U.S. won't be near record cold.

Nah Moodles, the chances of precipitation in the morning have actually been increasing most of the afternoon/evening. went from negligible to 30%... plus this time the ground will be good and frozen way earlier, unlike last week when it swerved down from 65-70 degrees overnight.

Is it really going to be so bad that they need to shut everything down for the whole day?

haha, probably not, but I wouldn't go out in the morning if it does sleet! so many wrecks last week.

so it seems like the city has decided to use today as an "apology for last week" snow day, since there is no precipitation at all and UT just shut down for the rest of the day and every ISD in Central Texas cancelled last night?

It makes no sense, the weather today and yesterday was just cold. There is no danger driving in cold weather. Buncha fraidy cats.

I can understand playing it safe and delaying start until 10am or noon, but UT deciding to shut down for the rest of the day is a little strange.

-51C (-60F) with the windchill overnight. Welcome to March.

Where you at

the great white north we call it

currently -24, -33 with windchill. falling to -34 prewindchill overnight.

High of -22 today, on Mars: https://twitter.com/MarsWxReport

Low of -84 is less appealing.

But no windchill.

50 degree difference btw yesterday's high and today's

bad winters aren't so bad when they bring you joys like this

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/19hf3v2tdsbw1gif.gif

the general trend has been really cold, followed by a day of warmer (high teens to mid 30s weather) where it snows

over the weekend, I was clearing off my sidewalk post-snow in 0 degree weather. in march.

fuuuuuck yoooou polar vortex

Except that cuts off right before the big reveal that it didn't even knock him over!

(xpost)

oh I know, the gif is a little misleading, but it's still super funny imo

gif is amazing, watching that all day, thank you dan

skip the truth, gif the legend

lol

59 degrees in NYC tomorrow

Thursday night: 17

For the first time in nearly 100 days, MSP wasn't below freezing overnight.

I have been riding my bike to work through all of this too. two pairs of pants , huge down jacket, balaclava etc

mostly though Im sad abotu the cost of heatin gmy house with oil

https://i.imgur.com/bpxDIpu.png

solid

yeah last night was some day after tomorrow shit, just walking to the corner and back required like a major recovery period.

good luck Midwest

Thanks! Weirdly, it's 35 outside right now, which isn't even hat weather. Hard to believe we're all going to die.

Was talking with my wife, who reminded me I was here when the city last broke a record, in the winter of 1994. I don't remember it that well, unlike a few years back. Probably because I was in college (aka stupid) and didn't have kids t worry about (smart?). I do vividly remember my calculus professor taking us outside and demonstrating that if you blow bubbles in sub zero temperatures the bubbles just freeze as spheres. And if you pop them they deflate and a little bit of mist puffs out.

My science experience from last time around is that if you chuck a cup of boiling water out the door it turns into frozen vapor and floats off before it even hits the ground. That was a great way to kill ... five minutes.

whoa my OP from 5 years ago has today's date

Our office will be closed for weather-related reasons on Wed. for the first time probably in forever. I'll take it.

-6 on Wednesday then 50 on Sunday, sounds about right

my day care closed, that's...not fun

also not fun, my snowblower's out of gas and I can't get to the station right now

xpost *Just* -6? Where are you, Phoenix?

the vortex is even brushing los angeles, we're going to be a chilly 57 later this week

Was talking with my wife, who reminded me I was here when the city last broke a record, in the winter of 1994. I don't remember it that well, unlike a few years back.

Associative memory - the day after the Northridge earthquake was when the 1994 Cold Wave hit the midwest. At work I took a tech support call from someone in Chicago who used to live in California but kept going on and on in an unending tirade about earthquakes, how horrible they are, how much he couldn't deal with him, etc. I asked him how cold it was outside and he said that overnight the birds froze to the trees on his street and that a homeless person was frozen solid to the side of a building and the police couldn't figure out how to remove the body.

Wow

the state college 40 miles north has preemptively cancelled everything from Tuesday night until Thursday. no immediate cancellations on the closest local schools but if Wednesday’s predictions pan out, things will be pretty still. probably should plan on working from home Wednesday because the office will be empty

xpost Huh. I guess that's ... possible.

