-51 Celsius at 6am today

[r3volved]

Hey GD (Good Doctor)! Toronto reporting in here. Maybe not -40C, but just spent a couple or three daze huddled around a fire (pit) in our back yard. No electricity to recharge my rusty steed (frame welds currently borken in three places anyway.) Apparently something to do with something called "nature". (No lights, heat, recorded music were an inconvenience also). Working on that problem right now (think canopy with PV panels plus LA to store some Good Old King Sol. Did speak briefly with our Major yesterday at his Warships annual New Years Levee - new year per the Christian calendar)
L
PS. And NO internet. The horrors! The horrors!

How long was your power out?
I lost it for only about 8 hours here in Kitchener area.

Today is bloody cold here...-25 with wind chill. I forgot to close my fireplace flute on new years and woke up today to 8degC in my apartment. brrrr

 

[speedmd]

-25 with wind chill

Sounds like a flat lander talking about the weather.

 

[LockH]

How long was your power out?

Several daze. (I assume by "power" you mean electricity, distributed in part from atomic/nuclear generators?) Like any good boy scout, I slept in my handy-dandy cotton sleeping bag, (black tartan cloth inside of course, with handy-dandy futon cover, as extra warmth on top). I is possible I suppose, that some here have never slept in a tent, outdoors in the winter.
L

PS. My friend the Eskimo recommends one-two ladies to cuddle together with.

 

[liveforphysics]

So, I'm very curious, did the 4s4p A123 pack start your Integra on that very chilly morning my friend?

 

[Eskimo]

Last december 2012 we had 18 minutes of sunshine during the whole month. I think record is something like 20 hours of sunshine in a month during the winter.
This winter is really warm here. Hovering around zero C all the time.
Rain does not actually bother much because you won"t see a damn thing out there in the dark anyway :wink:
It does not usually get very cold here down south, -20C max.
Took a first ride in a month two days ago. Bike is near perfect, feels like a Cadillac. Springer fork is now good, new Brooks B67 is excellent. It just glides.

 

[LockH]

Last december 2012 we had 18 minutes of sunshine during the whole month. I think record is something like 20 hours of sunshine in a month during the winter.

Oh oh. Some might suggest someone has been doing too much cuddling...

Just to clarify, by "sunshine" perhaps you meant "bright" sunshine at ground level? In theory, at higher lats like Helsinki, ya got approx. 180+ hours of sun above the horizon for the whole month of December? (OK, so maybe no sunning on the beach) Info seen here:
http://weatherspark.com/averages/28670/12/Helsinki-Uusimaa-Finland

Too many cloudy/rainy daze? Maybe discuss that situation with some Brits? Hehe... Our/local NA Eskimo sometimes have to wear shades re "snow blindness", yes?
L

 

[Eskimo]

At the ground level, of course. There is a song by one local band, one line in the lyrics goes roughly: "and sun always shines too, bright above the clouds".
-51C is chilly. Our record is like -52C or something, without wind factor.

 

[LockH]

Our record is like -52C or something, without wind factor.

Yowzer. That'd be pretty bloody cold (grrrl friends getting frozen, etc.) But unless your cloud cover is muddy black colour (usually in my parts water vapor looks sorta white), search ES for "solar concentrator". Basically using mirrors or dish to multiply/warm up dim sunlight.
L

 

[nechaus]

Here in Australia, Brisbane, It was 39.3c, in my under cover area in the backyard...
i have been running the aircon 24/7 for the past week...

 

[dogman dan]

Winter here, and it was still only 5c for the low yesterday. About the same today. Usual low this month is at least -5c though, at 4000' elevation.

I dunno about global warming, but the weather is globally weird the last 20 years for sure, in my location. I have never in my life seen a morning above freezing in January, till this year. The trees will bud out, and then die in another Easter ice storm, like 3 years ago.

We get the hot here in summer for sure, If the power goes out I break out a generator, because no AC for an hour at midday is intolerable.

 

[TheBeastie]

I haven't seen much about global warming on TV lately. I guess its a hard sell poor ratings in the northern hemisphere right now. :wink:

 

[LockH]

Global warming? I suspect too many humans. And too many burning hydrocarbons for their transportation needs. Thank goodness most of them appear to be from some different planet. After all, "global climate change" must be happening in some place else, right???

 

[arkmundi]

I haven't seen much about global warming on TV lately. I guess its a hard sell poor ratings in the northern hemisphere right now. :wink:

Not so. As with all things in a wired world, it is very easy to develop myopia, to effectively ignore what the inconvenient news. So the really BIG NEWS on the climate news front for those of us choosing to pay attention is:
Climate Change Worse Than We Thought, Likely To Be 'Catastrophic Rather Than Simply Dangerous, reported in this link at Huffingtonpost, but also very widely:

Climate change may be far worse than scientists thought, causing global temperatures to rise by at least 4 degrees Celsius by 2100, or about 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal Nature, takes a fresh look at clouds' effect on the planet, according to a report by The Guardian. The research found that as the planet heats, fewer sunlight-reflecting clouds form, causing temperatures to rise further in an upward spiral.

