Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Bark louder, little dog.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Republicans in disarray!

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Come on, man.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The willow is too close to the house.

We still have time to mess this up!

You are here: Home / Climate Change / How about that weather? / Monday Morning Open Thread: Freezing

Monday Morning Open Thread: Freezing

by | 145 Comments

This post is in: ,

Be careful out there, jackals…

Better still, don’t be out there at all!

Especially if you’re in Texas or thereabouts. I know it’s objectively colder & snowier in the Midwest — I lived in Michigan for fifteen years — but Chicago / Minneapolis / Salt Lake City are prepared for sh*t like this. Texas, not so much, I’m told.

Guess Kyle Biedermann’s secessionist cosplay will have to wait until after the federal checks clear.

But seriously — I’m glad Gov. Abbott’s proud GOP independence didn’t keep him from asking for help, and that our current President doesn’t divide the country into ‘very fine states‘ and ‘who cares about those losers who didn’t vote for me anyways.’

Also, this is probably Too Soon, but the replies are pure gold…


(To reiterate: Stay the hell home. Even if *you* know how to drive in weather like this, think of all your lovely neighbors who *don’t*.)

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    But seriously — I’m glad Gov. Abbott’s proud GOP independence didn’t keep him from asking for help, and that our current President doesn’t divide the country into ‘very fine states‘ and ‘who cares about those losers who didn’t vote for me anyways.’

    This needs to be an affirmative selling point for us. Make goodness popular again. Too many people think we can win by playing the GOP’s cynical, hate-driven game better than the GOP does. But no one is going to vote for Republican lite when they can vote for the real thing.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    Dallas is not suppose to be above freezing until Friday.   This is good news for plumbers, the pool repair industry  and landscapers.  brrr   I think Corner Stone lives in the Dallas area.

    The high temperatures in GA are in the forties, which is fine by me.

  7. 7.

    Percysowner

    I’m in Ohio so I’m not facing that bad weather Thank Dog but it’s supposed to get nasty. However, today I get my first jab so I’m going to face the snow. I’ll take it slow and steady.

  8. 8.

    Zzyzx

    Typical. Seattle gets its biggest snow in decades and crickets from the national press. It goes back east and suddenly “OMG!!!!” ;)

    I actually like being mostly forgotten about because when Trump was threatening us last year, i didn’t think he actually knew where Seattle was.

  11. 11.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Zzyzx: That’s how we feel here about hurricanes. A near constant threat 6 months of the year and as soon as one gets near NY, it’s the storm of the century.

  12. 12.

    JAFD

    Greetings from New Jersey, where forecast is for cold rain, freezing rain, and/or sleet today.  Ho-hum

    Talking about snow Thursday, when I’ve appointment for second jab.  Remind me in October to get meself a pair of boots or galoshes that can deal with a foot of snow and slushpuddles.

    Finished off carton of oatmeal this morn, opened reserve.

    Back when I was young, the world was new, gas was a quarter a gallon and dinosaurs romed beyond the Susquehanna…  the books of Things for Boys and Girls To Do On Rainy Days all had sections “Umpteen Dozen Useful Things To Make From Empty Oatmeal Cartons”

    Plans for such projects seem nought to be found these days…

  14. 14.

    Zinsky

    22 degrees below zero currently in Minneapolis (that’s ambient air temperature).  I plan on going for a walk later today.  Yes, Minnesotans know how to dress for it….

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Some of the worst winter storms I’ve been thru were in Texas.

    Currently -2F here. Gonna get all the way up to 5 today. Looking for about 10″ or so of snow. That’ll teach me to complain about a lack of real winter weather here.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    Perhaps the most significant seasonal disturbance here in my damp and humid swamp are the mating cries of Limpkins. Seriously, these are LOUD birds! There’s one just outside right now screeching its head off. They can wake you up from a dead sleep (it goes on all night) and make it necessary to pause conversations and TV shows because you can’t hear a damn thing.

  21. 21.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Betty Cracker: ​
     

    Get back to me in the summer. :P

    -7 in my neighborhood here in the Denver core. It’s -11 out at the airport…which is stupid because I don’t know anybody who lives at the airport. That from the late George Carlin’s hippy, dippy weatherman, Al Sleet.

  24. 24.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’d welcome a good honest snowstorm. The problem in this area is that it always seems to be hovering around freezing, so every storm turns into freezing rain. Or just straight rain. We had a light ice storm yesterday morning which was just enough to turn every sidewalk into a skating rink. Made walking the dog fun.