Related story. Once I went out to LA to visit a friend. I forgot to bring socks (as happens), and went to a store to buy some. Checking out, they asked for my zip, then asked where that was. Chicago, I said. Oh, they said. How cold is it there right now? Well, I said, it's (LA was having a weird winter heatwave) ... exactly 100 degrees colder.

going to check with a few friends who help the local homeless camp because this “hard to believe” junk is not at all hard to believe when it’s happened in milder weather

The kids said the teachers weren't even pretending there would be school Wednesday.

You want hard to believe, look up the stuff about frozen alligators.

I was irritated at the “hard to believe” comment you made about dying, Josh. I know we’ve got a level of disconnect but there are some homeless people I’ve run into locally who, especially with full shelters and a homeless camp that got recently displaced in my area, who are very near freezing to death

I totally believe people freeze to death (though I was thinking more about the birds frozen to the tree). Still, frozen to the side of the building sounded particularly extreme and unique, though I wouldn't be surprised if that happened too. Like you said, stranger and more horrible things happen under the most normal of circumstances.

damn, y'all, stay safe

currently hovering a hair above freezing. which is to say, chilly but not that bad. I think basically everything that's capable of shutting down or moving indoors for the next two days is going to do so. apparently even home heating systems are not designed for temperatures as low as predicted, so they have been sending out a handful of recommendations to prepare.

my back is completely wrecked by having to shovel for 2 hours

I have a snowblower but it can't operate on snow this high, lmao @ me

I spent last week in Arctic Finland, where the temps hovered around -15F all week. But that's going to seem warm compared to what you guys are about to get. RIP

frogbs:

This is some real Chicago shit https://t.co/hGkcNQ1Mos

— Brandon Wall (@Walldo) January 26, 2019

Not particularly bad here yet, supposed to take a turn for the frozen around dinner time, with peak Ice Station Zebra overnight through end of the day Thursday.

-8 in Minneapolis and falling, heading for -28 tonight

Yeah, weather in Chicago at the moment is the kind of bog standard flesh-destroying cold to which I've become accustomed. The polar vortex within my sinuses, however, is seriously harshing my buzz rn.

Ice Station Zebra? wtf is that? Coolest name ever

http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/v22vodart/4184/p4184_v_v8_ac.jpg

killer Silkworm song speaking of Chicago

https://youtu.be/xzWBUtnqJ4I

anyone working outside during this should be getting time and a half. respect.

I used to kinda dig working outside in the wintertime (tho never in such deadly conditions, mad respect).

Temperature dropping, wind picking up. I'm ready for the worst (I guess), but I've got to admit I get a tinge of anxiety every time the heater cycles off.

yea my furnace has busted the last two winters on unusually cold days, this time they say they're *sure* they fixed the problem but I'm not convinced (it's less than 10 years old, btw). not fun coming home and finding the inner temp at 55 and dropping

When we moved in to our current house in time for the last polar vortex, the new heating system would sometimes shut off on the coldest nights. Doing a bunch of research I discovered the problem: the condensation from the heater was freezing in the exhaust pipe, sort of clogging it like an artery, which shifted the pressure and triggered the automatic shutoff. The solution, ironically, was making the room with the heater warmer! Which we did in part by setting the thermostat a little higher; like good environmentalists we had it lower at night.

yeah, on a similar note I have one of the new-style furnaces where the in/out air for the heating unit is via two pvc pipes vented outside, which may be what you mean. if you let either get plugged on the outside — say, they run along the top of your basement near the ground and one rests in a snow bank — then you run into problems

sorta. we have one of those as well, but I was actually thinking of closer to the unit itself. we have two, one for downstairs, one for upstairs, and the one upstairs is in the attic, where it can get really cold. it has a small PVC pipe that drains condensation out and down. we hung up a couple of thick blankets in the access area and that seems to be enough to insulate it. I got a little digital thermometer that I keep up there just to register that it's warm enough.

that said, I have no idea what to expect of anything if it gets as cold as they are predicting.

The heating company warning that's been circulating here basically says that most heating units even in Chicago are not designed for -20 degree temperatures. More like zero or thereabouts. And that when the temperatures reach those lows, it could really be struggling to keep up. Which is why they recommended keeping the thermostat set higher than usual. keeping it running more than usual, I guess, leaves less of a deficit for it to overcome.

of course Big Heat would say that

Ha.

Let the mephitic fumes from Trump's tweets warm y'all tonight!

