Snowvortexocalypse! ! ! ! 11!

It started snowing here in Waco Thursday night, we had some still on the ground Friday morning, but the roads were clear. My son was the only one who had to go into work, 2 hours later than usual, schools were open and most were running on time. We freak out because we rarely see snow so it really is a novelty to us, and no one but the emigrants from Yankeelands knows how to drive in the ice and snow. I stayed home drinking hot cocoa and making brownies and cookies.

We got the automated call at 0545 telling us that school was delayed 2 hours so that the roads could be cleared.

90 minutes later, we got another one saying that there was no indication that the roads would be clear/safe by 0800, so school was cancelled.

And then an email later in the morning indicating that due to the projected frigid temps for tomorrow, Supernintendo Chalmers would be keeping an eye on things & may delay/cancel school tomorrow too. We’re looking at -4F at 0600 tomorrow (and a high of 7), with 15MPH winds.

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My daughters missed the first week back to school after Christmas break. since then I think there has been one day they’ve gone to school on time, and they’ve had at least one if not two more snow days.

Spring Break is supposed to be two weeks, starting to sound like maybe not. Tough cookies, we will already have reservations by the time they tell us.

Coldest we’ve been so far is -17. Mostly staying in the -5 to 10 degree range.

I saw -19 three weeks ago although we may get colder than that tonight in my area of Wisconsin. The school just called and cancelled for tomorrow although they did hold it today. Currently -7 here at the time of this post, but wind chills aren’t below the magical -35 below mark that the schools here start freaking on. Those brutal wind chills are coming tonight and tomorrow.

-10 tomorrow morning -23 after windchill. The buses aren’t doing well at this point.

Last night we were getting 50-60 mph gusts I guess. Someone on the street lost a mailbox.

When I was in high school, we had a week where we didn’t see the high side of 0. Temperatures were in the -20 to -25 range every morning.

The buses did not fare well. Transportation department kept the engines running for 8 straight days (and to give you an idea of scope, there were 2000 students just in high school in this district and today they operate ~200 buses). If a bus shut down, it was down for the count - at those temperatures, they couldn’t be revived without warming in a garage.

Tomorrow is supposed to be -19C (-2F), -31C (-24F) with the windchill. So not quite as bad as you guys. :smile: Of course six months from now we’ll all be bitching about how hot it is.

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I love you for reminding me of this.

It’s been in the 40s, maybe 50s here. Hum drum. We were in Vegas last week, and I am MISSING the mid-60s and the sunshine! It’s foggy. Foggy, rainy, foggy, foggy, rainy . . . My “Happy Light” is set to come on at 6am so I can get some full-spectrum light in the morning. But I just want to go back to bed . . .

You mean like this?

Or maybe this?

This was Saturday, and since I was the only one stupid enough to be on the road, I just had to stop and take pics.

Everyone one is home today because all the schools are closed. Something about the high expected to hit -2.

The whiteouts I had yesterday were denser than that.

I thought about snapping a pic, but decided staying on the road was more important.

That has been a familiar scene for myself as well this season.

In Tejas, we only have winter and summer, with summer being 75% of the year. In the winter it is usually not very uncomfortable, but this year has been colder than most. We have actually been below freezing (not counting wind chill) several times. In 2013 we were below freezing 24 days and we have been at or below freezing 17 days so far this year. While this pales to other parts of the US, that is cold for Texas.

To help you understand, I have found this Texans and Cold Weather link.

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Last time I was in Texas (Christmas 2012) it snowed on Christmas Day and temps were in the mid-20’s.

In SoCal we only have summer and January (and January is very summer-like this year). If we had even the temps that Texas is experiencing, all hell would break loose. This morning temps were in the mid-50’s and most of San Diego was covered in dense fog and people lost their minds on the road, causing me to be late to work.

I have been very, very glad this winter to not live in the Midwest or Northeast. That cold would be the death of me.

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And it matters when you live in a warm area and it gets cold. When a light jacket is your only cold weather gear 20 degrees can be dangerous.

When I was stationed in Hawaii we’d put sweats on when it hit low 60’s. And now I’m back to just a long sleeve T and a scarf when it’s 25. But, I always carry my coat, since the time I got a flat tire in a long sleeve T, sweat pants, and sandals in a snow storm.

Sandals? Dang. As one of the Texans, I can’t imagine being in the cold in sandals.

I failed to mention that we rarely get snow (we did get a big dump of 8-10 inches a few years ago). What we do get is several hours of constant freezing rain that creates inches of solid ice on roads, trees, and vehicles. The last ice storm took out 1/4 of my Bradford (ornamental) Pear tree. At least the city hauled away the branches once I cut them up into bite sized pieces.

This was not a problem when I lived in the country in North Carolina. I owned, and used, a chain saw. Sold most of that stuff when we moved The Lone Star State 12 years ago.

I’m looking forward to complaining about the heat and humidity. :smile:

I am not. The humidity in Indiana is horrible.

95 degrees and 98% humidity with no breeze, at 9 AM, is not weather man was meant to live in.

That kind of humidity is one of the reasons my stay in Texas only lasted two years. It gets up to 95 (and higher) in my part of San Diego in the summer, but it’s much easier to deal with when the humidity is between 30 and 50%. The Mexican food here is way better too. :smile: