And the weather is

[papaof2]

And the NWS has a flood watch for almost half of the state until 7PM - the list of affected counties is maybe 50 counties long.

"Rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches have already occurred near and south of I-20 west of Atlanta and near and south of I-85 east of Atlanta. Additional rainfall amounts of 1 to 2 inches are likely, with locally higher amounts possible."

[gipsy]

At least it isn't snow.

[papaof2]

The typical ratio of rain to snow is 1 inch of rain = 10 inches of snow.
If we were getting snow, 2 inches rain + 1 inch rain = 3 inches rain = 30 inches snow; 4 inches rain + 2 inches rain = 6 inches rain = 60 inches snow - and it might be July before they got all that cleared ;-) We're OK for that long but I doubt that anyone else near us is.
Remember we're in a location that treats snow as a gift from God: "He gave it, we'll wait for Him to take it away" except for some of the major commuter routes - but we're not along those...

I would hope for dry powder snow (which we rarely get) because much of it can be moved with a leaf blower if you work on it every inch or so. On the other hand, unless the County rounds up 50 times the number of snowplows they now own, the roads out here would be covered until the Spring Thaw.

[papaof2]

Skip the lion and lamb metaphors - March is coming in with the following hourly weather:

1 March
3AM Showers
4AM Cloudy
5AM-7AM Showers
8AM-6PM Rain
7PM-11PM Showers

2 March
12AM Showers
1AM Light Rain
2AM Showers
3AM Rain
4AM-9AM Showers

Maybe the correct animal is "Dead Fish" or "Drowned Rat"?

[papaof2]

4 PM Light Rain
5 PM to Midnite Rain
1 AM Heavy Rain
2 AM Heavy Rain
3 AM Heavy Thunderstorms
4 AM to 6 AM Rain
7 AM to 8 AM Light Rain
9 AM to 1 PM Showers

I'll guess that between 1AM and 4AM, we'll see a number of folks in the dark. There are already several hundred customers without power in Georgia Power's territory across the state - from "fallen tree" and "vehicle accident" but not yet "weather related". We can probably expect gusty winds that are higher than the "8 to 12 MPH" in the forecast to accompany the "Heavy Thunderstorms".

Will we lose power? The odds are probably about even. If I'm asleep, the UPS that keeps the electric blanket warm for an hour or so when needed will wake me with its "Beep! Beep! Beep!" serenade. If I'm awake, I'll hear the UPS beeps from all the other locations.

[gipsy]

We are getting wet but no noise makers today. Kinda like the April showers they sing about, except it's March.

[papaof2]

Yeah, this year's calendar has a lot of days that are in the wrong month...

[feralferret]

When the system came through yesterday morning, I was awakened by thunder. Otherwise it was a big nothing here. I hope it is a big nothing for y'all too. We did get .59" of rain which was good.

I was able to replace my big UPS for my computer that went stupid shortly after the time I bought new batteries for it. The new one is also a 1500 VA unit. It had bad batteries. It cost me $8.08 plus tax. It uses the same batteries I bought for the one that died, so I already had four. It only uses two, so I have two spares I will have to keep charged manually until they get used. It has a much better computer interface and a very useful display. It even displays the power draw and remaining capacity. The only down side is that it has half the storage capacity.

[papaof2]

If you're running the UPS at less than 30% of its rated load, you could double up the batteries (assorted crimp terminals and a double-to-single terminal so you can plug in the second set and #10 THHN 90C wire is rated for 40 amps at 90C. 40 amps at 13 volts is 520 watts into the UPS. 40 amps at 26 volts is 1040 watts into the UPS.). You need good insulation on all the wiring and connectors as the battery charger in some UPS units is at line voltage - fine inside the screwed together plastic case but possibly not when the batteries are beside or behind that case.

Typical UPS design has the components rated to work at maximum power for whatever the life of the battery(ies) is at that power level, but they will run OK for longer if the load is reduced. You might need to check some temperatures inside the case while running the UPS at various loads - that's why you kept all those 100 watt and 60 watt bulbs when you replaced them with LEDs: you knew you'd some adjustable loads for testing a UPS ;-)
There's a guy on YouTube who has a lot of videos about his backup system and how he tested it, including a "load board" with 10 or 12 standard ceiling mount ceramic light sockets to be able to provide adjustable loads in 100 watt increments. He also has a series of videos on converting a 1500 watt sine wave UPS into an inverter for handling longer term power outages:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HXvV30E7wQ
The page with all his videos is here: www.youtube.com/@knurlgnar24
You could substitute the cheaper plastic sockets if 1) the bulbs will be base down and 2) you don't run them for hours.

