Monday, February 08, 2010

An End to the Little Ice Age

Our power finally came back on this afternoon, much to our relief. This was a particularly nasty interlude, since our phone went out shortly after the electricity, which meant that we were truly cut off. If a medical emergency had struck, there would have been no calling 911 — we would either have dug the car out and driven away from here, or not.

Before you tell me about cell phones: yes, we have one. The only problem is that they don’t work in our neighborhood. Our corner of Beyond is so far from the cell towers that signals can’t be detected out here.

What laid us low this time was not the snow — there was significantly less of that than predicted — but rather a deadly combination of mixed climate change, in the following sequence:

1. Five or six inches of wet snow fell in absolute stillness, which allowed it to layer itself beautifully along every branch, twig, electric wire, and pine needle in this part of Central Virginia.
2. Four or five hours of steady rain. It wasn’t freezing rain at first, although towards the end of the rainy period it did start to freeze. But before then it soaked the snow thoroughly, making it heavy. None of the snow dropped off the branches, it just turned into slush where it lay.
3. Over the space of several hours there was a dramatic drop in temperature. The slush froze on all the branches. Several more inches of snow fell. And then came the killer:
4. Blustery winds, lasting through much of the night and into the next day.

Throughout the rest of the night trees crashed onto the roads and power lines. I’m not sure if they made any sound — there may well have been no one there to hear them — but there were electric wires a-plenty beneath them. And so the lights went out.

Our telephone went out later on. I’m not sure why — around here the phone lines are buried until they reach the residential right of way — but our whole neighborhood lost its landlines.

The first night wasn’t so bad. We weren’t caught unawares — we had filled the bathtub and several big pots with water in anticipation of an outage. The temperature stayed in the upper twenties (ca. -2°C), so the house was still in the mid-fifties (ca. 13°C) in the morning. Chilly, but not deadly.
- - - - - - - - -
Our house is heated with a heat pump, and Dymphna’s asthma prohibits a wood stove. Several years ago we used a kerosene heater when we lost our power, but that, too, emits mild fumes that can affect asthmatics. Now we have a handy little propane burner, which gives off virtually no fumes, although it generates carbon monoxide and does need to be vented. So that morning I cracked a window and fired it up.

We got through that day (Saturday), but we didn’t have enough bottles of propane for a long siege, and that night it went down to 11°F (-12°C). By morning it was rather frigid in the house — not cold enough to put a skim of ice on the bathtub, but very uncomfortable.

So I spent several hours getting the car dug out (an Odyssey in itself) and high-tailed it to Lowe’s, where I picked up eight more tanks of propane. Thus we were able to stay fairly warm up until bedtime, but the outside temperature dropped to 8°F (-13°C) last night, so the house was very cold this morning. I was considering another trek to the city for more propane this afternoon when the lights came back on.

Lights, heat, and — praise Grid! — the pipes didn’t freeze.

So now we are slowly returning to normal. There were several hundred emails waiting for me — hi, everybody! — and I notice that John Murtha died, the Dow dropped below 10,000, and Kim Møller, the renowned proprietor of Uriasposten blog, was attacked and injured by AFA goons in Denmark. More than that will have to wait until later, although I will post a news feed tonight if I possibly can.

As far as blogging is concerned, this was a lot like going on vacation, except that we were much colder and smelled really bad by the time it was done. And we didn’t even get one of those souvenir crystal paperweights with embedded palm trees to help stimulate a fond recollection of our sojourn in paradise.

Oh, by the way — we’re expecting several more inches of snow, starting tomorrow and going through Wednesday.

I’m ready for Cap-’n’-Trade. How about you?

16 comments:

mace said...

Baron,

The Younger Dryas Ice Age in the Northern Hemisphere lasted from 12900-11500Y BP,it was caused,paradoxically, by global warming.(Wikipedia)

Your "Little Ice Age" might just be starting.

I realize you've been in an emergency situation,hoever I'd recommend caution with unvented LPG (propane)burners,under any circumstances,they can also aggravate allergies (and possibly asthma) I know this from personal experience.

Were I live snow stays on the mountains, where it belongs.

Good Luck.

MaryGold said...

I am glad you guys are ok, you were, and are, in my prayers

:)

M.

Chechar said...

Baron and Dymphna:

I was starting to be concerned. There’s a world of difference losing power for three days in freezing Virginia than here.

I’m glad it’s all over.

Cheers.

Zenster said...

Before you tell me about cell phones: yes, we have one. The only problem is that they don’t work in our neighborhood. Our corner of Beyond is so far from the cell towers that signals can’t be detected out here.

For your own sakes, please consider getting a CB radio or a set of those long distance walkie talkies that have the channel one emergency band. They will usually get you through to local authorities or some ham radio enthusiast when all else fails.

