Polar vortex brings life-threatening chill

[oyarde]

Residents in central Minnesota braving a historic cold snap of minus 21 degree s are being urged to turn down their thermostats and reduce how much natural gas they use, according to CBS Minnesota. The announcement by Xcel Energy is due to the extreme weather conditions which have put a "significant" strain on their natural gas infrastructure.
"We need those in Becker, Big Lake, Chisago City, Lindstrom, Princeton, and Isanti to reduce use of natural gas. Until further notice, you are urged to turn down your thermostat to 60 degrees or lower and avoid the use of other natural gas appliances including hot water," reads a statement by the utility.
The warning comes after a Tuesday interruption in natural gas at around 10:30 p.m. in Princeton, leaving around 290 customers without gas service. The company expects to restore service on Thursday, and has rented hotel rooms for impacted customers until then.

6;30am Wind Chills ... The scientific term for this is "AAAAAAAiiiiAIAIAII COLD!!!!" ... coldest wind chills in the Twin Cities in DECADES #WeatherOnThe9s @FOX9 pic.twitter.com/4nXI3pMMvm
— Keith Marler ☀️ (@KeithMarlerFox9) January 30, 2019

Xcel Energy has established a command center at AmericInn in Princeton, and will be sending licensed plumbers to protect plumbing while service is being restored, according to CBS Minnesota.
Meanwhile, power was restored to over 7,000 metro-area Minnesotans after power went out Tuesday evening. The outage was blamed on equipment failures on power poles.
Wind chills in the region will remain in the 35 to 50 below zero range Wednesday afternoon, while the air temperature is expected to drop to around 30 below overnight. According to the National Weather Service, this is a life-threatening situation for those spending any prolonged period outdoors without proper clothing. A wind chill warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. on Thursday. Of note, frostbite is possible in less than five minutes of exposure.
Schools, stores, restaurants, museums and businesses across the Twin Cities region are shutting their doors or sending employees home early, while the US Postal Service has suspended deliveries on Wednesday in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...em-hotel-rooms

Living up there and not having wood backup is not wise . I probably would not want any stock in a $#@!ty co like that .

[Brian4Liberty]

LOL. Yeah, that story is spreading like wild fire. As if switch heaters was some kind of new emergency measure to address this polar vortex caused by climate change.

Amazing how they got those gas lines in just in time to combat this surprise freeze.

[Dr.3D]

Residents in central Minnesota braving a historic cold snap of minus 21 degree s are being urged to turn down their thermostats and reduce how much natural gas they use, according to CBS Minnesota. The announcement by Xcel Energy is due to the extreme weather conditions which have put a "significant" strain on their natural gas infrastructure.
"We need those in Becker, Big Lake, Chisago City, Lindstrom, Princeton, and Isanti to reduce use of natural gas. Until further notice, you are urged to turn down your thermostat to 60 degrees or lower and avoid the use of other natural gas appliances including hot water," reads a statement by the utility.
The warning comes after a Tuesday interruption in natural gas at around 10:30 p.m. in Princeton, leaving around 290 customers without gas service. The company expects to restore service on Thursday, and has rented hotel rooms for impacted customers until then.

6;30am Wind Chills ... The scientific term for this is "AAAAAAAiiiiAIAIAII COLD!!!!" ... coldest wind chills in the Twin Cities in DECADES #WeatherOnThe9s @FOX9 pic.twitter.com/4nXI3pMMvm
— Keith Marler ☀️ (@KeithMarlerFox9) January 30, 2019

Xcel Energy has established a command center at AmericInn in Princeton, and will be sending licensed plumbers to protect plumbing while service is being restored, according to CBS Minnesota.
Meanwhile, power was restored to over 7,000 metro-area Minnesotans after power went out Tuesday evening. The outage was blamed on equipment failures on power poles.
Wind chills in the region will remain in the 35 to 50 below zero range Wednesday afternoon, while the air temperature is expected to drop to around 30 below overnight. According to the National Weather Service, this is a life-threatening situation for those spending any prolonged period outdoors without proper clothing. A wind chill warning remains in effect until 9 a.m. on Thursday. Of note, frostbite is possible in less than five minutes of exposure.
Schools, stores, restaurants, museums and businesses across the Twin Cities region are shutting their doors or sending employees home early, while the US Postal Service has suspended deliveries on Wednesday in Minnesota and western Wisconsin.


