Ice storms - USA weather reporting

[Highlander]

Getting a lot of extreme weather reports over here... anyone affected...?

For us (living quite close to the Thames) it is exceptional rain that is getting us nervous... barely a frost here yet this winter... Thames barrier is going up at low-tide almost daily, which is not good news for London ...

[Dave W]

Don't get me started. No ice storms here, just very cold. Low this morning was -23F, high was -12F. Nothing to take lightly, of course, but neither were records for the day, much less overall records. These days, though, the weather is the news, with every station doing their very best to cause panic.

What really gets me is the pushing of the wind chill index as a "feels like" temperature. What a load of bullshit! It's a computer model designed to show the equivalent frostbite danger. It's not a real temperature. And even at that, it's calculated based on a clear night sky. It's useful as a rough guide, that's all.

Dakota and I got back from our morning walk -- a little over 3/4 mile in sunny bright -16F, we had been out for 25 minutes -- only to come back in and hear some talking head tell people you can get frostbite in 5 minutes in this weather, and another who said not to let your dog out for more than 2 minutes at a time. Dakota didn't hear them, she was busy zooming around the backyard for another 5 minutes. 

[gweimer]

I hear you on that, Dave.  With all this panic talk, and closing of schools due to cold, it occurred to me that there are a lot of young people who have never experienced a real winter.  I can remember walking to school in this type of cold.  When we were kids, the best time to go skating was when it was 20 below zero.  The park guards used to hate us for that.   

[the mojo hobo]

Here in northwest Ohio we got snow. It snowed all day Sunday. I shoveled every couple of hours knowing that it would be bitter cold Monday morning. Monday morning about -10° but started the car and went to work. I just did in town jobs as the County Sherriff had closed all the roads with a Level 3 snow emergency, which is still in effect now, Tuesday morning.

The roads are treacherous being snow packed and light snow blowing over it. I did a 180 spin in my all wheel drive Subaru just turning a corner at slow speed in town. I got home after dark to find that the city had plowed the street, covered my sidewalk, and left a pile at the end of my driveway that I tried to power through and failed. So I had to back out and shovel it out.

Right now it is -12° but it is forecast to be up to 0° by 1 PM and 9° by midnight.

This weekend forecast is calling for temperatures in the forties and rain. Got to love it

[amptech]

Here in south east of Norway, It's been raining like mad since early november. No winter yet, it has been the most rainy christmas since 1903 or so.
I live at about 100 meters above sea level, so when my basement starts filling up with rainwater someone else is in more trouble than me.

My wife commented the local news the other day; New York sees extreme weather , -10 celcius and 20cm snow during the night, exactly
what we wanted for christmas!

It seems to be cold weather coming though, next week..

[TBird1958]

 Seattle, Wa. 45 and rainy..........Very mild winter here so far, we had 3/4' of snow that lasted part of one day - Barly got to try the new ass kickin' tires I got on the Subie  

[Denis]

It was 12 when I got up this morning and had dropped to 9 when I took the dog for a walk. She's half beagle/half Corgi and she didn't mind the temperature at all and in fact wanted to go on the long walk. I guess we were out about 20-30 minutes. Except for my face I was covered up but there was no wind so that helped.
That is pretty cold for us and only the third time since 1985 it's gotten that cold here in Raleigh.

[Spiritbass]

I'm located right in the middle of Missouri. We got an ice storm promptly on the first day of winter. The 'polar vortex' has been giving us sub-zero temperatures for the first time in two decades. Our temps are on the rise and we may get above freezing tomorrow!

[westen44]

I'm located right in the middle of Missouri. We got an ice storm promptly on the first day of winter. The 'polar vortex' has been giving us sub-zero temperatures for the first time in two decades. Our temps are on the rise and we may get above freezing tomorrow!

When I was working in Boonville, Missouri in the mid-80s, I know it got down to -5 for a while.  That's probably the coldest weather I can ever remember being in.  I was not really aware of how the weather usually is there, just what it was like when I was there, of course. 

[Pilgrim]

Colorado has been cold but most snow is in the mountains, so we're having a wondermuss ski season.

Some dogs love the cold, but our short-haired dachshund/beagle cross runs outside, does his business as fast as possible and gets back into the house in 2-3 minutes when it's below zero. If we try to stretch the walk longer, we end up carrying him.  Definitely not a time to have animals outside for extended periods unless they are thick-coated, bred for the temperature and have shelter when needed.

We had below zero numbers most of the weekend here, but we're looking at 40's the rest of the week, which is fine.

[Spiritbass]

My sister has a 'Heinz 57' dog. Not short-hair and no dummy. He restricts his food & water intake to delay the need to venture out.

I drove my son's Avalon to work this morning and was seriously enjoying the heated seat!

[Granny Gremlin]

Sucks up here.  The first ice storm took down a lot of branches/trees and hydro transformers so many people were without power for up to a week.  My folks were down for 2 days, then spotty for a bit as they had to turn them off to bring up neighborring streets a few times. The Wiff's folks were down a few hours less with no after-spottiness.  They're both in the (eastern) burbs, we're downtown. I was actually a bit disappointed because I was hoping the storm would take one of our nuisance trees (Manatoba Maple; not a real maple in that it's not hardwood and therefore one of the few species they let you cut down, after a long tedious process, as it tends to drop branches on power lines if you look at it funny), but as we park our car under it it's probably for the best.  The Birch out front lost a few light extremities (they're notorious for that).  My In laws are upset because it looks like all 3 of their front yard trees are gonna have to be cut down now (2 Birch, 1 proper Maple IIRC). 

The second ice storm didn't do anything to the power situation because all the weak trees/transformers were down already, so that was good.

It is bloody cold though.  I get what Dave is saying re Wind Chill, but, when it's non-stop windy all the time like up here  and no canopy to protect you it is actually rather appropriate, if maybe slightly overblown (ba dum dum, chsh).  That said, up here they show us the actual temp and the additional wind chill separately on the weather report.  Today is -20C; -40  with wind chill (that's -4 and -40F respectively) and as someone who has spent time up north in actual -40 conditions it sure feels like it (except in brief moments when the wind dies down momentarily).  I was close to getting frostbite on my ears walking to my building from the street car (1/2 klick or just less than 600 yards; < 5 min walk) - I wore the wrong hat today apparentlly and the wind didn't let up at all (it was much nicer and less windy when I popped out at lunch time).

My (mostly) beagle (RIP) loved the cold/snow.... it was the salt he hated.

[66Atlas]

I moved to the south (Atlanta, GA) and thought I was done with cold after living in Minnesota and North Dakota....I guess its time to move to Florida.

[westen44]

The cold weather is making it inconvenient to try this sort of thing---

http://gawker.com/escaped-prisoner-turns-self-in-to-avoid-polar-vortex-in-1496284250

[rahock]

Detroit burbs had two days of -14 with a -40 wind chill. Currently -6 with a -19 wind chill, but it's supposed to hit a balmy 15 degrees later today .
Freakin' cold.
Rick