Alternatively, you could get some of the 6.5AH LiFePO4 cells from aliexpress and build a battery pack in a plastic case (little ammo box?) that has serious connectors (XT60/XT90?) for the connection inside the UPS case. LiitoKala 3.2V 32700 6500mAh LiFePO4 Battery 35A Continuous Discharge, Maximum 55A (30 seconds?) batteries are $3.26 + tax (free ship) in lots of 12 cells. That's one 8s1p 24 volt 6.5AH battery rated at 35 amps continuous or a 4s3p 12 volt 19.5AH battery rated at 105 amps continuous (if your connecting strips and your battery welding skills are good enough - 1 strip of 0.15mm nickel strip that's 8mm wide is good for about 10 amps; wider strips or stacked strips increase the current carrying ability). You'd need the proper BMS for whichever battery(ies) you built.
www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832800264287.html

I recommend these LiFePO4 cells only because LiitoKala has been making lithium-based batteries for a while and they usually get good reviews.

[feralferret]

My full load for computer, monitor, & cordless phone is only 90 watts according to the UPS. I forget how long it said that I could run at that load, but it was somewhere around 20 hours. That's much longer than I need to get the generator up. I can always swap out the other pair of batteries that are fully charged if needed. I also have a 40 watt solar charger I can setup quickly if needed. Since I am moving in a few days, I'm not going to worry about it until I can get setup down there.

I will need to install my new transfer switch and also the solar panels that I have. I have two large battery boxes for group 28 lead acid batteries. They will hold several LiFePO4 batteries each, but I need to get my old house sold before spending that kind of money.

I'm still moving pretty slow from a severe case of food poisoning almost a week ago (last Saturday might). I lost a lot of blood out of both ends and came real close to making my wife a wealthy woman with the insurance money.

My youngest step-son and my daughter's younger son are going to be doing the manual labor, thank goodness. Afterward, I will be finishing up the repairs, painting, and odds & ends to get the house ready for sale. We aren't taking my current bed, so It will be available while doing the sale prep.

[papaof2]

Glad that you're still here to tell us about that.

Always good to have a bed so you can crash when the day's work - or your energy - is finished.

The better half's mother died about 20 years ago. Because I was the DIY person in the family, I said I'd do the work if my brother-in-law would cover half the costs. I loaded my truck with all the tools and so forth I thought might be needed for getting that house ready for sale and drove 400 miles to where I was needed. There was a bed and power (and the central air - it was July) so I could sleep at night. I spent about two weeks doing cleaning, repairing, replacing and painting (even did some mortar repair around a couple of windows) and my b-i-l, who still lives in that city, was my other set of hands when needed. I put him to work with the reciprocating saw and a package of metal cutting blades and let him take apart the old steel "garden shed" and then cleaning the carpets. The b-i-l's wife is a great cook so I had some 4 star or better meals ;-)

I thought I was finished until the morning I planned to leave and checking the ceiling light fixture in the kitchen was the last task on my list. Good that it was on the list because the "Maximum 60 watt bulbs" fixture had seen years with two 100 watt bulbs and its internal wiring was thoroughly cooked. Up in the attic to check the status of the 14 gauge feeding that light and there was enough good wire to reach the replacement fixture after cutting off the cooked ends. Off to the home center for a replacement fixture and then back to do the work. I left about two hours later than I had planned to but the little 4 cylinder, 5 speed Nissan truck had after-market cruise control that I had installed PLUS the plastic GM vacuum reservoir I had added so it would have enough vacuum to pull the throttle open and hold its speed on long hills so I just got on the interstate, got the truck up near the speed limit and pressed the "Cruise" button. The control unit was designed for mounting on the turn signal lever so it'd be close at hand but I thought that mounting it just below the knob on the 5 speed shift lever made better sense because the cruise would require attention whenever braking and shifting and the "Resume" button was within reach of my index finger (so did the guy who bought that truck from me when I replaced it after it reached age 18). 400 miles made for a long day, but the drive was almost all interstate so I made one fuel stop on the way (fill at half for the truck and some emptying for me and I had lunch in a cooler so I could eat when I was hungry, not when some foodery was available along the road) and I stopped every hour or two to get out and stretch and then back on the interstate and let the cruise control hold the speed until the next stop or I got home.

I remembered to take a digital camera with me so there would be before and after pictures. The b-i-l's wife and daughter didn't think much of my decision to paint the closet walls ("Nobody sees them when they're full of stuff") but they were very impressed by the results - the closets all looked bigger and that's a positive when trying to sell any house ;-) Didn't get what we thought the house was worth when it sold, but collectively we didn't have the $$$$ to remove the carpet and get the original hardwood floors refinished or replace the roof and the overall US financial situation at the time made taking out a loan for that much $$$$ too much of a risk :-( Don't know what the b-i-l did with his share of the proceeds of the sale but we used the better half's share to finish paying off the loan on the new-to-us "until they carry us out" house that we're still in.