That number is double what many governments agree is the threshold for dangerous warming. Aside from dramatic environmental shifts like melting sea ice, many of the ills of the modern world -- starvation, poverty, war and disease -- are likely to get worse as the planet warms.

"4C would likely be catastrophic rather than simply dangerous," lead researcher Steven Sherwood told the Guardian. "For example, it would make life difficult, if not impossible, in much of the tropics, and would guarantee the eventual melting of the Greenland ice sheet and some of the Antarctic ice sheet."

While carbon and other greenhouse gases continue to accelerate and world surface temperatures continue to rise, scientist also continue their work, including improvements in their capacity to monitor, collect data, model and understand what's going on in reality. This latest is a major study, published in a most reputable journal, and taken up by responsible journalists.

The take away: climate change is going to be a LOT worse than has been previously thought by anyone including scientists and public alike. The path we've been on gives zero chance of mankind righting it and increased likelihood for complete annihilation of most mammalian species, including the human.

Regarding the weather, extreme winter cold is also predicted by the climate models. Just because its really cold right now does not disprove the data or the climate models, except perhaps for those running the Koch media machine.

 

[LockH]

Ya maybe KNOW something is "up" (seriously wrong) when folks like Ali G (sorry, I meant Al Gore maybe) "climb aboard" the money train. Or at least, something smells like money, eh? (sorry about adding that hoser-speak eh? Dang! Did it again. Sorry!)

 

[speedmd]

On Rt90 just west of here you pass through a great section of ancient sedimentary rock that was cut through to make the highway flatter. Many layers of alternating blackish and light colored rock. We (Mankind) will be just one of those dark layers at some point. Just a fact in the life of our great sphere.

 

[melodious]

Second wave of arctic blast heading to NE USA, about a week between each other for folks in Maryland. Nothing strikes me as an abnormal phenom, as I've experienced cold like this in this area many times, just not on an ebike 8) .

I'm guessing El Doctor was able to start his car just enough to move it so he could get to his ski modified trike :wink: .

It snowed about 3-4 inches in my area which is just perfect depth to have a go with my middle powered ebike. Then the freeze stayed for a few days so the snow didn't fully melt but left a nice crunchy toplayer to ride on. Nice time to practice counter steering w/ rear braking And now I feel I need at least a front snow/ice tire to really get the most of these types of weather. 2.3" big apples really don't scream winter tires haha!

 

[LockH]

Seen here:
http://news.yahoo.com/global-warming-freezing-104500272--politics.html

In part:

The coldest weather in decades has begun its march across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country. On Monday and Tuesday, the “polar vortex” will push southward with a ferocity nearly unmatched in the last 140 years of record-keeping.

Fortunately, some "record keeping" is much, much older. (Unless one ignores the earth around them. I hear the folks in AZ have a canyon that's really grand!).

 

[FeralDog]

Global Warming is bitter cold. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Temp here today is -7F, and wind chill was -35F.
Perfect climatic conditions to hunt the root cause of this phenomena: the elusive Manbearpig!

 

[Ypedal]

Was -25 celcius yesterday, +5 today with rain.. daym.,

edit : my driveway has a 1 inch layer of solid ice on it.... insane...

 

[LockH]

Re MANBEARPIG... I haven't looked closely. But appears may have cloven hooves. Will fool most folks. They will assume a sheep maybe, so a distant relative (lots of folks out there appear sheep-related).

 

[dnmun]

natural gas demand set a new record today, 125.7 bcf and it should break it tomorrow again, maybe to 136 bcf.

 

[melodious]

Perfect climatic conditions to hunt the root cause of this phenomena: the elusive Manbearpig!

Kinda looks a wee bit like Chalo... Minus the tail. :lol:

 

[liveforphysics]

I think you guys just live in the wrong spot. I went shirtless jogging 3 times this weekend, and did a 5 mile all hills run last night at 10pm in only spandex shorts. I was sweating for all of the hillclimbs even shirtless.

NorCal = Winning at climate providing gentle human body operating temps year round.


The only thing we sorta know about Earths climate is that it's always changing/shifting. That's part of what makes Earth such an awesome species developer, those that can't adapt stop passing on there DNA eventually.

I still remember all the climate graphs and fears about CFC's in spray can's that would cause global cooling and a new ice age and all that, and I'm only in my 30's. Has the threat to climate really shifted from over-cooling to over-warming? Or does it just further show human beings have no meaningful understanding of the perpetually changing climate on planet earth.

 

[gogo]

Was -25 celcius yesterday, +5 today with rain.. daym.,

edit : my driveway has a 1 inch layer of solid ice on it.... insane...

A few years ago we got a nice thick layer of ice at the beginning of winter in November. It never got above freezing for the rest of the winter and that ice made things difficult. I have a sloped driveway and had to drive with two car wheels on the lawn to get traction.

Having that layer of ice adhere to the pavement is a bugger! My neighbor was able to get salt chunks to penetrate and wick into the the ice/pavement interface and then he used a pitchfork to provide the mechanical means to lift the sheets of ice and allow air to enter that tight space.

Good luck!

 

[Ypedal]

were it not for the dog, i would salt it up.... i just got back from picking up 10 lbs of back yard landmines while they are thawed, a mid-season pickup helps come spring.. one hell of a winter out here.