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NEVERENDING ♾️ The NEVERENDING Weather Thread

It's warmed up a bit here. It was 20 on the drive in to work this morning, but it's supposed to get up to 50 by Friday, if you can believe that! Freakish weather indeed.
 
If Christmas Day be bright and clear
There will be two winters in the year

We were bright, clear, and quite cold, so we'll put this to the test.
 
Our state was a still a penal colony by the time South Carolina had a well-entrenched landed aristocracy. Ergo our infrastructure is fragile, sloppily built and not coordinated between public and private, especially in terms of water treatment and distribution.

Don't even mention transportation.

Big cold snap wreaked such havoc here that water systems failed left and right.

We are still deep in the winter woods.
 
I was watching the Weather Channel this morning while getting ready & they showed the forecast for Dallas.

All I could think about was looks like a "Ted Cruz flying to Cancun" kind of day there.
 
We were on the very northern edge of the ice storm last night, with just light sleet and lighter snow locally. Roads were passable this morning, but cars overnighted outside were pretty well encrusted.
 
I didn't shovel my driveway after the last big snow event, and I am regretting that now as no thaw is in the near future. Guess I got spoiled this winter so far.
 
breaking news GIF by NowThis

maister clearing his driveway
 
Gedunker said:
We were on the very northern edge of the ice storm last night, with just light sleet and lighter snow locally. Roads were passable this morning, but cars overnighted outside were pretty well encrusted.
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We were right in the wheelhouse. Word of the Day: Thundersleet!

At this point what's still coming down is pretty much snow. Very fine stuff, and not a lot of it, but continuous all morning long (once we got past the sleet and freezing rain). The picture below is just as it changed over to snow. Most of the accumulation is ice/sleet.

1675181246910.png
 
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Doohickie said:
We were right in the wheelhouse. Word of the Day: Thundersleet!

At this point what's still coming down is pretty much snow at this point. Very fine stuff, and not a lot of it, but continuous all morning long (once we got past the sleet and freezing rain). The picture below is just as it changed over to snow. Most of the accumulation is ice/sleet.

View attachment 59547
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Yikes, stay safe and hope y'all don't lose power
 
I-20 right here by my house is closed right now. The bridge over the train tracks just east of my location is apparently impassible due to ice.
 
kms said:
Stay safe. Indoors is best.
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The only times I've been out this week is to walk the dogs.

They say today should be the worst day of the storm. So far not too bad and looking at the radar map it appears the major precipitation will be in two bands that will hopefully go around us.

I have to call it precipitation because this week I have no clue what's falling from the sky at any given moment.
 
2 and sunny this morning. My heated chicken waterer crapped out last week and the replacement arrived yesterday. Happy to report it's doing the job. I may have to run home and check for eggs this afternoon so they don't freeze. The coop itself is insulated but still will get into the teens when its around zero out.
 
Faust_Motel said:
2 and sunny this morning. My heated chicken waterer crapped out last week and the replacement arrived yesterday. Happy to report it's doing the job. I may have to run home and check for eggs this afternoon so they don't freeze. The coop itself is insulated but still will get into the teens when its around zero out.
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Haha. Monday I saw my neighbor chasing around the chickens in his yard to get them indoors for this cold snap.

Fort Worth is a weird place; there's a fair amount of urban farming. On what used to be one of my common cycling routes (before I moved), I would pass a guy who grew crops on his front yard. Corn, tomatoes, etc. He changed it up year to year.

There are a TON of chickens in the inner city; it's not uncommon to hear crowing in a lot of neighborhoods (including mine). City code says the chickens must be kept 50 feet from any human-inhabited structures which is virtually impossible on these small city lots (I have a bigger lot compared to most, but only in the far rear corner would they be far enough from my house but they'd be too close to neighboring homes). As it is, most people ignore code and just keep their chickens wherever, often right next to their houses.

My neighbor with the chickens lives next to a cop and his chicken yard is adjacent to his house and pretty close to the cop's house. Apparently the cop doesn't care. Fort Worth is funny that way; they let a lot of that stuff alone as long as they don't hear about any problems.
 
Doohickie said:
Haha. Monday I saw my neighbor chasing around the chickens in his yard to get them indoors for this cold snap.

Fort Worth is a weird place; there's a fair amount of urban farming. On what used to be one of my common cycling routes (before I moved), I would pass a guy who grew crops on his front yard. Corn, tomatoes, etc. He changed it up year to year.

There are a TON of chickens in the inner city; it's not uncommon to hear crowing in a lot of neighborhoods (including mine). City code says the chickens must be kept 50 feet from any human-inhabited structures which is virtually impossible on these small city lots (I have a bigger lot compared to most, but only in the far rear corner would they be far enough from my house but they'd be too close to neighboring homes). As it is, most people ignore code and just keep their chickens wherever, often right next to their houses.