[papaof2]

I've mentioned having a day in the past with low of 11 and high of 70. I ran across some weather notes from when the weather station was functioning (I need to spend some time on a ladder to fix that - and maybe add solar power for the remote unit).

23 January 2009
2.50 inches of rain
min 11.1F
max 70.5F
If'n you don't like the weather, wait a coupla hours...

[gipsy]

Warm front came through, did it?

[papaof2]

I don't have the the weather station data from then, just the note I made that day.

Maybe it's on one of the old backup drives that I'll have to dig out of the box of backup drives?

There are only 8 or 10 of them...

[papaof2]

From the NWS:

Affected Area
Portions of north central, northeast and northwest Georgia

Description

...WIND ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 AM EDT TUESDAY...

WHAT...Southeast winds 15 to 25 mph with gusts up to 45 mph expected.

WHERE...Portions of north central, northeast and northwest Georgia.

WHEN...Until 8 AM EDT Tuesday.

IMPACTS...Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Use extra caution when driving, especially if operating a high profile vehicle. Secure outdoor objects.

============

That means we have 48 hours of winds strong enough to take branches off trees, take down some trees and play hob with aerial power distribution. It's likely already doing damage as Georgia Power had a single outage of 1998 meters elsewhere in the state about an hour ago. At least our backup power system got it's monthly test recently ;-)

[feralferret]

Wind advisory here for Sunday and until 6 pm Monday. At least we didn't get snow, yet. That's forecast for Monday night and Tuesday.

[papaof2]

No snow, just 100% chance of rain Tuesday - no amount specified (yet?).

[gipsy]

Good luck with that.

[papaof2]

I noted earlier in the week that Tuesday was the "bad weather" day with hours of rain - and now 4 hours of thunderstorms - and it's happening. The storm has moved maybe 50 miles into the northwest corner of the state and Georgia Power has outages of 100, 103, 112, 113, 154, 396 and 905 meters - all with status of "Re-evaluating Condition".

From the most recent forecast, we'll have some rain around sunrise but the worst of the storm won't be near us until 11AM when the 4 hours of thunderstorms start. At the moment, our power co-op has zero meters out, the other power co-op in the county has 21 meters out and Georgia Power has fewer than 30 meters out across all of metro Atlanta.

Stay tuned for the fun and games when the storm does get to the north-central part of the state...

[gipsy]

Stay safe

[papaof2]

Georgia Power has 9000+ meters out across the state. A lot of the outages are "Assessing Condition" and may be in that state until daylight.

2854 meters - downtown Atlanta - Lots of old stately houses and equally old trees that will NOT withstand the winds of Heavy or Severe Thunderstorms. I'd expect the morning news shows to have lots of pictures of trees down on houses and cars...

The next two areas were under the one Tornado Warning I saw issued earlier so who knows what actually happened there - at least until daylight.

1906 meters - Conyers

3570 meters - between Collinsville & Conyers


447 - Columbus

All the other outages are 300 meters or less.

The storm is still moving across the state but it seems to have weakened.

Our Tornado Watch expires in about 15 minutes.

We had some heavy rain, a little lightning and a little thunder but no light flickers. As I post this, our power co-op has 3 outages with 8 meters out. The other power co-op in the county has zero meters out.

What's the point of having good backup if you never get to use it? ;-)

[papaof2]

A few hours after the previous post. Our power co-op has one meter out. The other power co-op in the county has zero meters out. Georgia Power has 4697 meters out. 2502 in metro Atlanta, 1154 in Augusta - together that's 77.7% of the meters out.. All the other outages are 300 meters or less.
It's an improvement from the 9000+ meters out across the state.

[gipsy]

And it's snowing here.

[papaof2]

Yesterday's high temp was 81F. Normal for the date would have been 72F. That temp difference added to the intensity of the storm.

[techsar]

"Interesting" morning today. 5 inches of rain between 7am and noon. (still raining)Tornado passed through a couple miles from work, we had wind gusts about 80 mph. Around 22500 folks without power in the area since 10 am, so they sent everyone home. Opened the door turned on the tv and lights. Brought up the local outage map, then posted this.

CLECO says they'll have the power on an hour ago (noon)

At least I don't have to water the garden today!

...and we just lost internet...well, one connection anyhow.

...make that two connections.

ETA: 44,500 without power at the peak and expecting 23,000 to be out overnight.
Our grid power was restored shortly after 5pm...