  25. 25.

    debbie

    A balmy 19 degrees here. Single digits only at night, happily, but this fucking snow won’t be stopping until Thursday. My back is not looking forward to sweeping snow off my car a few times.

  27. 27.

    Freemark

    @JAFD: We still have dinosaurs roaming beyond the Susquehanna in the wilds of Pennsyltucky. We just call them Republicans now.

  32. 32.

    prostratedragon

    Wow, it’s relatively balmy 2 above here in Chicago, though the usually respectable windchill is around -15. Bit of snow due through tomorrow. Don’t know if there’s much ice on the Lake yet –haven’t been by the shore in some days. Not due above freezing until the weekend; been below 20 for well over a week. Best winter we’ve had in several years, though far from severe. (I like a really cold season in the mix.)

  33. 33.

    satby

    @tom: I think so too. I don’t mind cold at all, and if it’s going to be cold I prefer snow on the ground to protect the plants, but I hate to drive in the bad winter weather because even up north a lot of idiots do it badly. I’ve already been out twice today to walk the dogs and feed the ferals across the street (no sign of them yet). Wish I could stay home, but have to go to work.

  36. 36.

    Kayla Rudbek

    Relieved that here in Northern Virginia that the roads are clear and that the weather is relatively good , as I have a diagnostic mammogram this morning. I’m sitting in the waiting room right now, and I’m a bit freaking out at being around so many people.

  37. 37.

    geg6

    Not so cold here, which is the problem.  Temps are hovering just above and just below freezing, so the NWS is calling for freezing rain  and anywhere from 6-12 inches of snow before it’s all over some time tomorrow morning.  The snow doesn’t bother me much because we’ll just call our plow guy and that will be the end of that.  But the quarter inch of ice may mean the plow guy may not be able to get here.  Just glad I don’t need to go anywhere until Wednesday, my day to hold down the office.  By then, it’s supposed to clear for a day before we get a second snow dump for Thursday and Friday.  A little over a month until spring!

  39. 39.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kayla Rudbek: Fingers crossed for you. I had mine in January. I was similarly freaked out about being around so “many” people, but thankfully all was fine. My theory was that going first thing in the morning would lower the risk of contagion.

  41. 41.

    John S.

    @scribbler: The invasive species known as Florida man and Florida woman have really taken a toll on this state. There’s a particularly destructive sub-species known as Florida man governor that has just been devastating for the past several decades.

  42. 42.

    Danielx

    Expecting close to a foot of snow by tonight, but ye olde trusty snowblower is ready and equally trusty old Subaru is good also. NOT planning to go anywhere…only good thing about pandemic is having all the essentials on hand rather than having to venture out.

  43. 43.

    John S.

    @Betty Cracker: Fucking limpkins! We live on a canal that feeds into the Everglades, and we get them all the time — right behind our bedroom window. My wife HATES those things.

    ETA: Fun fact, they used their mating calls as a basis for the raptor noises in Jurassic Park.

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    ?If you’re ever right now down in Texas, look me up freeze your butt?

    8 degrees in Dallas!

    3 here in Chicago, and the building’s boiler just kicked on.

    Stay safe everyone.

  45. 45.

    evodevo

    @OzarkHillbilly: ​
      Yep..same for us here in KY, but 0 degrees still a day out, evidently…gets here by Weds…hoping the wood holds out till the end of the week. I don’t like cutting when it’s zero…

  47. 47.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    On the positive side, I couldn’t have picked a better time to be homebound and prohibited from driving while wearing a thigh to ankle cast, an additional immobilizing brace, and eating opiates like they’re M&Ms.

    And no, I don’t really like them, am tapering and REALLY don’t like the feeling that Smooth Move tea gives my crappy gut.

  48. 48.

    Anonymous At Work

    In Texas, legends do speak of “frozen sky water” but most think it is only a myth used by car insurance companies to charge more money.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Cliff cave flash flooded after 5″ of rain fell in a half hour. The flash flood I got caught in on the Current River was 7″ over 3 hours. NWS sends out Flash Flood watches. It’s weather.

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    Also, too, we can enjoy Presidents Day sales with pride again. Yay! 

    They all famously loved good deals on a new mattress or a chest of drawers!

  54. 54.

    DanielsBob

    @MagdaInBlack: ​
     February seems to be the new January here in northern IL, at least this year. From a comment I recall you posting some time ago, I believe we were almost neighbors growing up, though I’m a few (or more) years your senior. I grew up in southeast DeKalb county a couple of miles from the Kane county line. Sports rivals in the Little Ten.

