Ice Storm 2013

[Robin Craig]

For anyone trying to contact or visit relatives in the Eastern Ontario area reaching as far afield as Peterborough down through to Kingston and further eastwards (and many other areas I'm sure) there is a major ice storm that has happened.

We have inches of ice everywhere and on everything and many roads impassable and major power outages. Hydro One is advising numbers of days to be able to react to the hardest hit areas. Phone lines are down as well. Cell coverage seems for the most part to be up so far.

A lot of people will not have a pleasant Christmas this year

Spare a thought for these people

R

[Howard]

I've just been reading up on the storm. (eg. jnmjournal.com.)
Here I was complaining about our weather! I think I'll stick with the heat, thanks.
Looks horrible! I hope everyone is safe.
H

[Barry Churcher]

Robin, isn't this something else? I measured the ice on my car windshield and it is 2 cm. or 7/8 '' thick. My yard has this layer of ice on top of 16 " of snow and the bottom 2 " is water. It is so heavy that I have to keep emptying the bucket on the loader instead of just pushing the snow to the end of the drive. Normally if the wind blows gently I loose power but in this storm I have just had a few flickers. The wires look like heavy cables so today I expect to loose power. I had better go and have a shower before it happens.
Regards,
Barry

[rob love]

There will likely be short power outages as hydro will intentionally short the lines to heat them and melt the ice.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Robin

I was just logging in to see if there was a update from Bob's post of yesterday Hammond 2013. The first thing that popped up was your post, hope that the storm quits and they can restore power quickly. No time is a good time for a storm like this but with Christmas only a few days away it is particularly hard. Hope this is not a repeat of the 1998 storm that did so much damage to the power grid Canada.

We have isolated outages in the northern parts of New Hampshire but for the first time they utilities started moving equipment in from southern New England before the storm instead of waiting till after it hit.

Best wishes for season and may you be able to celebrate with the lights on.

Phil

[Jon Skagfeld]

Originally Posted by Barry Churcher

Robin, isn't this something else? I measured the ice on my car windshield and it is 2 cm. or 7/8 '' thick. My yard has this layer of ice on top of 16 " of snow and the bottom 2 " is water. It is so heavy that I have to keep emptying the bucket on the loader instead of just pushing the snow to the end of the drive. Normally if the wind blows gently I loose power but in this storm I have just had a few flickers. The wires look like heavy cables so today I expect to loose power. I had better go and have a shower before it happens.
Regards,
Barry

That's why I put an old sheet across my windshield, secured at both ends by closing both doors on the loose ends and putting the wipers at half-arc against the sheet.

It works.

[Barry Churcher]

Yeah Jon you are right. Usually I do cover the windshield but laziness on Friday night is costing me today. When I got home from work Friday I just flipped up the wipers. Now I have 2 cars running in the driveway with the heater blasting trying to get the ice warmed up and loose.
Robin, is this ice affecting the ferry to your island? Not that there is any place to go in this crap. It is freezing rain here again today.

[Michael R.]

Not only east, but west too! A wee ice storm to deal with. Very hard on the trees though. The chain saw gets a work-out and there is firewood for next season. Anticipating a few days without utility service, which means no heat, water or plumbing in our neck of the woods. Cool weather temps in the forecast, -23C for Christmas Eve. No big deal compared to what others have to face on a global perspective. Thank-goodness!

[rob love]

Micheal
We are hoping it warms up to -23 too. Tonight the temp is dropping to -34 and we have windchill of -46°C tonight.

There has been no reason compelling enough to venture outside today.

[Robin Craig]

As of 930 pm our island has full power supply restored.

Both cable ferries are operating normally.

There is an eerie dead calm outside at the moment.

We are only one branch or tree falling away from loosing power again.

Frankly I lay blame to a lot of the power outages to home / property owners who see trees as part of the quaint rustic scenery and not as a guillotine waiting to cut their power off.

We spent $8,000 at work this year on tree trimming along power line corridors and have not seen any limbs over lines whatsoever.

People need to take a new look at what the scope of effect of an ice laden tree can be.

Either that or sort out their own alternative power supply.

Hydro One sent a line crew and staff out very quickly and they worked all day restoring power.

We won't start snow removal until the morning when the freezing rain has finally stopped.

Rob, glad to hear you are warm as usual!

Robin

[rob love]

Originally Posted by Robin Craig

Rob, glad to hear you are warm as usual!

Robin

Thanks for the peasant thoughts.

Seems like the thermometer has gone the wrong way......now it's -38. With the windchill it is -50.

