The rain washed away all that wonderful artificial snow they had made during the cold clear spell.
Northern California today:
Low this AM of 52F, high of 56, no sun. Tomorrow a storm is moving in promising sustained 30- 35 MPH winds in the morning with gusts over 50 MPH, maybe up to 65 in higher elevations. When the wind dies off we should get a couple of inches of rain here in the valley, much more in the mountains. There are flash flood warnings for low areas by creeks and rivers. No surprise if there are mudslides on hillsides that burned this summer.
We had our electricians checking all of the emergency lights in the plant today. It's not uncommon for us to lose power during big storms. It only takes a flicker to drop out every motor starter.
Low this AM of 52F, high of 56, no sun. Tomorrow a storm is moving in promising sustained 30- 35 MPH winds in the morning with gusts over 50 MPH, maybe up to 65 in higher elevations. When the wind dies off we should get a couple of inches of rain here in the valley, much more in the mountains. There are flash flood warnings for low areas by creeks and rivers. No surprise if there are mudslides on hillsides that burned this summer.
We had our electricians checking all of the emergency lights in the plant today. It's not uncommon for us to lose power during big storms. It only takes a flicker to drop out every motor starter.
what was it here yesterday, 16C?
Mother Nature , the Pineapple express and King Tides strike again - Courtenay up the island had at least 200mm of rain in a 36h period and tidal surges - of course, if we were smart enough to not build in flood plains, it'd be far less newsworthy
Mother Nature , the Pineapple express and King Tides strike again - Courtenay up the island had at least 200mm of rain in a 36h period and tidal surges - of course, if we were smart enough to not build in flood plains, it'd be far less newsworthy
Yesterday it was in the 20's (F) all day. The dash in Sherri's Jeep said 26 degrees when we got home at 5 PM.
Sometime around 2 AM I woke up to find it cold in the house, 54 F. After a week of working perfectly, the heat pump blew a low voltage fuse and shut down. I disconnected the red wire, turned on the emergency heat and went back to bed.
Now I get to go outside and poke around in the heat pump some more.....it's 27 degrees and the high for the day is predicted to be 30. Fun....fun....fun!
Sometime around 2 AM I woke up to find it cold in the house, 54 F. After a week of working perfectly, the heat pump blew a low voltage fuse and shut down. I disconnected the red wire, turned on the emergency heat and went back to bed.
Now I get to go outside and poke around in the heat pump some more.....it's 27 degrees and the high for the day is predicted to be 30. Fun....fun....fun!
Midday 25C lately.
As summer progresses it goes up to 40C depending on how close to the local ocean.
Sub zeroC...blow that.
Dan
As summer progresses it goes up to 40C depending on how close to the local ocean.
Sub zeroC...blow that.
Dan
Went down to the river to see the tide. The beach you usually walk on was completely submerged. The trail down to it just ended. Heavy rainfall swelling the river and the big tides backing it up, made it as high as I've ever seen it from a tide.
We don't want to be too smug about our weather
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ec-PxqGDkWY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ec-PxqGDkWY
Yup, remember that one - snow drifted on our kitchen sun deck over 5ft feet - we were worried for a while about the sliding patio door
Water is stili liquid here in SJ, and a fair amount of it is still falling from the skies-enough, and we won't have a drought any more. I feel blessed/coddled living on the West Coast (US), as I seem to be mostly spared the extremes of temperature that plague other folks (with infrequent exceptions).
More rain -at least the water is still liquid. I have gas heat, so unlike George, my heater won't seize up even if the water goes solid (maybe around February, if ever).
Low 40's yesterday, mid 50-s today -- will bike in shorts this afternoon instead of thermals (the coldest I've biked in is 27)
We have had relatively mild weather for the last few days, T-shirt and flip flop weather, until yesterday. Yesterday the high temp was 32 and there was about a half inch of snow on the car when we walked out of a friends house up in the hills of Pennsylvania. None here yet this week.
The local TV stations (12 and 30 miles north of here) have been updating their predictions of a white Christmas. Yesterday's number was 35% chance. They still think it may barely make 1 inch.