  55. 55.

    evodevo

    @Danielx: ​
      I finally broke down and put a couple studded snow tires on the back of my ’97 subaru wagon…the driveway is straight uphill and solid ice right now. Our four-wheel truck almost didn’t make it up last night. The subaru didn’t even notice….LOVE that car…

  56. 56.

    frosty

    Currently in the Keys on our 7th Annual Snowbird Road Trip. Our sons flew down from PA to join us and they’re really happy to be here instead of there.

  63. 63.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @evodevo:

    Im still old enough to remember that a nonzero number number of the dads in my neighborhood had chains for their cars, and that nearly everybody installed snow tires in winter.

    One friend of mine drove us around in his dad’s monster Impala.  We were like a tank, able to go anywhere.

  65. 65.

    mrmoshpotato

    @prostratedragon:

    Best winter we’ve had in several years, though far from severe. (I like a really cold season in the mix.)

    You must’ve loved the polar vortex a few years ago with temps -11 to -17 and a howling fucker of a wind!

  67. 67.

    Low Key Swagger

    This weather means a ton of exposure for me. I have to walk down to the big barn to get the horses hay twice a day.  I’m worried about our lead mare, she’s 25 and this kind of cold is dangerous for her and the 12 yr old goat as well.  I also have to go start all of our engines and let them run for a bit.  It’s rare for us to get these temps, so I’m glad about that….but when it comes it’s plain awful.

  69. 69.

    gvg

    @Betty Cracker: ​
      North Florida it’s 60 degrees and high of 79. About 80% chance of rain again but not getting colder so who cares. Friday and Saturday may see lows of 30’s and highs of 50’s. I can take it. Spring is starting. Lots of things already blooming from the rain.
    I hate cold weather. My grandfather hated cold weather which is why my family moved to Florida from Massachusetts after WWII. I hear about this kind of weather in horror.

  72. 72.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Republicans, who see themselves as “the bulwarks against moral chaos,” 

    Ah yes.  The non-chaos of “Fuck everyone but the rich!  Where are my unneeded tax cuts?!” Moral? LOspit!

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @evodevo: My woodstove has been running nonstop for over a week. I normally let it go out on the days it gets above 25. I don’t think we’ve seen 20 in all that time.

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: It changes how one experiences weather. I always loved big thunder storms. Now, I get a tinge of anxiousness in them, even when I am on high ground.

  79. 79.

    AnotherBruce

    @Zzyzx:  Yes decades, we had some of this in the early to middle 90s. I like these big snowfalls. People are more personable. Snowboards and sleds going down streets. Just be prepared, and go stock up food and go easy on the snow shoveling.

  80. 80.

    A Ghost to Most

    Minus double digits on the east side of Denver. Only made it to -6 here on the higher west side. The mountains are much warmer than here.

  81. 81.

    Soprano2

    Here in SWMO it’s -4 degrees, feels like -22. The last time I can remember a forecast of a high of 1 degree (that’s today’s forecast) is before Christmas in 1989!  Judging by the snow when I went to stoke the fire in the furnace, we have at least 3″ on the ground and it’s going to be falling for awhile yet. Could be worse,  could be ice or 12″ of snow. Kind of glad I’m off work today. Now I’ve gotta go back to bed.

    My mom told me last night she’s scheduled to get her first shot on the 24th, which is my birthday.  Best present ever!

  83. 83.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @debbie:

    Stumbled up a short set of steps on Christmas Eve when I caught my left foot under the lip of a step. Came down hard on my right knee and tore the hell out of my quad tendon; most of it retracted by 3 cm.

  84. 84.

    Ksmiami

    Greetings from Dallas- since I’ve lived all over, I am prepped and have no intention of driving- I do have to have city turn off my water as pipes are frozen in the Master and all my Hackery didn’t budge them.. it is pretty but wow…

  85. 85.

    Aziz, light!

    I’m powerless, along with 300,000 other Portland area folks thanks to a 3-day ice storm. Could be down for days. Phone battery fading. Will have to read ink instead of pixels, what a concept.

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    @John S.: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ “Cross Creek” includes a recipe for roast Limpkin. I love the critters despite their decibel level. Here’s the one who was hanging out on our dock this morning.

    For those unfamiliar with Limpkins, this is them being relatively QUIET. They’re louder in March. ;-)

  92. 92.

    msb

    Anyone who’s in Texas needs to stay off the roads (except in the panhandle, where they’re used to snow). Every other Texas driver will panic about the conditions, and speed up.

  94. 94.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl:

    I wonder if all this snow and these zero-degree temps will help reduce covid spread. 