Ron Russell said...

It seems so terrible now to be without phones and power. I remember as a young boy on the farm--no power, no phone, no indoor plumbing, and of course no T.V., but we did have an old big battery powered radio for saturday night only. Those were great days and the summer evening on the front porch with the fire-flys glowing in the dark. A time of close knit familys and friends. Moderization is good, but I often wonder if the cost is too great! Glad you have you power back, we lost ours for a week during Katrina.

Horace Jeffery Hodges said...

Welcome back.

Jeffery Hodges

* * *

Félicie said...

Baron: "Before you tell me about cell phones: yes, we have one. The only problem is that they don’t work in our neighborhood. "

Wait a sec. Cellphones need chargers. You can't charge a cellphone without electricity. isn't it so? This is why I thought cellphones are useless in the event of electric power outage. And this is why it's not enough to have a cell phone, you also need land-line phones (unless these also go out that is).

Henrik R Clausen said...

Welcome back, glad you're both fine :)

Henrik R Clausen said...

Interesting point. Shouldn't it be possible to get a charger that would run off a car battery (12 volt)?

Anonymous said...

Since we are at it, I went to the mountains this weekend and when I got back my city was covered in a foot of snow and there was a blizzard going on. It was funny because we were coming from the mountains to the plains and as we were approaching my city, the snowing and wind were getting worse. It snowed Sunday night and yesterday too, but today it's sunny and the whole mess is melting. I'm glad that it does, but in a way, I wish it wasn't because we will get round 2 from Friday. This was one of the sickest winters we had in a while here in my part of Eastern Europe(top 3 since I was born probably).

Ron Russell, that's how it is on the countryside here. If they would have indoor plumbing, I wouldn't mind the rest because you can always find things to do(like I met a few friends this weekend like Jack Daniels who are pretty joyful blokes :P), but I really need to wash. Life on the countryside here really is like you describe it, except that most people have electricity.

The problem isn't modernization itself, but the stupid culture we have. Like my city in the 1990s - we were going out in the back of my apartment building and the kids were playing and stuff. The problem is the 'I have to have it all' mentality and the destruction of the community by the government. But again, in a diverse society, it's been proven that you lose that, so I don't see it returning.

Anonymous said...

Since we are at it, I went to the mountains this weekend and when I got back my city was covered in a foot of snow and there was a blizzard going on. It was funny because we were coming from the mountains to the plains and as we were approaching my city, the snowing and wind were getting worse. It snowed Sunday night and yesterday too, but today it's sunny and the whole mess is melting. I'm glad that it does, but in a way, I wish it wasn't because we will get round 2 from Friday. This was one of the sickest winters we had in a while here in my part of Eastern Europe(top 3 since I was born probably).

Ron Russell, that's how it is on the countryside here. If they would have indoor plumbing, I wouldn't mind the rest because you can always find things to do(like I met a few friends this weekend like Jack Daniels who are pretty joyful blokes :P), but I really need to wash. Life on the countryside here really is like you describe it, except that most people have electricity.

The problem isn't modernization itself, but the stupid culture we have. Like my city in the 1990s - we were going out in the back of my apartment building and the kids were playing and stuff. The problem is the 'I have to have it all' mentality and the destruction of the community by the government. But again, in a diverse society, it's been proven that you lose that, so I don't see it returning.

Fellow Peacekeeper said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
burt said...

I was stationed in Chiangmai Thailand. When ever we got a storm, the power company would turn the power company would turn the power off. They were convinced that turning off the power would save their equipment. Who knows??

Fellow Peacekeeper said...

Good to see y'all alive and blogging. Always remarkable the inability of southern countries to hand a little climate change.

Why don't you consider a simple reburning wood stove? Nice glass door, doubles as a cosy fireplace, fits in the old chimney, surprising btu output, costs no more than a few hundred. Usefull anytime to add a few degrees heat, but with fan ventillation and ducting a single stove can heat a whole well-insulated house even though its -20 degree outside. As for asthma, a little ducting to deliver heat where needed but the stove itself can happily be in another room, the cellar or whatever.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you back unharmed. I'm sure you're ready to welcome "climate refugees" in your area now.

Re : communication. In order to charge a cellphone from a car battery, one can use a converter, which will turn 12 or 24 V DC into 120 V AC. This is only useful if you have coverage in your area, of course.

Transsylvania Phoenix said...

Glad to hear you guys went through all this ordeal and you're OK.
Since it seems like such bouts of "global warming" will be a common occurrence in the future, I would recommend you to get a generator and store at least 40-50 gallons of treated gasoline.
Speaking of "global warming": hail the size or a pigeon egg rained down today. It's the second time in two weeks. And I live in Los Angeles.