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Polar Vortex 2019

Vanimal46

By Vanimal46
in The Sports Bar

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Vanimal46 Cooperstown

Vanimal46

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Are you surviving the frigid temps?! The Arctic air made its way down to Texas too! Yesterday was a chilly 40 degrees with a strong breeze from the north.

Squirrel GOAT

Squirrel

Community Moderator
Posted
Posted

Yep, surviving just fine. They told us not to come to work today. I could have managed, but am staying home.

 

post-7-0-21457200-1548862269_thumb.jpeg

 

This was me yesterday heading home from work.

Mike Sixel GOAT

Mike Sixel

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

I was walking around without a coat, but it might start raining here again soon..... My son reported very light traffic yesterday. I had one friend that lost power last night, but they got it back.....and had a gas fireplace running.

Squirrel GOAT

Squirrel

Community Moderator
Posted
Posted

I'm guessing your IT person won't be happy to have your WiFi password posted on the interwebz!

Heh, probably not, but you don’t know which network it’s for. But it’s on the door for public use.

Mr. Brooks Cedar Rapids Kernels

Mr. Brooks

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

Neither of our vehicles would start this morning. Killed the batteries very quickly trying. Don't own a booster or charger, hoping we can find a neighbor who does.

Not a huge deal for me. I work outside, so I wasn't going to be working either way, but wife can't miss work again tomorrow.

 

Furnace struggling to keep up. The furnace is brand new last May, but the house is 141 years old. We've replaced windows and siding and beefed up the insulation over the last few years. But, the exterior walls are only 4 inch, so they can only be insulated so well, and most of the ceilings are cathedral style, without modern insulation space. Some areas of the house also don't have crawl spaces, so I can't insulate those floor systems until we tear up and redo flooring in the next year or two.

 

Even with 2 space heaters and electric fireplace, the furnace is still running non stop.

 

Managed to keep the pipes from freezing. But only by keeping the furthest faucet dripping, and setting an alarm overnight to run the bathtub and toilets every two hours.

 

This is defintely the coldest sustained period I can recall.

It's been an adventure.

 

Not all bad though. We've been able to do some fun extreme cold weather science experiments with the kids.

Vanimal46 Cooperstown

Vanimal46

Old-Timey Member
Posted
  • Author
Posted

Neither of our vehicles would start this morning. Killed the batteries very quickly trying. Don't own a booster or charger, hoping we can find a neighbor who does.

Not a huge deal for me. I work outside, so I wasn't going to be working either way, but wife can't miss work again tomorrow.

 

Furnace struggling to keep up. The furnace is brand new last May, but the house is 141 years old. We've replaced windows and siding and beefed up the insulation over the last few years. But, the exterior walls are only 4 inch, so they can only be insulated so well, and most of the ceilings are cathedral style, without modern insulation space. Some areas of the house also don't have crawl spaces, so I can't insulate those floor systems until we tear up and redo flooring in the next year or two.

 

Even with 2 space heaters and electric fireplace, the furnace is still running non stop.

 

Managed to keep the pipes from freezing. But only by keeping the furthest faucet dripping, and setting an alarm overnight to run the bathtub and toilets every two hours.

 

This is defintely the coldest sustained period I can recall.

It's been an adventure.

 

Not all bad though. We've been able to do some fun extreme cold weather science experiments with the kids.

If it makes you feel better my brother's house in Savage, MN lost power last night too along with the furnace. Their house is less than 10 years old.

Mr. Brooks Cedar Rapids Kernels

Mr. Brooks

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

If it makes you feel better my brother's house in Savage, MN lost power last night too along with the furnace. Their house is less than 10 years old.

Yeah, I saw parts of the south metro were out. That's tough on a night like last night.

gunnarthor MVP

gunnarthor

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

I had to drive from Worthington to Mankato last night. It was not a pleasant drive. The roads had white out conditions and i didn't get home until 10 pm. Working from home today.

Squirrel GOAT

Squirrel

Community Moderator
Posted
Posted

And we’ve been told to stay home again tomorrow ... weird for me. I live a mile away and know how to dress properly for this weather. I may go in anyway.

PseudoSABR Cedar Rapids Kernels

PseudoSABR

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

 

And we’ve been told to stay home again tomorrow ... weird for me. I live a mile away and know how to dress properly for this weather. I may go in anyway.

Don't die.  But if you do, at least make the news.

Squirrel GOAT

Squirrel

Community Moderator
Posted
Posted

Don't die.  But if you do, at least make the news.

I won’t be one of those people who falls into the lake.

snepp Ft Myers Mighty Mussels

snepp

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

My favorite moment is when it's going to be 40+ degrees the next three days before being completely lousy again next week.

Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

Site Manager
Posted
Posted

That weather was pretty nuts. Given that I left Minnesota in 1988 and didn't return until 2008, I haven't experienced weather that cold since living in Bemidji in 84 or 85 when it didn't go above zero for a couple of weeks straight and had windchills down into the -90s one morning (roughly -65 or so by today's new calculating standard). It was so cold school didn't start until 10am for something like three weeks because none of the busses could operate (back in the days of the old diesel fuel that would gel up in super cold weather).

 

I forgot just how incredible it is to experience that level of cold, right down to how hard it is to breathe the air for more than a couple of minutes.

D. Hocking FCL Twins

D. Hocking

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

I grew up in the Ely area (Babbitt) in the 70's and 80's.  I remember many days when the class room would be half empty because the the kids from Embarrass were stranded somewhere on a broken down bus somewhere on the way to town.  They would arrive half-frozen about 45 minutes late.

 

Now I am going to sound almost as old as Chief - although I don't remember the mammoths.   I remember 81-82 being esp. cold winters and the windchill reaching -100 below by the old calculations (be between 60 and 70 below now).  I think that was one of the times the official thermometer in Embarrass broke, and the only time I remember school being cancelled not due to an actual snow fall.  Other than that I never remember it being cancelled simply due to cold (although in retrospect, the way the buses broke down, there were probably other times it might not have been a bad idea to cancel a few other times).

Doomtints FCL Twins

Doomtints

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

The Polar Carfax will go down as one of the worst marketing campaigns in history.

 

Anyway, the forced air furnaces in Chicagoland just aren't the same beefy ones in the Twin Cities. Mine really struggles when it gets cold. Number one, it's on the small side, number two it's not designed in the best way possible. The plate on it says it was manufactured in Oklahoma and I believe it. In spite of being fairly new, the system can go into a death spiral when the temps are under 20 for more than a couple of days:

 

- The flame itself is pretty small, like the furnace itself

- It only pulls air from the outside (which I think is standard now, but it wasn't when I lived in the Twin Cities)

- When it's very cold, the flame can go out but the rest of the system doesn't get the message and keeps on chugging, but not blowing hot air.  This usually happens when we are all asleep, of course.  Usually when the flame goes out the system can figure it out and re-lights it, but not always when it's extremely cold

- Eventually, the intake motor overheats from running constantly which causes the system to shut off

- However, the system then immediately restarts, which restarts the pilot/flame (yay) but it can't blow very long before the intake motor overheats again and shuts the system off (boo)

 

When it gets to this last step, you get this interesting thing where the heat runs all the time but it can't keep up with the outside temp anyway and the temp in the house slowly gets colder.

 

How did I fix this?  I stuck a fan in there to blow the heat off the intake motor. The previous owner took the face plate off the flame so it also pulled in air from inside the house (like the furnaces I remember), which probably solved the issue of the flame going out reasonably well, but I worry about it becoming difficult to breathe in here if I do that.....

Brock Beauchamp GOAT

Brock Beauchamp

Site Manager
Posted
Posted

 

I fly in tomorrow. Can't wait, even if it isn't the VORTEX, it's still too cold for me....

 

zero for the dang high.....

Dude, you lived here forever. Stop your west coast whining; it's not as if you've never saw a cold front in your life.

 

Don't be one of those nouveau west coasters where you CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE people living in this cold weather. You lived here, you know what it's like. Own it. You left, cool, but don't pretend like it's some revelation that it suddenly got cold after you left. I lived in SoCal for 20-****ing-years yet I never forgot, nor diminished, Minnesota's harshness.

 

(I'm saying this here so I don't call you the **** out for being such a bitch on facebook)

ashbury GOAT

ashbury

Verified Member
Posted
Posted

Dude, you lived here forever. Stop your west coast whining; it's not as if you've never saw a cold front in your life.

 

Don't be one of those nouveau west coasters where you CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE people living in this cold weather. You lived here, you know what it's like. Own it. You left, cool, but don't pretend like it's some revelation that it suddenly got cold after you left. I lived in SoCal for 20-****ing-years yet I never forgot, nor diminished, Minnesota's harshness.

 

(I'm saying this here so I don't call you the **** out for being such a bitch on facebook)

Up is down, black is white, Facebook posting standards are more stringent than at Twins Daily. I need to go compose myself. :)

Mike Sixel GOAT

Mike Sixel

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Dude, you lived here forever. Stop your west coast whining; it's not as if you've never saw a cold front in your life.

 

Don't be one of those nouveau west coasters where you CAN'T EVEN IMAGINE people living in this cold weather. You lived here, you know what it's like. Own it. You left, cool, but don't pretend like it's some revelation that it suddenly got cold after you left. I lived in SoCal for 20-****ing-years yet I never forgot, nor diminished, Minnesota's harshness.

 

(I'm saying this here so I don't call you the **** out for being such a bitch on facebook)

The Facebook post was sarcasm, aimed at all the people that have said that to me over the years. It's so hard to tell that online.

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