My neighbor with the chickens lives next to a cop and his chicken yard is adjacent to his house and pretty close to the cop's house. Apparently the cop doesn't care. Fort Worth is funny that way; they let a lot of that stuff alone as long as they don't hear about any problems.
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I'm on a tiny lot. Chickens can be 5 ft from the property line if the neighbor signs off, which they did. We had one odor issue when a lot of rain was getting into their run and some spilled food started to smell bad, but no issues otherwise. I treat the coop like a big hamster cage and clear out the wood shavings and manure every or every other week and it goes into our compost system along with yard waste and kitchen scraps. No smell there either. No roosters allowed, but even hens, especially certain species, can get noisy. Ours aren't too bad. We have cold-hardy breeds- Amerucanas (green eggs!), Buff Orpingtons, and Barred Rocks. I'd probably not get Barred Rocks again as they are a little less mellow than the others. Anyway I used a very low wattage lamp in the coop on cold nights their first winter but haven't bothered since.

We have peach trees and blueberry bushes in our front yard, as well as lots of pollinator stuff. All covered with snow for now...

Oh, the funnier cold weather chicken thing is chasing them down to put a bit of vaseline on their combs to prevent frostbite!
 
Faust_Motel said:
I'm on a tiny lot. Chickens can be 5 ft from the property line if the neighbor signs off, which they did. We had one odor issue when a lot of rain was getting into their run and some spilled food started to smell bad, but no issues otherwise. I treat the coop like a big hamster cage and clear out the wood shavings and manure every or every other week and it goes into our compost system along with yard waste and kitchen scraps. No smell there either. No roosters allowed, but even hens, especially certain species, can get noisy. Ours aren't too bad. We have cold-hardy breeds- Amerucanas (green eggs!), Buff Orpingtons, and Barred Rocks. I'd probably not get Barred Rocks again as they are a little less mellow than the others. Anyway I used a very low wattage lamp in the coop on cold nights their first winter but haven't bothered since.

We have peach trees and blueberry bushes in our front yard, as well as lots of pollinator stuff. All covered with snow for now...

Oh, the funnier cold weather chicken thing is chasing them down to put a bit of vaseline on their combs to prevent frostbite!
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We had chix in our exurban world but could not keep them alive with so many predators. Luckily I have diehard neighbors that have chix and ducks and goats and horses and...
 
17 degrees on the drive in. That's standard cold, as opposed to holy shit cold.
 
fringe said:
We had chix in our exurban world but could not keep them alive with so many predators. Luckily I have diehard neighbors that have chix and ducks and goats and horses and...
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I basically built "chicken Dannemora" since we have possums and raccoons in our neighborhood. 1/4" hardware cloth for everything and it goes 1' deep and 1'out and is buried under stone at ground level.

1675348946988.png


With the cold snap coming I'll probably give them the heat lamp for tonight through Saturday.
 
Fort Chix. My fort had a chix wire dome over a dog wire fence that was circled by a hog wire second perimeter that enclosed a chicken run. It worked except for occasional breaches that became so regular I threw my hands up. Don't get me started on the black snake invaders. Once I caught a copulating couple of them inside the henhouse. Together they weighed fifteen or twenty pounds, and once I caught a snake with and egg half swallowed. I made him spit it out and washed it good as new. Of course I never have killed a snake and stop when driving to nudge them off the road.
 
We have not had any winter of consequence this year. 5 or 6 2 or 3 inch snows, a couple of -5 nights, and the Christmas cold snap where the wind chill hit -35 for a couple of days do not qualify.
 
fringe said:
Fort Chix. My fort had a chix wire dome over a dog wire fence that was circled by a hog wire second perimeter that enclosed a chicken run. It worked except for occasional breaches that became so regular I threw my hands up. Don't get me started on the black snake invaders. Once I caught a copulating couple of them inside the henhouse. Together they weighed fifteen or twenty pounds, and once I caught a snake with and egg half swallowed. I made him spit it out and washed it good as new. Of course I never have killed a snake and stop when driving to nudge them off the road.
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Friends in SC had a rat snake that would visit their coop every other day, taking one egg each time. They named it Amy and let Amy do her thing. A neighbor (who moved to Holly Hill from Up North) got all excited (and posted on Facebook) about "being a southern woman doing what she had to do" and killed Amy with a shovel.

One advantage of cold winters up where I am is we only have garter snakes. Further out in the sticks I'd be worried about bears. Friends in the sticks usually have electric fences to keep the Black Bears out.
 
Three below in American this morning. The Subie did the little high-RPM start thing it does when it's cold, but it warmed right up. School is canceled everywhere. Craziest part is it's going to be 15 below tomorrow morning and 35 above by Sunday afternoon.
 
November 3: MY GOD IT'S ONLY 36 DEGREES WHERE IS MY BIG COAT, STOCKING CAP, AND GLOVES?

February 3: It's -6 and I'll only be out a few minutes; I'll skip the coat.
 
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