Weather....

[D_W]

Today has been relatively warm, but it's raining. Which is kind of a common thing in the middle Atlantic or eastern united states. I went for a walk this morning and it started to rain - not really what I was hoping for as it was set yesterday to not start until midnight tonight.

40F here at the moment (that's probably about 5 by queen's temperature rules).

midnight tonight - projected to be 37F. Strangely, not much decline in temps.

tomorrow afternoon, I planned to maybe do some chisel making with the doors open in the garage. by 4PM 2F ( -17 queen's rules) with 25-35mph winds and gusts to 50

when grinding metal, you can always have bare hands on something warm, and my doors don't face the wind direction from the west, so it's still not that far outside of the realm of possibility. But, I do also have glue and some WB finishes and paint in the shop, so I guess discretion on those potentially getting below 32F says keep the doors closed.

>you can always have bare hands on something warm< I should explain that - if you're handling something that is relatively warm and it doesn't get cold as it's on and off of the grinding wheel, you can wear no coat and grind in 20F temperatures and not feel cold. Having something warm your hands consistently is almost like magic in cold temps.

 

[D_W]

(at 2ºF, shop rust isn't much of a problem - so there's that benefit).

 

[Jameshow]

Keep warm you lot over the pond!!

 

[D_W]

Keep warm you lot over the pond!!

It's below normal for here, but not that far out of the ordinary. If the wind doesn't knock out power, it's no problem. It's more inconvenient for outdoor activities (who wants to throw a football with the kids when it goes backwards), and walks through the woods are unsafe.

It'll be tough beans for the homeless, though, but any who aren't actively doing something they shouldn't be doing will go inside. the rest will hopefully take whatever is on their wishlist and then hurry inside, too.

 

[Jameshow]

It's worse for those further south who aren't prepared for it I guess?

 

[D_W]

It's worse for those further south who aren't prepared for it I guess?

icy roads in areas where there aren't normally icy roads are a huge problem. There are icy roads, and then there are completely untreated icy roads where you attempt to move your car at all and the peak in the middle of the road results in you going only sideways from a standstill. That's no driving regardless of experience, but combine that in the south with lack of equipment to deal with roads and you get pile ups that look like "how stupid are people - one after the other keeps driving into the pile of cars here". But cars stop like locomotives with bad brakes in conditions like that.

There was a notable story about texas last year or the year before, but that's their fault for wanting to be separated from other grids and mismanaging it.

It's all about acclimation, I guess. Power or not, we have hot water in the house. 2f and windy is uncomfortable here, unheard of to someone in the deep south and "friday afternoon, wind is messing my hair up but going to town for coffee. glad it's not cold for real" in the Canadian Prairie.

 

[Noel]

DW, best mention temperatures in C, F means nothing to me and dare say a few others.
Anyway hope you avoid the “bomb” and stay safe.

 

[raffo]

2F means it's going to be minus 16C. Right now is about 4C, doesn't feel that bad.

-16 is pretty freaking cold for this part of the country.

 

[XTiffy]

It is often said that weather in Great Britain is unique to the rest of the World (due to our location). On the globe London is about the same latitude as Calgary in Canada but we rarely get snow. Even a frost (South Coast) is not that normal in winter, just had a week of minus temps. Spent a couple of months around February 1977 in New Hampshire, one of the harshest winters, TV showed scenes of snow in Florida, which didn't do the oranges much good.
Never had much of a problem tranferring between Imperial and Metric measurements. Us "Old Fogies" still think in terms of degrees F but I learned many years ago to convert F to C and visa versa. which takes account of the two scales interesecting at -40. Take 60 F for instance add 40 thus =100 multiply by 5/9(ie multiply by 5 then divide by 9) =55.5 take away the 40 originally added to get 15.5. degrees C. To go the other way multiply by 9/5 adding/subtracting the "40" as before. I like to keep the brain ticking over my carrying out the calculation in my head, which again isn't unusual for those of us brought up on "Times tables".
For our friends across the pond why do you refer to mathematics as Math (singular) whereas we shorten it to "Maths"!

 

[clogs]

14C here yesterday..... sweat shirt, fleece and a fleece sleeveless jacket, hat n gloves....n I never wear a hat.....
strimming/weed wacker in the field margins....
B freezing....
had the heating on for a week now.....
roll on spring......hahaha...
19C and sunny for the big day here.......prob go to the beach for a walk....
I wish u all a happy safe holiday....n....great new year.....

 

[D_W]

It is often said that weather in Great Britain is unique to the rest of the World (due to our location). On the globe London is about the same latitude as Calgary in Canada but we rarely get snow. Even a frost (South Coast) is not that normal in winter, just had a week of minus temps. Spent a couple of months around February 1977 in New Hampshire, one of the harshest winters, TV showed scenes of snow in Florida, which didn't do the oranges much good.
Never had much of a problem tranferring between Imperial and Metric measurements. Us "Old Fogies" still think in terms of degrees F but I learned many years ago to convert F to C and visa versa. which takes account of the two scales interesecting at -40. Take 60 F for instance add 40 thus =100 multiply by 5/9(ie multiply by 5 then divide by 9) =55.5 take away the 40 originally added to get 15.5. degrees C. To go the other way multiply by 9/5 adding/subtracting the "40" as before. I like to keep the brain ticking over my carrying out the calculation in my head, which again isn't unusual for those of us brought up on "Times tables".
For our friends across the pond why do you refer to mathematics as Math (singular) whereas we shorten it to "Maths"!

Not sure. I have a bachelor in mathematics (and a second in a less technical area). I found getting a bachelors difficult enough and recognized who around me was intelligent and who was good at math and elite at things like organization and reading and retaining - so for someone with a math degree, I'm pretty dumb. And since how it's labeled is more about reading/verbal, I'm halfway disabled so far as that goes. No clue.

It's more typical to call it Math here. Outside of mathematics, "math" is stuff like trig, algebra and calculus. Inside of it, my advisor who allowed me to switch to math after dropping a bunch of calculus classes (struggled at superficial memorizing and remembering said) "those aren't math, anyway". hah!

she was English. Mary McCammon - a life changing advisor due to her encouragement of "get the result any way you are comfortable getting it. If you don't learn in lectures, forget about learning in lectures".

...And she called it "math". Probably due to fatigue from new students saying "what's maths...is there a second kind or more than one kind?".

I use exactly the same formulas and endpoints for converting temperature - if it's ever incorrect in a post, it's because I'm too lazy to get a calculator out or even double check mental calculation. If you do a lot of estimating (I do) you can almost always get a good estimate without thinking at all just from picking something between recent calculations.

It's -6 in green bay right now. that's probably pretty close to -20 in the queen's temperatures. Maybe -21, or I could be off one or two - who knows.

.................

As far as weather, we've got a Scot with an English friend who travels over here. He does big time us a little about how the culture is better in England and we're a bunch of sugar sucking redneck tubs, but we tolerate him. He always raves about the taste of the food here otherwise "people are fat here because the food tastes better". that brought us to a discussion about feeding of beef - it's generally less healthy here if it's got a big allocation of grain in it, but it tastes better - sweeter and less tough. I'm aware that there aren't a whole lot of places in England and Scotland that get like the upper midwest here for cold, but was surprised when he said "we do not grow corn. there isn't enough heat". Or "maize" as he put it. but the climate is better for growing grass in terms of tonnage per acre (hectare?) than most places here because there isn't enough heat to burn out the top soil and slow the growth mid summer.

so that makes you guys like svalbard south. Never really warm, and not as cold as one would guess if they lived elsewhere.

Middle of the US here that's really landlocked can have significant extremes. Like Iowa and northern Nebraska, for example. you'd figure based on where they are that it wouldn't be that cold or that hot. but they can get very hot with a lot of humidity and reach nasty cold temperatures for stretches in the winter - and in the wide open spaces, really steady winds with nothing but a tree windbreak if you plant one on the west side of your own property.

 

[D_W]

forecast has dropped - it looks like it will get colder than expected. Which again, compared to places like sask where they had mid day temps last year of < -40C and high winds, no big deal (currently -31F in saskatoon, which must be about -34C - tough place to be a luthier). Just not a good day for a stroll in the neighborhood.

but it does pose a problem for my beech plane billets- no matter how old they are, and most are half a decade old, if the ends get a small check when the cold is like it's headed toward (-20C or so), they will open up big checks on the ends just overnight.

Some of the exotic woods will develop, so a quick check over everything easy to get to to fill in or paint any small new checks is never a bad idea. end checks can turn into side checks quickly and then the cost paid to get thicker stock is wasted. the checking may partially close but as soon as it's oiled or waxed, it will show a garish dark line and in the future, the same checking will open.

 

[raffo]

Circulate some heated house air into the garage to keep it from dropping too low?

 

[D_W]

Circulate some heated house air into the garage to keep it from dropping too low?

I don't think the end away from the door ever gets below freezing (glue, paint, finish) which is the only real consequence. It's 40F at the bench, which is nothing I couldn't complain about.

 

[Pedronicus]

#1 son in NE Houston has posted a pic up 2 hours ago showing 15°F (-9°C)!

 

[D_W]

#1 son in NE Houston has posted a pic up 2 hours ago showing 15°F (-9°C)!

Hopefully, Tx does better with their grid than they did the last one of these...

15F there is much worse than 0F here - the gas utility can move storage here well, and the gas is local to start with. I'm sure there is some strain on the grid, but not like it is in an area where a lot of people use heat pumps.

 

[D_W]

sort of a play by play of a squirrel's nest here (as in, who cares what's going on in a squirrels nest), but I only pay attention to things when they matter.

Hovering over a few things in the shop matters only for purposes of the finish and glue freezing. some of my water based finishes have been with me for 16 years, so I'm kind of attached to using them on some junk project just out of spite!! (actually, I use them to make knives - old WB finish is a great way to soak and adhere a paper pattern to something).

the back and side wall of the shop are about 2/3rds underground. They are block and pretty steady at 40F, after checking them this morning and again now about 6 hours later, the temp at the bench is only down 1 degree.

I have an old wooden door on the garage - i don't know how wide, probably 14 feet. It settles a little shy of closing flush at the top which leaves a small gap. Over the years, I've hesitated to think about getting it replaced with a new door because that's my replacement air in the house. whatever pressure variation there is in the house, the air always seems to come in there at a slow rate and it keeps the basement from getting stale. The heating bills aren't very high, so it's not a concern.

I attempted to lay some resawn strips of cherry over the gap this morning and surprisingly, they are like potato chips now, I guess due to the rapid change in moisture from the outside air. I do so much stuff in the shop that I would prefer to never really have the fines in the shop be able to just stay there for hours and hours.


(I could stand living in canada but figuring out how to keep finishes and such from freezing would be a chore. I couldn't live in the southern US without losing 50 pounds of insulation...wouldn't want to live there in general - the heat is bad enough here).

 

[D_W]

Wife headed me off and canceled my traveling chores, but she headed out on her own here -5F according to the car, which minimizes the effect of the road salt or calcium or whatever they use now, so people are sliding around intersections and parking lots.

.....but the roads are loaded with people who put off their Christmas gift or food shopping until the last second which is why the mrs. was out.

Sliding doors on the car are frozen shut due to it raining last night.

Probably something people in Canada experience all the time.

Trouble on the roads in states south, but marginal roads are sort of normal here. anyone that lives in the city (highest taxes, lowest service) generally gets used to driving over unmoved snow and probably has a pretty high skill level. I live outside of the city, though. the township here is generally excellent with the roads, very prompt - especially on the grades.

 

[XTiffy]

I feel for you guys across the pond. As we are unused to your range of temperatures we have little to moan about (but we do!). Have spent quite a bit of time in the States and Canada, I can picture "normal" winter conditions but there does seem to be a real chill through the US and Canada. Very best wishes to you all, keep safe, keep warm.

 

[John Brown]

Not sure. I have a bachelor in mathematics (and a second in a less technical area). I found getting a bachelors difficult enough and recognized who around me was intelligent and who was good at math and elite at things like organization and reading and retaining - so for someone with a math degree, I'm pretty dumb. And since how it's labeled is more about reading/verbal, I'm halfway disabled so far as that goes. No clue.

It's more typical to call it Math here. Outside of mathematics, "math" is stuff like trig, algebra and calculus. Inside of it, my advisor who allowed me to switch to math after dropping a bunch of calculus classes (struggled at superficial memorizing and remembering said) "those aren't math, anyway". hah!

she was English. Mary McCammon - a life changing advisor due to her encouragement of "get the result any way you are comfortable getting it. If you don't learn in lectures, forget about learning in lectures".

...And she called it "math". Probably due to fatigue from new students saying "what's maths...is there a second kind or more than one kind?".

I use exactly the same formulas and endpoints for converting temperature - if it's ever incorrect in a post, it's because I'm too lazy to get a calculator out or even double check mental calculation. If you do a lot of estimating (I do) you can almost always get a good estimate without thinking at all just from picking something between recent calculations.

It's -6 in green bay right now. that's probably pretty close to -20 in the queen's temperatures. Maybe -21, or I could be off one or two - who knows.

.................

As far as weather, we've got a Scot with an English friend who travels over here. He does big time us a little about how the culture is better in England and we're a bunch of sugar sucking redneck tubs, but we tolerate him. He always raves about the taste of the food here otherwise "people are fat here because the food tastes better". that brought us to a discussion about feeding of beef - it's generally less healthy here if it's got a big allocation of grain in it, but it tastes better - sweeter and less tough. I'm aware that there aren't a whole lot of places in England and Scotland that get like the upper midwest here for cold, but was surprised when he said "we do not grow corn. there isn't enough heat". Or "maize" as he put it. but the climate is better for growing grass in terms of tonnage per acre (hectare?) than most places here because there isn't enough heat to burn out the top soil and slow the growth mid summer.

so that makes you guys like svalbard south. Never really warm, and not as cold as one would guess if they lived elsewhere.

Middle of the US here that's really landlocked can have significant extremes. Like Iowa and northern Nebraska, for example. you'd figure based on where they are that it wouldn't be that cold or that hot. but they can get very hot with a lot of humidity and reach nasty cold temperatures for stretches in the winter - and in the wide open spaces, really steady winds with nothing but a tree windbreak if you plant one on the west side of your own property.

Inconsistent, I concede, but in the UK we would never say "inside of" (unless quoting Marx, "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's usually too dark to read"), but do say "outside of".

The one that really grates for me is "off of".

As for American food tasting better, maybe historically. These days I find it to be over flavoured junk, in general, and my five American brothers in law remark on the quality of food in the UK, but I accept that's a generalisation, and a matter of personal taste.
The Scots, however, are reckoned to have the worst diet in the UK. They eat deep-fried Mars bars and deep-fried Pizza, for heaven's snakes!

Merry Christmas