    By forcing people to stay inside?

    (Tyranny! Dumbocrat snow storm!  I have consteetooshunal rights!)

  95. 95.

    david

    This morning reminds me of those “DRIVE 70 – FREEZE A YANKEE” bumper stickers that were all the rage in Texas back during the Carter era.

  105. 105.

    J R in WV

    Our power was out briefly yesterday, for 6 or 8 hours. I went to town to replenish things before the ice storm forecast for today and tomorrow. Hit Aldi’s first as that’s the first grocery store I come to and I like some of their brands.

    Then while I was in the car after coming out of Aldi’s it started to drizzle, and I noticed that the dash temp indicated that it was 30 outside, and dropping fast, so I declared the replenishment over and drove home slowly. Most of the roads had been treated, so no big deal but for a few spots. But by the time I got home it was down to 27 and freezing the drizzle on the windshield.

    Not expected to get much colder than that. We have a whole house generator tapped into our natural gas line, which was still running when I got home, but kicked off not long after. It keeps appliances, lights and the forced air heat running, won’t run the AC unit in the summer, nor the well pump which is some 800-900 horizontal feet from the house, so there’s a separate APCO power drop for the submersible well pump.

    Going to stay home at least til Wednesday when I have a regularly scheduled Dr appointment for a quarterly checkup and blood workup. If there’s black ice I’ll put that off a few days.

  108. 108.

    prostratedragon

    @mrmoshpotato:  Yeah, that really was something. I was in Michigan that year, and between there and Chicago some years before when it might have been even worse. And don’t forget Super Bowl winter, when the worst hit earlier, below zero for the week around Christmas and such. But, as they say about clothing, …

  109. 109.

    Vhh

    The govt of Texas is in general unprepared for disaster. Remember when the chemical factory blew up a whole town? COVID? I remember them organizing prayer campaigns during things like droughts. Guess all those tech squillionaire companies that moved there from CA might be getting a wake up call.

  117. 117.

    mali muso

    @Mike in NC: This is what is starting to get to me (in Virginia).  Even on the days when there is no snow or freezing rain, it has been grey and cloudy.  I really miss the sun.

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    @dnfree:  Burr and Tillis (NC). Baldwin and Johnson (WI). Murkowski and Sullivan (AL). Romney and Lee (UT). Cassidy and Kennedy (LA).      Some states, maybe not all, where Senators split their votes.

  119. 119.

    Sloane Ranger

    Greetings from the UK where last week we had the lowest temperatures recorded for 25 years with -23C in Braemar, Scotland and snow practically everywhere. Now enjoying a heatwave with blue skies and temperatures expected to reach a balmy 16C in some places!

  122. 122.

    Rileys Enabler

    16 in Houston now, and the power shut off around 4:30 am. 5 hours without and the interior temps are dropping; it’s 62 atm. Sure hope Texas gets the power back on soon. We have a gas stove (coffee!) but the houses here simply aren’t built for cold. BRRRRR.

  123. 123.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s 64 F here right now, and the high is 80 F. Hahahahaha!

    Yeah, but DeSantis just declared that it’s a vile and vicious lie that Florida has lots of cases of the Covid variants. He says that those variants are in blue states, not in sunny Flor-ee-day.

    So ya got that goin’ for ya…

  124. 124.

    BlueGuitarist

    @Geminid:

    @dnfree

    Also Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, West Virginia

    Daines, Fischer, Portman, Capito: Not Guilty

    Tester, Sasse, Brown, Manchin: Guilty, Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

  125. 125.

    karen marie

    @tom: Say that in Arizona in June and July, when it’s 115.

    Currently, it’s about 45. Cold enough to warrant a lap blanket on the porch but my reward for surviving the summers.

  128. 128.

    Ken

    @Mike in NC: We’ve been seeing plenty of sun, which IIUC means the clear night skies let the heat escape.  Still sunny now, but forecast is for heavy snow (NE Illinois).

  129. 129.

    japa21

    A lot of the snow in Chicago area is to be lake effect. Folks like Magda, Dorothy and I won’t see much of that. Last night they were saying our area may get 3-4 inches. Just checked latest forecast and 8″ is more likely.  I am so tired of this winter.

    Just spoke to my son in central Missouri. He said it was -3 and they have 4 inches of snow so far and more expected later today and later next week. Lots of drifting.

  131. 131.

    SFAW

    @Central Planning:

    The governor asked for assistance? Everything is bigger in Texas, like the cowardice.