Josh it's it's only -2 in Chicago what are you guys gonna do, nightswimming?

we just hit -23

i was in -28 once and it was rough, but at least there was little to no wind. can't even imagine it with a 20mph/gusting to 30 breeze like you guys are getting

AccuWeather says the "RealFeel" (tm) is -54

though at a certain point I suppose it's academic

thats not even a real number cmon now

i did some walking last time it was bad here, but i decided not to bother this time, so i don't know how much worse it seems. but for going more than a couple blocks in sub-zero weather i would generally have multiple layers and a balaklava or something for teh face, and if you're working up a heat from moving that goes a long way.

well, just did the boiling water toss out the back doorman’s it all vaporized :o

It's no joke around here. -12 with supposedly -45 - 55 windchill. Really not looking forward to walking the dog in the morning, hopefully we can agree to make it as mercifully brief as possible.

(I do have to go to work though, even though it seems like most of the city is going to be shut down)

Maybe -3 right now? -5? I was just out, and it's cold, but not end of the world cold. I suppose that is on its way. They were calling for -50 with the windchill. My younger daughter was very excited that it might be so cold a water balloon thrown in the air could freeze before it hits the ground. That seems implausible, though. She was also excited that at -40f it is the same as -40c, though who knows.

My cat, on the other hand, is not excited about this weather at all. We've been letting him out for a couple of minutes at a stretch before he comes jingling back in. Because it's pretty cold.

this thread has been updating the last day and there aren't any cool maps??

https://i.imgur.com/pj2H2hg.png

dave http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif maps

it is 63° warmer in nyc than mpls

they'll get theirs

i'm about to take my dog out
in wind child -33F
will report back

go wind, child! go wind! now you go on now, ya hear, you get

my littledogs were not thrilled with the breeze tonight

Heading out to walk to the train in a few, give my regards to Broadway if I don't make it.

Here are the offices closed today. Thanks for not closing Cleveland.

•Pittsburgh
•Buffalo
•Minneapolis
•Omaha
•Lincoln
•Des Moines
•Chicago
•Lisle
•Milwaukee
•Grand Rapids
•Detroit

Today I learned that farenheit and celcius converge at -40

We did it! pic.twitter.com/Oi4DNw6WWk

— Ryan O'Hara (@ryanohara_ca) January 30, 2019

Huh, okay, well...we've met or even possibly exceeded the predicted low. -23 at present, wind chill of -52. Cripes.

xpost That's what I said! I learned it from my daughter. Now *here* is something I didn't know about. I was woken up at around 3:30am by all these really loud cracks, almost like explosions. I first though something in or around the house broke, or a tree branch fell, or a giant icicle, but it kept happening. Turns out it was likely a frost quake!!!

A frost quake, or a cryoseism, happens when saturated rock or soil cracks following a large temperature drop.

Here's the science behind it. Water sinks into the soil and saturates its surroundings. As temperatures drop well below freezing, the saturated material will freeze and expand. As it expands, it puts stress on its surroundings until the pressure has to be relieved and a small explosion happens. People report hearing loud booms with these quakes, or in some cases, even feeling the earth shake beneath them.

Looked outside this morning, and yeah, thermometer on the garage is around -20, which means it's colder than that.

I should switch to working wherever brownie does, apparently

my office isn’t closed but I told everyone I’m working from home today because I’m not leaving the house unless absolutely necessary

good for you! our bosses are being super guilt trippy about it, I have an out because I have a kid and school is closed. I was proud of my younger friend at work doing the same, it's insane they want people to risk their safety to come to an office to do conference calls and emails

I did! Currently -27 here. Good news...I can finally feel my fingers again...toes are still a work in progress

We're all bunkered down here and most people I know are at or working from home. But at Trader Joe's yesterday my peppy check out person boasted maniacally that she would be in tomorrow (today).

Ironically, I'll have to get bundled up at some point to take my older kid to a friend's, since I don't even want her walking the mere five or so minutes away.

Both my partner and I had to go to work today. Her car wouldn't start, so I drove both of us. There was more ice on the inside of the car than the outside (windows, rear view mirror all iced over, etc). No one on the roads though, so that helped.

-25 on the thermometer btw

one of our data centers had an outage overnight because the cooling system failed

we're all busy making "did they try propping the door open" jokes

Stupid sexy polar vortex pic.twitter.com/HLOClExSnc

— James Felton (@JimMFelton) January 30, 2019

WLKY looks a little like MILKY if you look fast enough.

