Polar Vortex 2014

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