|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 9, 2024 9:49:39 GMT -6
The nearest general aviation airport is back on line. Their records show 2.33 inches of rain from 8PM yesterday to 10AM today. The other GAA has 2.85 inches in that time frame.
We still have steady rain and rain and rain and rain and...
The hourly forecasts now have the rain ending after 3PM. We just might make the "3 inches" from one forecast...
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 9, 2024 21:24:01 GMT -6
Nearest GAA South of us had 2.68 inches of rain. Next nearest GAA North of us had 3.1 inches - so maybe 2.8 inches on us. The rain kept coming down for close to 30 hours.
One brief tornado watch but it was canceled in a few minutes.
One person killed when a large tree fell across the road he was driving on and landed on the windshield of his Mercedes.
Highest count of meters out (Georgia Power and all the local EMCs) was over 55,000 across the state. I haven't checked any adjacent states but I suspect MS and AL were hit harder from what the weather radar there showed.
Flash floods in the usual places across the metro area - plus an interstate on-ramp and one strip mall parking lot flooded in the metro Atlanta area.
Not a good day for anyone who had to be out in it - or the state's power companies.
Better half says we had four hits on the power - just long enough to make the clocks on the stove and microwave lose the time. That's relatively minor with us not being included in the large numbers of meters out not far from us.
|
|
|
Post by feralferret on Jan 9, 2024 22:49:41 GMT -6
The house on the opposite side of the street and the houses immediately behind them all lost power for most of the day. I'm surprised that it didn't trip the main feed into the neighborhood like it usually does. No glitches here that would reset the microwave clock.
We didn't get home from out of town until around 4:30 PM today. 4" to 6" of snow with 50 mph winds caused massive outages here. They missed us for a change.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 10, 2024 0:34:07 GMT -6
The rain stopped after 3PM yesterday but our power co-op still has 16 meters out. The block of 15 meters has been out 4 hours, 15 minutes might be a late casualty of the storm. The local TV news had mobile news teams out showing some of the "dark" areas and some of the flooded roads - some just a few miles from us.
The other power co-op in the county has 6 meters out but far enough apart to not be a common failure. Most of those are "Assessing outage cause" so anyone's guess. ERT's are 02:15 to 04:15.
Georgia Power has 318 outages affecting 10,828 meters. ERT's are "Assessing Condition", "Re-evaluating Condition" or maybe a time of 1AM or 6AM or 9AM or 2PM.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 10, 2024 2:22:58 GMT -6
The power hits that lost time on the kitchen clocks also tripped the GFCI breaker feeding the rack with the solar power components - including the laptop that monitors the solar charge controllers and the UPS feeding that laptop plus the 16 volt DC supply that serves as a "40 watt solar panel equivalent" when I'm unable to be outside and clean panels. Looks like I need to double the size of the battery in that UPS, as its 4+ hours plus the battery time of the laptop weren't enough for me to catch that internal loss of power before the laptop shut down.
The "40 watt solar panel equivalent" is permanently connected and there's a switch at the front of the rack to change over from the solar panel cables coming into the basement to that supply. If the charge needs to be faster, I can configure a mounted spare charge controller for another 300 watts of charging in less than 5 minutes and add additional charge controllers for another 1200 watts or more of charging power using grid or generator power.
I'm usually aware of that GFCI tripping but I've had a couple of worse-than-usual days and the previous month's Rx for hydrocodone tablets had been for 60 tablets instead of the 75 tablets of the previous 5 or 6 months and I was down to 1 tablet when I saw the NP Monday (surgeon not in the office that day). The surgeon was on the phone to the nearest pharmacy when she learned of the problem Tuesday morning but the continuous rain of the past two days was such that I didn't want the better half driving in it and I could fall back on the previous Rx tablet (Tramadol and not nearly as effective for me as the hydrocodone - among other things the surgeon and I have learned about my body over the past couple of years) plus some CBD oil. I'll have the hydrocodone Rx meds in hand in the morning. Meanwhile, I'll continue to refine the Tramadol plus CBD cocktail to get the needed level of pain relief but without any "fuzzy" slipping in - 1 to 1 1/2 Tramadol plus 1.5 to 2.0ml of CBD, depending on the pain level. I'm getting pretty good at being my own DIY compounding pharmacy: one where they mix medications to order. As long as I can get the pain down to a level that lets me be functional, I'm OK - although the daily pain versus Rx meds usage log that gets sent in weekly (electronic transfer) probably has several dozen variations of "I'm tired of hurting" in it ;-)
|
|
|
Post by gipsy on Jan 10, 2024 9:52:31 GMT -6
Thats no fun for sure
|
|
|
Post by canoeguy on Jan 15, 2024 11:36:40 GMT -6
6 degrees above zero and expected to drop here in Lansing, MI.