I have been here for Christmas every year for the past 10 years, and several years going back 25 years. It seems that one in three years is about right over time. Last year's nasty weather didn't start until we had left for Florida in early January. Two years ago, however I was shoveling snow several times a day.
The local TV stations (12 and 30 miles north of here) have been updating their predictions of a white Christmas. Yesterday's number was 35% chance. They still think it may barely make 1 inch.
I have been here for Christmas every year for the past 10 years, and several years going back 25 years. It seems that one in three years is about right over time. Last year's nasty weather didn't start until we had left for Florida in early January. Two years ago, however I was shoveling snow several times a day.
The rain has stopped for the time being, but it's still overcast and murky out, kinda like the usual scene in upstate NY (Ithaca), which was my previous hangout before I moved to Cali in 1980. It's still warm enough so that I can apply a few coats of spray paint to my latest creation. The outside thermometer in the garden says 60F bang-on.
In Siberia they have lots of cold, in America they have lots of money, in Tibet they have lots of time.
Eight degree Celsius right now.
Eight degree Celsius right now.
George, I'm wondering about your emergency heat.. My parents live in coastal South Carolina, and the place they owned up until a year and half ago had an HVAC system that automatically shut down the heat pump at around 34 (~1C) degrees F and turned on the resistive heat. Consequence of it not shutting down properly was icing the condenser coils if it was wet outside.. (Due to ambient temp sensor failure) I remember being cold with the 10kW resistive back up running in that place. (2200 sq ft) You could tell as the system approached its limits, the heat pump ran continuously and the air outlet temperature kept dropping, and the compressor sounded less than happy, then it would shut down and a little indicator on the thermostat would light up to indicate you were on resistive heat. Perhaps you have to do this manually or is there a mode on the thermostat that enables it as needed?
A lot of condos around here have heat pumps and in the colder winter days heating is purely resistive heat. (Geothermal is the obvious exception and I have a number of friends who heat and cool this way.)
A lot of condos around here have heat pumps and in the colder winter days heating is purely resistive heat. (Geothermal is the obvious exception and I have a number of friends who heat and cool this way.)
I managed to get out on the bike for a short spin today. Quite pleasant weather, roads are quiet, but you can feel the rain coming.
jeff
We had been hearing that for about two weeks. Now the Weather Channel says no chance of snow, rain starts tomorrow and continues till Friday. Uncharacteristically high temps in the mid 60's.
Yesterday the sun showed up for the first time in a week, and it reappeared again today. It was 24 degrees at 7 AM this morning and 40 by 9 AM. It remained in the 40's all day with sunshine and zero wind, so I went for a 2 mile walk around 2 PM in shorts, flip flops and a sleeveless shirt. As, said we know the rain is coming.
This system is about 10 years old. Switchover from heat pump to emergency heat is totally manual. There is a switch on the thermostat, heat pump or electric heat. This house is about 1500 square and the heater is 14 KW so it seems adequate enough to keep the upstairs living areas at 66 degrees without running continuously (heat pump or electric heat). 66 seems to be a good compromise between Sherri being cold and the electric meter going into convulsions. I turn it down to 62 or so when she is not here. The cold does not get to me like it does her.
The downstairs area gets pretty cold during long cold spells since all the heat rises up the stairs. Sherri does not come down here since it is mostly storage, my computer, and temporary stereo set up (A $20 Lepai amp attached to the computer and my Yamaha speakers).
We have just thawed out from 5 continuous days below freezing. The temp has been between 18 and 32 for the entire time. During this time the system has been on heat pump mode. When it is that cold the defrost timer initiates a defrost cycle every 90 minutes of run time, or if the delta between coil temp and ambient goes above some preset number. Some ice remained on the outside housing and around the top and bottom of the coils, but the finned area remained ice free the entire time. I was checking it often during the first day or two.
We have figured out that if we run one of those "Amish Heaters" in the living room it will keep the main system from turning on unless it gets real cold outside. That lowers the electric bill since the local heater is 1500 watts VS the heat pump (my guess is about 5 KW).