***Official 2021 Weather Thread***

coolmooinlou

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Dec 14, 2015
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Louisville, Kentucky
Seriously though, Texas and more of the south is in for quite a winter disaster of historic proportions over the next 7 days. 2 major winter storms projected and extreme temperatures only seen once every few decades. The long duration of the cold weather is also on the extreme end of the spectrum.

I'm just hoping for more snow and less ice, but some places are going to get hammered.

Regardless of precipitation types and amounts, electric utilities are already warning customers to limit power usage in anticipation of extreme demand that may cause rolling brownouts for some.

This is being compared to the winters of 1899 and 1983 for Texas.
I remember that winter.
More than 10 days of unprecedented subzero temperatures in Houston. Seemed like there were only two snow plows for the entire city.
We were spoiled by Christmases where the kids could ride their new bikes in the cul-de-sac wearing their jammies and barefoot.
And then of course Alicia and her family of tornadoes hit that summer. Baaad weather year.
 
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NorthCyd

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Aug 22, 2011
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Just a story for reference...

One winter I had to take a trip to LA during a “cold snap.” It was probably 50 degrees in the morning for a low. I saw a woman at a bus stop wearing a Canada goose parka with a scarf wrapped around her head. The guys at our construction site were all wrapped up too during the morning stretching. I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and they thought I was insane.

Folks down south just aren’t acclimated for any kind of cold.
I had a similar experience visiting family in Tampa.

Probably the most surprising to me was visiting DC in December once and they got a quick 2 inches of snow one afternoon. The city grinded to a halt. I kind of figured they would be a little better prepared for that. Its not like they never see snow.
 

alarson

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Mar 15, 2006
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Yeah it's also the plants and animals and fish that aren't going to be able to handle the cold. I read about how huge numbers of fish and marine life died along the coast in other arctic outbreaks because they suffocated from not being able to breathe oxygen from the cold water.

Lots of landscaping/decorative plants will get killed off.

I'm most concerned about losing power. Lots of people will have frozen/busted pipes, even with power... But without power it'll be nasty.
I imagine irrigation systems could be rough too. Here everyone gets those blown out for the winter and the shutoffs and backflow preventer are usually kept inside, I know in some southern locations those are outdoors and I'm guessing don't get blown out.. a sustained freeze would **** a lot of those systems up
 
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throwittoblythe

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Aug 7, 2006
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Minneapolis, MN
I had a similar experience visiting family in Tampa.

Probably the most surprising to me was visiting DC in December once and they got a quick 2 inches of snow one afternoon. The city grinded to a halt. I kind of figured they would be a little better prepared for that. Its not like they never see snow.

I would imagine as bad as the traffic is out there already, when you add one variable, everything goes haywire.
 

CyState85

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May 8, 2019
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Drove through Mississippi once after an inch of snow fell. It was the scariest experience of my life and I think we counted 32 cars in the ditch in a 1.5 mile stretch.
 

Trice

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Apr 1, 2010
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I must be getting acclimated to this stuff because I cleared snow an hour ago and came back in sweating as if it were 30 degrees outside. And I didn't even dress extra warm for the occasion.
 

BoxsterCy

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Staff member
Sep 14, 2009
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Minnesota
My weirdest southern weather thingie, at least to me at the time, was waking up one spring morning in a hotel on St. Charles in New Orleans and having everything blanketed in snow. Was odd to see the street car running through snow on that historic avenue.
 

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