|
|
|
Post by gipsy on Jan 15, 2024 11:50:33 GMT -6
Has not reached up to 0 in two days now. Forecast to get up to 0 on Wed.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 15, 2024 19:48:19 GMT -6
This might be a warming trend for some folks, but it's a near-disaster for 99% of the people in our area. Probably fewer than one vehicle in 10,000 with tire chains (if that many). Fewer then one driver per 1,000 that understands "If it doesn't move when you floor the gas, it won't stop when you stomp the brakes."
Schools in many counties are closed or on virtual tomorrow. As big as our county is (~50 miles North to South), rain at tha south end of the county can easily be freezing rain and black ice on bridges / overpasses at the north end.
Wednesday morning's low is forecast to be 14 at the south end of the county. If that rain was coming then, we'd have snow - and total traffic gridlock in some areas. I grew up in an area of the country noted for its freezing rain and black ice and I've had chains in my vehicle or easily accessed since I bought my my first car (used '57 Chevy). I'm definiely not the typical north central Georgia immigrant - having moved in with tire chains, bags of sand and ice melter ;-)
Don't know how many remember "Snow Jam!" in the the Atlanta area a number of years ago, when the surface streets downtown were almost solid vehicles (there's not quite room for my car but I'll only block one lane of the cross street and only until the light up ahead goes green) and the interstates were mazes of deserted vehicles - with people walking off the interstate and knocking on the doors of total strangers to ask for food, water and/or a place to stay. I was working second shift and the snow came up from the South in the afternoon - the farther I drove, the worse it got and I was working in downtown Atlanta at the time. Having learned alternate ways around the frequently slow / stalled traffic in that area, I made it to work almost on time. The night shift never showed. When the morning shift finally drifted in, the drive home was almost as quick as a Sunday morning - there were abandoned vehicles all over the interstate but there was plenty of room to get around them.
===================
Affected Area Portions of north central and northwest Georgia
Description ...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 AM TO NOON EST TUESDAY... ...WIND CHILL ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 5 PM TUESDAY TO 10 AM EST WEDNESDAY...
WHAT...Freezing rain may mix with rain at times. A light glaze of ice is possible, especially on elevated surfaces. For the Wind Chill Advisory, very cold wind chills expected. Wind chills as low as zero.
WHERE...Portions of north central and northwest Georgia.
WHEN...For the Winter Weather Advisory, from 4 AM to noon EST Tuesday. For the Wind Chill Advisory, from 5 PM Tuesday to 10 AM EST Wednesday.
IMPACTS...Very slippery sidewalks, roads and bridges are possible. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute. The cold wind chills could result in hypothermia if precautions are not taken.
========================================
My body complained a great deal about me rolling out multiple lengths of 5/8" hose to drain it and me being up on a stepstool to reach the inside shutoffs for the outside hydrants but none of those hydrants will be frozen pipes Wednesday morning. I suspect the local plumbers will be busy during the day Wednesday :-( Thursday morning's forecast low is 19 so a repeat performance. Then a day of "normal" temperatures for the season followed by back-to-back morning lows of 13 degrees. Not a big deal for folks dealing with 0 for a high but devasting for folks in housing designed for the lows to never be below freezing...
|
|
|
Post by gipsy on Jan 15, 2024 20:46:26 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 15, 2024 21:34:29 GMT -6
Thanks for the offer, but I have a down vest (LLBean closeout item) and a lined flannel shirt (LLBean closeout item) to go under whichever of several coats seems appropriate and I have lots of wool socks (a layer of wool dress socks with a layer of serious wool socks provides marvelous warmth). Shoes in multiple varieties including some leather work boots that are big enough for two layers of wool socks. Multiple pairs of gloves, including one pair with battery heating ;-) Multiple hats including a Sherlock Holmes "deerstalker" hat with the flaps that cover your ears and part of your cheeks.
