Today is the birthday of painter and illustrator Norman Rockwell (1894–1978.)
This is also the birthday of writer James Michener (1907–1997), known for his very well-researched epic novels, such as Centennial.
Preparedness Notes for Sunday – February 3, 2019
The one is none philosophy certainly applies to a polar votex situation. We live in LakesCoulee on a farm outside of Blair WI our air temperature was -48 F at 6:30 AM .The house was at 50 degrees and falling the propane furnace had stopped working so we switched to our geothermal unit which provided some heat. We then went to our third option good old wood stove fired with oak. Within several hours we were at 65 degrees and climbing. We discovered early on the cause of the propane failure when we tried to turn on the kitchen stove, propane does not vaporize at temperatures of approximately -45F at about 10AM it was -38F and we had propane again everything worked. Remember: “One is none.”
Now THAT is cold!
Another issue that can arise is a frozen regulator. I have experienced this only twice in 25 years at two different winter locations and different regulators. A pan of hot water on the regulator solved the problem both times. I got this tip from the the first LP provider when I called about the problem.
Here in northwestern Illinois we got down to – 36 with a windchill of – 55 at about 8am on Wednesday Breaking the all time record by a few degrees. hot water line froze (only in kitchen) even though we trickle dripped all of our faucets for a couple days before this cold blast. Got that thawed out and all was fine. We did not get mail for two days (they canceled mail in 7 states) I have never seen that before!! Last time I saw this kind of cold was about 20 – 25 years ago and I was in my mid twenties then. I was very thankful that I constantly watch the weather forecasts and stocked up our house and my elderly parents house well before this came in.
One question, Does anyone remember that a few years ago they changed the way they calculate the wind chill? I remember the last time it was this cold the wind chill was calculated at like -80 or something like that. Just wondering