Texas Freeze!!

[Hawken]

Radio reports up to a million without electricity in Texas, and rolling blackouts in numerous other states. Who says ya don't need a wood burning stove in Texas?

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

I see that Fed -Ex delivered that upstate NJ weather I sent you! LOL

 

[ksf1959]

Everyone ready for the Great Texas Blizzard of 2021? I think its gonna be a nasty several days here boys! The really bad news is that I am a wastewater treatment plant operator that works the overnight shift 7pm to 7 am. Im not really looking forward to driving the 30 miles to work. I may end of sleeping in the break room if my relief can't make it to the plant!


On another note, how do my Texas brothers feel about all the members from Texas getting together somewhere and having a shoot or an informal rendezvous?

I'm in East Central Indiana, we have 3-4 inches already on the ground from a week or so ago....3-4 more inches today, another 7-10 inches overnight with blowing and drifting...hello Blizzard of 2021!

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

Even up here in Sussex Nj we had snow I have not seen in a few years. Up side it makes for some good trekking to burn off calories....

 

[sportster73hp]

Doing good in nw Pa. put the plow back on Sunday so it shouldn’t snow here. Been in the low 20’s for two weeks.

 

[deermanok]

6 degrees at my house in southeast Oklahoma this. 3 inches of snow.

 

[RoaringBull]

Radio reports up to a million without electricity in Texas, and rolling blackouts in numerous other states. Who says ya don't need a wood burning stove in Texas?

I've got ours lit!!

 

[1950DAVE]

I would suggest that the guy in the White House bring some of his "scientists" down to Alabama in the morning. Climate change seems to be kicking in down here . We just need it verified by the experts. Single digits is definitely something that needs investigating. I believe windmills , and solar fields in the west have affected our weather pattern. California must pay up. Looks like my utility bill will spike, that is if the power lines hold up with all this ice on them.
Dave

 

[Omahkapi'si]

Not fun, we just went through a week of -35's. Yes the woodstove is great. We tend to lose power quite a bit here, and it heats the whole house. Might just put a generator in next year.

 

[Hawken]

I've got ours lit!!

I'm reading reports now over 4.3 million without electricity in Texas, out of 12 million. That's 4.3 million "subscribers" or whatever they call it these days, point being though it's a lot more people than that.

 

[RoaringBull]

Well it's 3 am and I awoke the fire in the wood stove almost completely out. Didn't get up when my alarm went off to come put wood on the fire. So I got it back to rolling. Did a little research into what happened to the power grid. Turns out some folks don't know how or want to winterize equipment. Here's an article from a local news channel.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/l...ures/287-50797307-0afe-43eb-8175-b78e7e4fc13a
I'm supposed to be at work. But if I don't sleep during the day, I can't work, safely, all night long by myself. But it's hard to sleep when the power is shutting off your CPAP every 35 to 45 minutes, for only maybe 1 or 2 minutes, then it pops back on, and your CPAP gives you a burst of air right in your face. Thankfully after about 4 PM yesterday we only had one outage, right when I put on my mask and laid down, that lasted an hour. So no real sleep for me from 430 pm Sunday til 1045 pm Monday.

Something you don't really see around our neck of the woods. There are two small ponds near my job. Yesterday morning headed home, they were frozen over.

 

[Hawken]

Did a little research into what happened to the power grid. Turns out some folks don't know how or want to winterize equipment. Here's an article from a local news channel.

Remarkably few specifics in that article. "Equipment froze." What does that mean, exactly? What "equipment"? And they didn't winterize. Well, what does that entail?Why wasn't this done? And it isn't as if this arctic blast came as a surprise, this was forecast, they had fair warning seems to me.

"Just what is it that you'd say you do here?" would be my question to some of these guys.

 

[RoaringBull]

I'd have to say, "Why are you still employed here? Let's fix that."

 

[rickystl]

-2 here this morning in St. Louis heading in to work. About 4-6" of snow yesterday afternoon. Most of the highways are plowed. So it's generally ok here.

I've traveled throughout Texas on business for the last 25+ years. But I've never seen that kind of cold - and for that long a period. I can imagine the State not quite being prepared for this. Wishing you all well.

Rick

 

[Hawken]

At least they aren't burning any of that icky domestic coal, of which there are several hundred years reserve worth still in the ground, to provide safe, clean, reliable and inexpensive electricity generation to heat our homes and power our businesses.

So we got that goin' for us, which is nice.

 

[FishDFly]

Tyler, TX minus 1, beat the record set in 1909.

 

[Lee44ShooterCnB]

 

[Hawken]

"Glad 2020 is over!!"

2021: "Hold my beer for a second. Hey Y'all, watch this!"

 

[FishDFly]

View attachment 64418

"Equipment froze." What does that mean, exactly? What "equipment"? And they didn't winterize. Well, what does that entail?Why wasn't this done?

Spell check froze!

 

[Hawken]

I'd have to say, "Why are you still employed here? Let's fix that."

I think I've found part of the reason they were so vague about the "equipment failures."

Natural Gas is one of those "just in time" inventory things. Unlike Coal or Nuclear, where fuel is kept on site, for example. Natural gas needs to be pumped. Ordinarily the pumps are fired by ... wait for it ... natural gas, that's in the pipeline itself. Pretty slick, huh? This works really well, and is resiliant and reliable.

But even this (supposedly) wasn't "green" enough, and the natural gas pipleine pumps are often powered by electricity which ... isn't happening right now due to the blackouts.

No juice no gas. Oops! Somebody thought this was a good idea, to take a simple, reliable system, and make it more unreliable, dependent on outside factors, a critical infrastructure, yadda yadda yadda with national security implications.