MLFY

dashboard temp read -9, bank I passed by read -18.

lmfao

"It's colder in ___ than in Antarctica!" uh yeah it's summer there, that's not so unusual

holy shit, I'm in NYC and this is the fastest and hardest i've ever seen it go from clear to blizzard

like totally clear to total whiteout in less than five minutes

same thing happened here in Baltimore around 1pm, it was insane

xpost It was reportedly colder here than in Siberia and the Arctic. It's not summer there. Also colder than Mt. Everest.

Check this shit out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgjKFYlPM0A

My wife gave me a heads up about this storm and I beat it home just in time. Kind of like when the hero outruns an explosion. I’m in Hoboken.

No kidding! The wind, wow.

Temp dropped super fast here last night. The frost quakes I posted about were insane. Lots of people woken up by them.

What’s a frost quake and can I buy one at DQ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q8maZVG6Uw

and now the snow in NYC stopped just as quickly

"or it could be ghosts Larry!

fmfao

lost power for two hours, temp dropped 15 degrees indoors, called comed (electric co) 5x and now i have to deal w the reality of going to work tomorrow morning :-/

what a nightmare to have electric/gas issues during this sorry LL

my nerves were tested
i failed!

oh no is it ok now???

yeah it was off for a few hours and the estimated repair time was wigging me out because who tells the truth about that stuff? but they were telling the truth. acc to the message i listened to 5x there were 1,772 customers affected by this outage and that seems pretty urgent, even under these circs

i'm not sure if my nerves are ok but we have power! that's a step in the right direction!

better in the city than semi-rural where you’re on the grid but service is a longer wait ime

I worked from home all day with no plans to leave the house but was an idiot and left at 4pm to meet coworkers for a drink

stopped at Target on the way home and the open refrigeration cases were empty, the store was cold, and the reserve staff was working — including my favorite target employee! he worked at an older store was closed down when they consolidated cans stopped having smaller lower income neighborhood stores and is a sassy older dude. warm moment on a cold day

glad you have power, LL! mine went out this morning right as i was waking up to go to work, but it was only -2F outside, instead of the crazy temps farther north. it made the decision to go straight to work pretty easy.

2 degrees F in New York this morning

next Tuesday's forecast: 56

Damn LL, that's scary. Glad everything worked out.

anyone else going stir crazy? i feel like i would strike up a conversation with a random pile of dust & hair in the corner if it would communicate back with me. i am not bored and have no shortage of things to entertain me but i am tired of entertaining myself and would like to do something slightly more productive. if i were a reclusive basement musical genius i could make a polar vortex album but i am not, unfortunately.

Making music is a great idea though!

make chili

I wish I was stir crazy, rather than at work

i was fine staying home, except i ran out of coffee because i was too tired and cold to go to the store monday night

today has only gradually been different from yesterday (we're up to -4 now, with a -20 windchill!), so it's funny to be out and to see everyone going around doing the same old things they were not doing yesterday

i helped an old woman with her wheelchair!! i hope santa is paying attention this far out from december 2019

Our power has been out since 9:30 AM

I've been at work, but about to head home into the darkness

*wolf howls in the distance*

geez that sucks

throw a bomb at them Karl

It was remarkable how many more people I saw out today.

omg karl! i hope it's back!! let us know either way if you can!!

so have your jobs been lenient? Sounds like not.

my school cancelled classes and closed tues night through thurs
(following the lead of many institutions of higher ed in the area -- which is a welcome change from pretending that our students are somehow more hardy than everyone else and able to attend classes in a weather emergency)

My wife worked from home both days. Both my kids had school canceled, though, weirdly, in one casenot parent-teacher conferences today.

xp yeah i had two and a half days cancelled but it didn't matter because i wasn't working during them anyway. campus seemed kind of sparse today even though it's more residential than commuter.

