No snow here, but down to possibly 26F (-3C) tonight. Last night cold killed my hot pepper plants and Okra. The collard Greens and Red Beats survived so far.
I picked up my yearly allotment of wood fuel pellets this past week 400# to add to the 240# left over from last year. (Roughly 11636KG total). I use it as supplemental heat when the temp drops below 24F and the heat pump is running emergency strip heat.
I have roughly 16 gallons of gas with Stabil added for the back up generator when power goes out.
I still need to pick up 10 gallons of karosene for the heaters.
I picked up my yearly allotment of wood fuel pellets this past week 400# to add to the 240# left over from last year. (Roughly 11636KG total). I use it as supplemental heat when the temp drops below 24F and the heat pump is running emergency strip heat.
I have roughly 16 gallons of gas with Stabil added for the back up generator when power goes out.
I still need to pick up 10 gallons of karosene for the heaters.
Just to add some contrast...we have a maximum of 39C forecast for tomorrow and 40C on Thursday. With 90 km/h winds also forecast for tomorrow, it'll be difficult to avoid fires breaking out. Especially as it seems to be a thing now for nut jobs to start them as soon as we get a bit of heat.
Hmm, things aren't looking good for some people. The fire 6km from us is getting out of hand and we can hear distant explosions, apparently high voltage transformers going off according to an electrician we know living in the fire's path. Some of our friends and colleagues have evacuated their homes. As an aside, for you Canadians, we lease fire fighting aircraft and operators from you which are dropping retardant right now. They need to fly to Busselton, 250 km away, to reload.
We need snow.
We need snow.
Unfortunately ten houses have been lost so far. A friend is a volunteer firefighter and tells us there were two 'burnovers' where the fire truck is engulfed and the firefighters inside deploy an external water spray system, pull down reflective blankets, and wait it out. Luckily no one was badly hurt. Scary stuff.
In the meantime we got a floodings again in Belgium and parts of northern France, in some regions (like arround Bouillon) 200l/m rain fell in less than 48h, and that on oversaturated ground as it's almost non stop raining in Belgium since october. So quiet a few rivers flooded, the most known are the Lys (aka de Leie in Belgium) and the Dender, going to the Schelde/Escaut and the Semois, going to the the Maas/Meuse. It's not the same region of the big floodings of a few years ago, it's the other western side of the Ardenne and the old County of Hainaut (both now partly in Belgium, partly in France) that are affected by those heavy rains. In France, in the region of Saint Omer and Calais there are similar floodings arround the river Aa i hear also...
It at least needs sea gulls before you need a fishing license surely.
I don't know which is worse: massive rain or very cold and clear.
It's been wetter than normal up here in NE England near the coast but we were spared most of the last storm.
The last time we had serious flooding was in June of 2008/9 when Morpeth and sourrounding areas was flooded (river Coquet).
I should add that I wouldn't wish either on anyone affected by weather events. I can't imagine the horror of having your home damaged by flooding - it's the worst type of damage with the repairs and drying out taking months, not to mention the cost.
It's been wetter than normal up here in NE England near the coast but we were spared most of the last storm.
The last time we had serious flooding was in June of 2008/9 when Morpeth and sourrounding areas was flooded (river Coquet).
I should add that I wouldn't wish either on anyone affected by weather events. I can't imagine the horror of having your home damaged by flooding - it's the worst type of damage with the repairs and drying out taking months, not to mention the cost.
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Just heard on the BBC news that Sweden reached -44C last night.
At least you Scandinavians are geared up for very low temepratures and lots of snow.
In the UK we don't have the machinery needed to move deep snow from roads and railways so the whole country grinds to a halt if there's more than a few cms.