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...em-hotel-rooms

Yep, just got a message on my phone... it said the local utility advises to turn the thermostat back to 65 degrees. Thing is, I'm burning propane.

[oyarde]

Might crack 10 degrees here by 1 pm . Maybe there will even be mail Friday.

[heavenlyboy34]

It's going to be 73 degrees today. I'm going to be shoveling sunshine.

[Anti Federalist]

LOL. Yeah, that story is spreading like wild fire. As if switch heaters was some kind of new emergency measure to address this polar vortex caused by climate change.

Amazing how they got those gas lines in just in time to combat this surprise freeze.

I know.

This is 150+ year old solution to a 19th century problem

[CaptUSA]

Getcha one...they are a blast!

Lol! Looks like fun! But not sure the investment is worth it for a few days every 3 years.

I did get out on the ice for a bit last night. It got dark real fast, though. It was -25, -30 wind chill, but it really didn't feel that bad at all. It was cold, but it's winter. The ice was nice and smooth - I bet those toys would have been great!

[Swordsmyth]

Midwesterners continue to struggle with the lingering effects of the dreaded 'Polar Vortex'.
The coldest location in the U.S. on Thursday was Cotton, Minn., where the temperature reached minus 56 °F. The coldest location in the U.S. on Wednesday was Norris Camp, Minn., where it was minus 48 °F, with a wind chill of minus 65 °F.

The sub-zero Arctic-style temperatures across much of the region, including cities like Chicago, Kansas City and Detroit, has turned deadly, as USNews reports that authorities are attributing at least nine deaths to the record-cold.

The medical examiner's office in Milwaukee, where temperatures plunged to minus-42 degrees, confirmed on Tuesday the death of a 55-year-old man found dead in his garage.
Authorities in Michigan confirmed two weather-related deaths on Wednesday, including a former city council member found near his home and a 70-year-old man who had been out in the elements in just his underwear. Detroit experienced wind chills as cold as minus-32 degrees Wednesday.

A 22-year-old man was found dead in Rochester, Minnesota, on Tuesday, WCCO-TV reported. Police say Ali Gombo likely died from hypothermia. In Iowa, a student was found unresponsive outside in cold temperatures where the wind chill reached minus-51 degrees. He later died at the hospital, according to the Press-Citizen. Classes at the University of Iowa were canceled Tuesday through Thursday due to the extreme weather. An 82-year-old man was found outside in Peoria, Illinois, on Tuesday after he fell trying to get inside his house, the Journal Start reported.

Parts of Lake Michigan have frozen...

The deep freeze resulted in the coldest temperatures in the US in recent memory. And as it plunged southward, temperatures plummeted lower than 20 degrees below zero (Farenheit) from North Dakota to northern Illinois during the morning hours of both Wednesday and Thursday.

Another coooold start.

Widespread temperatures of -15° to -30° to start today, and yes that is actual temperatures. While far less wind than yesterday, still enough for added danger & a wind chill warning is in effect until noon. Dress in layers and limit exposure. #ILwx #INwx pic.twitter.com/qMdECdUD30
— NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) January 31, 2019

On Thursday morning, 11 states - North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Vermont and New Hampshire - across the Midwest and northern New England recorded temperatures lower than the northernmost point in Alaska and the North Pole.

CHICAGO IS COLDER THAN THE NORTH POLE TODAY. pic.twitter.com/doBNE2sQ66
— Disco Ric (@RicWilson) January 30, 2019

In Winnepeg and Manitoba, the temperature dropped so low it neared the surface temperature of Mars, making the Canadian cities likely contenders for the coldest places on Earth.
The coldest spot in Canada on Wednesday was Key Lake, Saskatchewan, with an air temperature reading of -47.2 Celsius (roughly -52.6 degrees Fahrenheit). In International Falls, Minnesota, temperatures fell as low as -45 degrees Celsius (-49 degrees Fahrenheit).