I've never lived in the "far north" but I've visited there often enough and long enough to know how to dress for the weather. Six weeks in Columbus, O in January & February with the same snow there all six weeks - it just got dirtier - taught me a lot about staying warm. There are some situations in which I'm a quick learner ;-) If we lost power and natural gas, there's two weeks of fuel for the kerosene heater - we'd be warm in the daytime and we'd sleep warm with lots of wool blankets and family heirloom quilts.
I would have to be careful about blocking windows so no neighbors saw light from the kero heater because they'd just KNOW that I had power and heat and...
|
|
|
Post by feralferret on Jan 15, 2024 22:39:04 GMT -6
This weather is very similar to what I had to deal with on my only trip to Minnesota. I attended a training conference in St. Paul in mid-January back in 1987. We flew in and did not have a vehicle. If we wanted anything other than what was available in the hotel we had to hoof it through the deep snow and cold wind. My co-worker and I got a workout looking for supper. Thankfully I had a very heavy parka that I've had since 1974 and still have. I wore it tonight when my wife and I chased down supper in the car. No, we did NOT run over the deer that was walking down the middle of our street when we left. Not that kind of chased down. We went to a drive through.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 16, 2024 3:48:33 GMT -6
Our forecast had freezing rain - then it didn't. Then it had again from 6:45AM to 7:30AM - now it has freezing rain at 7AM.
I was in the basement checking some batteries at 4AM - and I heard small ice hitting things, not rain drops - but the forecast didn't change.
Forecast now has freezing rain from 6:45AM to 8:30AM. That timing is good - it will tease most of the ice-incompetent drivers out onto the roadways and then dump the slick on and around them. Probably a good day for some ice-sliding-drivers-set-to-music videos. But I don't want to be in the middle of that pileup - guess I just wait for other people to post videos on YouTube.
Or I could set up the garbage cam to watch them try to pick up on one side of the road while going uphill and then on the other side of the road while going downhill ;-)
Freezing rain is fine when there's nowhere I must be for at least 48 hours...
=========
The forecast has been updated again - the freezing rain changes to "Wintry Mix" at 8AM. Will that be just a NIST signals 8:00:00 or a few seconds before or after? Either way, I doubt that it will be on time.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 16, 2024 4:23:29 GMT -6
Another update: One place says "Freezing rain at 7:AM", another at 7:15AM. "Wintry mix" at 8AM" one place but continued "Freezing rain" another place.
Don't we all wish we had GSA jobs with retire at 55 and throwing darts for the day's data - and you get to keep throwing darts ALL DAY!
If the freezing rain/wintry mix in the weather radar would just hold together for another hour, we'd have a fun day of watching incompetent people trying to drive on frozen precip and folks trying to cook with power off.
Lots of good folks in Alabama have been under the freeing/frozen precip - Perry County has 16% of their meters out.
Georgia Power has 138 meters in metro Atlanta with "Assessing Condition" and 118 meters out with "Re-evaluating Condition". I think those might be weather related but they haven't figured it out yet - maybe matching pennies to see which crew goes out in the cold rain to work on it?
Our power co-op has 3 meters out. The one that's 5+ days must be a don't care. The one that's been out 2 hours is probably weather related but the one that's been out 8 hours is anybody's guess - and no one on the crew wants to talk to someone who's been cold that long... No, I don't have a great opinion of our power co-op's power fail repair process.. Not when they've had repeated failures at exactly the same point on the aerial lines that supply us and a few hundred other people. Repeated failure with the number of meters out in the range of 676 to 683. You know that has to be very close together problems to have 676 twice and 683 once - and that's just from my notes that go back to 2018. Not sure how many folks were out on failures before then.
Maybe we won't need them today.
=======
Yet another update:
Freezing rain at 7AM.
Wintry Mix at 8AM.
Snow Showers at 9AM.
