💬 Snow is reeking havoc in the SE. How's things in your neck of the woods?

[UAgrad93]

Over on the Eastern side of BAMA, we got a little dusting yesterday and had a high of around 30. The sun came out and melted and dried everything though. Sitting around 28 right now and supposed to get up to 50 today.

 

[planomateo]

Took this on Saturday. Along the blackfoot river, daily drive to work. During the summer there are people floating in tubes and rafts, many fly fishing for trout.

Snow makes the view better in my opinion.

 

[rick4bama]

I turn off our water and open all the taps. It still froze up. We still waiting for it to unfreeze. But Close to us in Woodland the temp was 20, Wedowee was 24, Roanoke, also 24. With us being between these towns, our temp is around 16-17. We also live at the highest point too. But we only got a dusting of snow, but beneath that was a sheet of ice.

 

[TerryP]

And read this morning that some conservatives are blaming renewable energy as the reason for the grid issues. Lol, are you kidding?? Meanwhile more people are moving to Texas and adding stress to the grid.

Meh. I've not followed much of the coverage—coverage defined as reports from different media groups, opinions of either party, etc.—other than watching TWC and seeing totals, estimates, etc: not a lot of that either.

I have read around a bit this morning and have seen things from both sides. AOC pointing to infrastructure failures when you don't go with her Green New Deal. I've seen other mocking the use of fossil fuels to de-ice. It's a back and forth right now, essentially, right?

With limited knowledge of what's going on things like Dan Rather's comment about holding someone/something accountable skews this story. Weather events like this are not normal. What was it I read, a century since they've seen this type of winter storm?

Those those bring me back to this:

If done correctly, renewable energy is a no brainer.

When it comes to this kind of severe weather renewables don't work well. I question of they can. One of the nuclear power plants' sensor's got too cold, right? That resulted in a shut down. Now we're back to severe weather again.

I'm of the opinion even if they done "correctly," they'll never work in extreme weather conditions. In a sense, it would be like your first "back-up" taking days to charge. Make sense?

50°

 

[planomateo]

Perhaps. My point is there are many ways to solve this. Moving power generation closer to the user is better option. Having people consume less could be a start as well. Lots of things go into a plan like this.

Of course you can't solve for everything or 100 year storms.

But I'll tell you this...having redundant alternatives is a smart idea .

 

[TerryP]

But I'll tell you this...having redundant alternatives is a smart idea

Yes sir.

 

[jlabit]

We were lucky here in the Pensacola, Florida area. Got down to 22 degrees last night with a high of 40 predicted today. Exceptionally cold for our area but nothing we can't live with. The school system did close Tuesday because they did not want to chance black ice under the school buses.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

If done correctly, renewable energy is a no brainer.

Blaming renewable is not the right path, blame the people...

Wind mill thing?

@sk33tr

hold same people accountable that cause problems from tornadoes...wildfires...hurricanes...etc

 

[planomateo]

I'd like to see more solar, more wind, more nuclear and less coal.

Texas being their own grid is their problem.

I can speak from this personally, we started having brownouts. If you had programmable thermostats connected with your power company (which I had), they'd raise your temps during peak times to help cut demand.

I lived in California during major brownouts in the 90s. Texas never got to this level, but suspect it will eventually if they don't plan accordingly.

There is a huge wind farm in Wyoming near Sheridan. Guess where that power ends up... if I remember correctly, Seattle.

 

[planomateo]

When I say blame the people, I was suggesting that technology isn't the issue, it's the people implementing the technology. Renewables are great if done correctly. As we see time and time again, we the people screw it up.

 

[50+yeartidefan]

When I say blame the people, I was suggesting that technology isn't the issue, it's the people implementing the technology. Renewables are great if done correctly. As we see time and time again, we the people screw it up.

but...really...hard to assess blame ..when things are as unpredictable as once in lifetime weather events ( human lifetime)...
Such as what's going on...or events like katrina....or 100 year droughts...or wildfires...tornado outbreaks..insect plagues....snow....or non weather things like .covid......
You could actually over plan yourself into poverty...

 

[TerryP]

Texas being their own grid is their problem.

They're importing as well, aren't they?

 

[planomateo]

They're importing as well, aren't they?

Yup.

 

[planomateo]

You could actually over plan yourself into poverty...

Most definitely

 

[Elderfalsedemigod]

It is nature. You cannot plan for every single eventuality. People who believe it is some .gov entity or industrial entity job to guarantee their safety and/or comfort are idiots. Something can’t always be done. It is like the “no child left behind” slogan. Bullshit, some poor sob is always going to be left behind

 

[rick4bama]

[QUOTE} I turn off our water and open all the taps. It still froze up. [/QUOTE]

Well it Finely unfroze about and hour after positing this!

 

[50+yeartidefan]

It is nature. You cannot plan for every single eventuality. People who believe it is some .gov entity or industrial entity job to guarantee their safety and/or comfort are idiots. Something can’t always be done. It is like the “no child left behind” slogan. Bullshit, some poor sob is always going to be left behind

And if you don’t believe in cost-benefit .... go put in a 8000$ whole house generator for next time it happens....100 yearsfrom now...
Or have a 5000$ well dug to be safe in case water authority runs out of liquid...
Or a 4000$ tornado shelter...
Oreven a bomb shelter. 25000$...
Live like Howard Hughes and never go out in public..if ur afraid of catching a virus...
...

 

[planomateo]

Good read on Texas power and some insight into what happened creating the mess. They are on day 3 or 4 of rolling outages.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/16/natural-gas-power-storm/

 

[Skipz]

somebody's got to be "that guy" so here goes:

"wreaking"

 

[planomateo]

somebody's got to be "that guy" so here goes:

"wreaking"

I went to the airport today to pickup a bag that somehow didn't get on the flight Monday. I was there early, a lady that worked there walked past me, I asked her a question about the bag, she kept walking ignoring me and went into a locked room. So I called the number the guy I spoke with the night before for the office she was locked in. She didn't answer, so I called 4-5 more times. Still didn't answer. I then knocked on the locked door, which she didn't answer. Eventually she came out and I inquired about getting my bag that I could see sitting on the floor in that room.

She responde with sir, I'm technically not supposed to help you because I'm here working Alaska desk and you flew American. I looked at her with a puzzled look. She said someone would be there at 9am, it was 6:30am. She finally gave me my bag and reminded me that technically she didn't have to.