In a sign that Mother Nature does indeed have a sense of humor, one reporter pointed out that Hell (the one in Michigan) has literally frozen over.

It's -7 degrees in Hell, Michigan, right now, with a wind chill of -28. You know what that means people...

Hell has literally frozen over.
— Derek Wallbank (@dwallbank) January 30, 2019

Additionally, Axios reports that Chicagoans reporter hearing loud noises and banging overnight, likely as a result of a "frost quake," or a cryoseism, per local WGN-TV, which occurs when a sudden drop in temperatures causes underground water to freeze and expand, causing the ground to crack.


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...y-freezes-over

[Anti Globalist]

It's going to be 73 degrees today. I'm going to be shoveling sunshine.

Well lucky you living somewhere it doesn't get cold.

[Swordsmyth]

After the Arctic polar vortex brought temperatures in parts of Canada to record lows that, in some places, rivaled the temperatures on the surface of Mars (not to mention leaving nine people dead), the infamous Arctic air has notched another milestone: It has shut down a nuclear reactor due to an extremely rare phenomenon called 'frazil ice'.
Never heard of frazil ice? Neither had we.



According to Bloomberg, Public Service Enterprise Group, shut a reactor early Thursday at unit at its Salem nuclear plant in southern New Jersey after screens on its intake froze over, restricting the flow of water needed to cool off the reactor, according to spokesman Joe Delmar.
A second unit at a station on the Delaware river was temporarily closed for the same reason.

The 60-foot-tall intake screens help guard the reactor against debris like floating wood. But Under extreme conditions (like those witnesses this week), overnight low temperatures at the station can fall into the single digits (or lower), creating frazil ice - small crystals of frozen mist - which can collect on the screens, thicken, and form a cement-like coating that completely blocks the flow of water into the reactor, causing circulators to shut down.


More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-...uclear-reactor

[Danke]

[Origanalist]

Life At Minus 80: The Men Of Snag

In early February of 1947, the bottom dropped out of the thermometer across Canada's Yukon Territories. Before the morning of 3 February dawned on Snag (Yukon), the alcohol in the thermometer had vacated the thermometer's stem and receded into the instrument's bulb, leaving the minus 80 oF (minus 62.2 oC) mark behind, the last tick on the thermometer's scale.

The initial estimate of that day's minimum temperature by weather officer-in-charge Gordon M. Toole was minus 83 oF ( minus 63.9 oC), the coldest temperature ever recorded in North America. (Only a few other sites in Siberia, Greenland and Antarctica have ever registered officially recognized colder temperatures.) The previous record had been set the preceding day at Snag when the thermometer bottomed out at minus 80 oF (minus 62.2 oC).

Sixteen men looked after the Snag Airport's operations: four meteorologists, several radio operators and aircraft maintenance/operations men. Toole was the duty weather officer who kept vigil on the minimum thermometer that night. As he hurried from the log barracks to the instrument shelter some thirty metres away, Toole could feel the cold invade his parka. He clearly heard dogs barking in the village of Snag, five kilometres (3 miles) away, and a tinkling as his breath, frozen instantly in the cold, fell as a white powder to the ground below as he went to check the temperature at 7:20 am (YST).

The freezing of one's breath produced a continuous hissing sound similar to dry blowing snow, and a tinkle when the ice crystals hit the ground. Thin ice when broken sounded exactly like breaking glass. The contraction of ice covering the nearby river was also very apparent. "Ice in the White River about a mile east of the airport, cracked and boomed loudly, like gunfire," reported Toole.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weathe...ts/life-80.htm

[Origanalist]

[pcosmar]

Well lucky you living somewhere it doesn't get cold.

Blessed,, though I has resisted it..

Pacific NW. Frosty mornings and low 50s...

we may get a dusting of snow,, but it has been a mild winter.

and I am immune from winter hype having been born into a lethal environment(a Yooper)..and surviving almost 62 years.