Power just came back on! My phone died too so I just went to bed, hungry, like a wicked Victorian child

glad you're charged

it’s now going to be uncharacteristically warm on sunday and I feel like the impending clogged storm sewer slush madness is going to be a dumb follow-up

prepare for the sidewalks to turn into churning rivers/log flumes of dog waste

I think I'll take it. Our cat was so confused the last couple of days, compelled to go outside and then figuratively frozen in confusion at the same time he was probably literally freezing. The other night as far as I can tell he was outside just long enough to throw up before coming back inside.

this morning he asked to go outside, so I let him out for a couple of minutes. when I opened the door for him he ran straight to his emergency litter box and peed.

i am not complaining, simply stating a fact. my littledogs have been going out and doing their business outside throughout this ordeal -- i just know there are several layers of frozen water about to melt that will reveal unknown treasures (dog poops)

i was worried night before last that you were going to have to rely on littledogs as your heat source!

that makes me grateful that there is a relatively low dog/house density in my neighborhood

I know my next door neighbors have probably just been letting their three dogs do their business in the fenced-in back yard for the last week and not picking anything up so the smells by next monday will be a treat

lest anyone think i am a monster, i picked all mine up as i have done since the dawn of time

A naïve question (I swear I'm not trolling) from someone who has often had to endure -30C (pre-windchill) and the like: with its humid continental climate, Chicago routinely slips below zero during the winter, no? How unusual is the current vortex? And is there no emergency plan in effect?

I've lived in Chicago and Montreal and can tell you: it's very unusual!

it is historical and unusual
temps up to maybe 10 below 0 are routine and to be expected (shitty but not out of the ordinary); this time the standing temp was -21 or so, and the windchill was -49 or something like that. the temperature was this low from tuesday night until this morning, when it went up to 2 last i checked.

emergency plan = cancellations/closures/warming centers and beyond that ?? it's not like snow where something needs to be removed. it's an inhospitable environment that needs to be waited out i guess.

That is indeed insane. Good luck to you all – waiting it out does appear to be the best course of action.

I'm not in Chicago, but our weather's nearly the same minus lake effect. Generally there are a few days every couple winters that dip below zero. It's usually just overnight and for a day or so. This year it was multiple days in a row, and much colder than usual. Infrastructurally we're just not set up for that level of sustained cold -- the Target store I went to the other night was chilly because the heating system couldn't keep up.

on a more personal note, I've lived in the same house for eight winters and the crawlspace under my kitchen, which I've procrastinated on reinsulating, has had the cold water pipe freeze up exactly twice: once last year on a cold night, and this year for several days running, even during the day

I'm reminded of an architect friend explaining how lazy chain stores would expand to the north and have a local agency look over the building plans before submitting them to a local planning office. On multiple occasions, he had to explain to people in the south that their roofs, as designed, would collapse if we got more than two inches of snow. Because they're cheap, he had to fight them to make sure everything was *just* up to code.

You can imagine how much they wanted to spend on heating systems and insulation. Only get blasting cold a day or two every couple years? Why would we design for that case!

pomenitul, there are ~infrastructure~ considerations that come into play when the temperatures are so extremely cold, because even things in the upper midwest are not designed taking those extremities into account. but it's more a matter of strain on the systems, risks, etc., not a bright line across which there would be an emergency.

the power company in my area sent out a notice to some rural parts to reduce thermostat temps to reduce load on their gas lines. then they expanded it to every customer in the region. it was the same kind of thing they sometimes ask in summer peak load times for a/c.

there was a story here about the government responses that described their adopting 'a heightened state of readiness' to i dunno do things or approve of services.

in recent years w/ the economy and the age of the transit system there has been an uptick in homeless people relying on our light rail trains as shelter - something that has been elevated already this winter. with the weather this week the officials out and out said they would not be chasing off anyone, nor anyone on a bus who kept quiet. normally homeless are rousted from the transit stations overnight, and they made a concerted effort to get everyone transported to a bed in a shelter, or barring that, let them stay with supervision overnight.

so i guess part of the 'emergency plan' is to relax the staunch midwestern social norms! which is very trying to our psyches

over a dozen fatalities so far:

https://news.yahoo.com/fedex-worker-found-frozen-death-160314403.html

The guy was 69 years old and working for fucking fed ex and fucking froze to death

i have my window open now. Crazy weather.

hang in there man, stay cool

I was hoping we'd get more of a reprieve after last week, but apparently Chicago is going to get a massive ice storm tonight? I keep seeing phrases like "travel impossible" and "tree and power line damage likely" in reports.

jfc
i heard one inch of ice

hope travel is not impossible because my class tonight was cancelled last week thanks to this garbage and i would like to get the show on the gd road

Yeah, I'm hoping it doesn't get that bad.

Glad you survived the power outage. Had a similar nerve-wracking several hours that afternoon.

meanwhile NYC is getting a 60 degree day

the seasons and earth are dying

over here we have frozen the earth so that it can be reanimated in the future once scientists discover a cure