Except the chart shows freezing rain from 7AM to 8:30AM and maybe snow at 8:30AM and 9:30AM.
"Place yer bets! Place yer bets! Last chance before I spin the wheel!"
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 16, 2024 5:15:18 GMT -6
Yet another update:
6:45AM Rain / Freezing rain 7:00AM Freezing Rain 8:00AM Wintry Mix 9:00AM Snow Showers 10:00AM Few Snow Showers
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 16, 2024 7:23:32 GMT -6
All that forecast....
and we got was rain that quit well before it was cold enough to have freezing precip.
Well South of us in Montgomery, AL, they are getting some freezing precip.
So much for the local weather-guessers...
The power co-op's 2 1/2 hour outage is now 4 1/2 hours and the 8 1/2 hour outage is now 10 1/2 hours. Can somebody go call the line crews and tell them that the rain has stopped so they can go check on those outages?
I think maybe I should go buy another 5 gallon gas can and fill and treat another 5 gallons for the inverter gen. If the power co-op is going to be that slow getting to these single outages, I should be prepared for days of outage when the next one happens...
====
Just had a rare event - a semi with an unmarked 53 foot trailer just came chugging up the hill in front of the house. The only semi we usually see out here is a County Fire ladder truck...
|
|
|
Post by gipsy on Jan 16, 2024 10:16:20 GMT -6
And a fun time was had by all I am sure.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Jan 16, 2024 21:04:26 GMT -6
Georgia Power has 4600+ outages in metro Atlanta. Weather related? No way to tell - yet. The biggest outages are 2446, 1117 and 255 meters. LOTS of smaller outages - none of the bigger ones have a cause listed or an ERT. I did not take time to investigate all 44 outages. It's not a good time to be without power when the temperature is now 19F and on its way to 14F. We won't match the negative numbers other people have experienced except for some -5F wind chills.
Our power co-op has a dozen meters out. Having seen how long it took them to get some single outages cleared this morning, I'm thankful to have multiple generators and a good stock of treated gasoline.
The other power co-op in the county has 25 meters out.
====
We were without TV, internet and landline phone for several hours around noon today. Apparently a major failure in AT&T's Uverse system as their outage map covered a large area. Their initial estimated restoration time was 8PM but they were back before 2PM - after me doing multiple reboots on all the AT&T hardware even though their outage page said it was all back up.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Feb 11, 2024 1:54:06 GMT -6
Our current weather forecast:
Sunday: Rain probability 100% day, 100% night. Up to 1 inch. 5 consecutive hours of thunderstorms. Probability 61% - 69%
Monday: Rain probability 100% day. 13 consecutive hours of thunderstorms. Probability 67% - 98%
Winds 5 to 10MPH both days, plus whatever accompanies the thunderstorms.
Think we might have some power flickers from lightning?
Or some trees down on power lines plus vehicle collisions with power poles?
|
|
|
Post by feralferret on Feb 11, 2024 2:41:08 GMT -6
Quiet night for Evergy.
Active Outages 0
Total Customers Out 0
Total Customers Served 1,670,473
This is rather unusual. There are usually at least a handful of outages at any time.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Feb 11, 2024 3:15:38 GMT -6
Our power co-op and the other power co-op in the county have zero outages. Georgia Power (2,683,479 meters) has 252 meters out in 23 outages - a relatively quiet night for them. I expect to see their numbers go UP with the incoming rain and thunderstorms.
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Feb 11, 2024 4:48:13 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Feb 12, 2024 2:20:46 GMT -6
Seems the weather is doing what I expected...
ONE outage from Georgia Power.
Estimated Restoration Time (ERT): Feb 12, 2024, 6:00 AM
Customers Affected 748
Outage Details A tree has caused a power outage in your area. Most customers will be restored by the ERT shown.
That's ONE tree and 748 meters out - almost 2/3 of their total outages across the state.
|
|
|
Post by feralferret on Feb 12, 2024 2:36:28 GMT -6
Sure that it wasn't a terrorist in a tree suit?
|
|
|
Post by papaof2 on Feb 12, 2024 5:33:05 GMT -6
Just reporting what the power company said ;-)
|
|