    Wasn’t Rafael Ted “I’ll give you 10 years to stop trashing my wife. Won’t stop? OK, I’ll give you another 10 years” Cruz one of the Senators who voted against giving the Eastern seaboard disaster assistance after Hurricane (a/k/a “Superstorm”) Sandy?

  132. 132.

    Soprano2

    It’s still -4 degrees here in beautiful Springfield,  MO. Went back out to stoke the furnace,  and the snow had filled in my footprints from when I did it at 7 this morning. It’s true that we used to have snow like this much more often when I was younger,  but temps like this were rare. I better not hear anyone complaining this summer that it didn’t get cold enough to kill the bugs!

  133. 133.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: Might help if the Biden admin makes it a message “of course we help all Americans, it’s the other guys who don’t”.

  134. 134.

    Uncle Cosmo

    (To reiterate: Stay the hell home. Even if *you* know how to drive in weather like this, think of all your lovely neighbors who *don’t*.)

    It is my tradition to encourage people are about to slide behind the wheel to

    Drive lucky.

    ‘Cuz y’know, you can drive just as safe as possible, in perfect conditions, but if that longhauler highballing in the opposite direction picks that moment to lose control of his rig & send it flying across the yellow line…

    On a related note, when the weather is decent I often drive with the driver’s window down – until I come abreast of an 18-wheeler, when I roll it the hell up toot-sweet. The interstates are littered with large chunks of tread that have come blasting off those rigs when the rest of the tire suddenly loses its grip and centrifugal force launches them at orbital velocity. Really would prefer not to end my time on this mortal coil with the imprint of tread buried a half-inch deep into the left side of my face…

    In the days when I frequented the Great Orange Satan there was a long-haul trucker who twice a year posted pretty much the same admonitory thread about not fucking around when near one of the Big Rigs. Used to scare the bejeezus out of folks, for good reason.

    Among other things he pointed out that “the occupants of the car were killed instantly” is often the first responders’ blatant lie to ease the grief of surviving family and friends – in fact, once a passenger vehicle has been mangled beyond recognition by the F=ma of an 18-wheeler, those trapped inside frequently take many minutes to expire, crying and screaming for help until they mercifully lose consciousness…

    IIRC the author at one point ceased posting them after running afoul of the law for unrelated reasons – but IMO one of those GOS threads would be well worth tracking down, particularly to show younger and/or less experienced drivers in your orbit.​​​​

  135. 135.

    Jinchi

    Having lived several years in Texas, they absolutely do not know how to drive in ice or snow conditions. Having no experience, most assume that their large trucks are the best option and they only discover otherwise when they discover that brakes don’t work well on ice. This typically causes hundreds of highway accidents during the rare “ice storm”, and even if you are a highly experienced driver, it’s not going to help when they come barreling into you.

    Dallas in particular has one ludicrously designed, single-lane, raised highway offramp that turns into a disaster in these conditions. Local reporters used to stage a camera crew nearby to get guaranteed video of car after car sliding down uncontrollably. (Hopefully the police have learned to barricade it off since I lived there.)​​

  136. 136.

    NotMax

    @Jinchi

    From late last week.

    A 130 car pile-up in Fort Worth, Texas last week claimed the lives of six people.
    [snip]
    The crash happened on Thursday. The pile-up began when a semi-truck slid along icy roads. Investigators say speed may have also been a contributing factor in addition to the dangerous conditions. Source

  138. 138.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    (To reiterate: Stay the hell home. Even if *you* know how to drive in weather like this, think of all your lovely neighbors who *don’t*.)

    Yes. Think of all those “very fine drivers” who have 4 wheel drive and have completely forgotten that it keeps you moving, but doesn’t help you stop. In fact, there are very fine drivers on both sides – of the double yellow line. And on both sides of the highway, having spun out.​
     
    (No offense intended to those who understand that driving includes stopping safely, naturally.)

  140. 140.

    sab

    @mrmoshpotato: One of George Washington’s big issues was getting ripped on furniture by London merchants since as a colonial he wasn’t allowed to buy from France or th Low Countries.

  144. 144.

    Gvg

    @sab: Presumably, but I live further north and no where near iguanas. Florida is a long state, hours of driving and 3 garden climate zones.
    I actually fear the boas not iguanas, but we are still safely too cold for them.

  145. 145.

    Ransom

    Love the last tweet about driving for Freedum. The only time I was in Dallas I landed in some kind of wintery mix, had a Somali taxi driver from the airport who drove 15 mph and remarked about what fools the local drivers were, and every time we came to an overpass there was a pickup or SUV in the ditch on the other side.

Comments are closed.