It is because of days like this that I never top up any of the vehicles with water during the summer.

Now don't get me wrong....I realize you guys out East are subject to some abnormal weather right now. But I have to tell you, I think I would still trade places. In a few days, power will be restored to everyone, and the ice will melt. It will take a few years for the branches on the trees to grow back.

For me, I'll be happy to see your temps in March/April. Winter is just in it's first trimester here.

I think I will head to Mexico for two weeks this year. Enough of this crap.

[Bob Carriere]

We got about 6 + inches of snow....mainly granular towards the tail end which left a nice light ice crust that allowed birds and squirrels a hard surface to run on.

Having lived the 98 Ice Storm we were prepared for the worst.....stored extra petrol for the generator and did a test run on the engine. Now can go back in storage.

In all we have had over 30 cm of snow this weekend.

It's beginning to look like Xmas!!!

Bob C

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Bob

Glad no power outage for Hammond area. Know what you mean about checking the fuel stock and generator as soon as you hear the words ice storm.

When ever they predict an ice storm around here I check my fuel supply. minimum for us after the 2008 storm is 40-50 gallons of gas.

My best wishes to all those who are without power from this most recent storm.

Cheers Phil

[Marc Montgomery]

Relatives in Toronto without power... still many thousands in Canada-central and east- without power almost a week later..

Fortunately I had power, but I would like to hand it to the linesmen etc out working hard on what should have been a holiday for them.

[Barry Churcher]

After all this time almost everyone has had power restored. Kudos to the Hydro crews that responded from Michigan, Winnipeg etc. They gave up their Christmas to help. I feel bad for people having no heat in -20C temperatures for more than a week.
Jim Wiehe has kindly received permission for me to post this photo of a J Class C-130 at CFB Trenton. Apparently there were eight of these with their noses in the air from the weight of the ice on the tail. One was elevated eight feet. Now they will have to be stress tested to see if they can fly.
Barry

[Jordan Baker]

Barry, dont they hold that pose every time they take off?

[motto]

That is so Jordan. When an aircraft rotates on take off it's because the pilot has eased/pulled/hauled back on the controls forcing the tail down. Things can and do go wrong at that point such as tail strike or tyre failure due to the aircraft being at its heaviest with hardly any fuel used (possibly way over its maximum landing weight).
Snow gently deposited on the upper surfaces would bear no relationship to flight induced stress loads.

David

[Hanno Spoelstra]

I hope the cold in your part of the world soon passes on. You can have some of our heat: at 8 deg. C average for January we are 5 deg. above the normal for this month. The record was last set in 1921, we are 1.1 deg. behind.

Take care!

H.

[Marc Montgomery]

With concern over damage seen in Toronto on the news, and throughout southern Ontario...I had to check on the secret hideout along the Rideau. Although lots of broken branches of trees along the 401..and some areas of massive forest damage..fortunately little damage at the hideout....and thankfully nothing fell on the plastic garages where some old green stuff is sleeping for the winter.

Skating which had been unbelievably magnificent prior to the first major snow dump of a couple weeks ago,(although no desire to skate for the kilometers of the lake system available) was down to acceptable due to the ice storm.
Note, with no water due to winter shutdown- using the outhouse was required..and at those temps was interesting...lowest was -30 early friday am.

[maple_leaf_eh]

And just to put a smile on everyone's faces, 6 Jan 14 could have a record of four different extreme weather warnings here in Eastern Ontario.

freezing rain - with plenty of deep puddles that have nowhere to drain
flash freeze - everything liquid becomes glare ice
high winds - weather fronts collide
extreme cold - bitter cold air slides in behind

There! We can get all our bitching about bad weather out of the way within 24hrs.

Issued: 7:17 AM EST Monday 6 January 2014

Flash freeze warning in effect

Wind chill warning in effect.

Today, 6 January Rain changing to a few flurries and ending early this afternoon then cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. Wind southwest 30 km/h gusting to 60. Temperature falling to minus 8 this afternoon.

Tonight, 6 January Mainly cloudy. 60 percent chance of flurries this evening and after midnight. Wind southwest 30 km/h gusting to 60. Low minus 23. Wind chill minus 33.

[Harry Moon]

Yea it was down to Zero last night here in the Banana Belt of South Burnaby. Had to wait 5 minutes sipping my coffee to defrost the windshield. This keeps up I'll have to fork out for a scrapper, although a credit card works in a pinch.

[Harry Moon]

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=15c_1389049384
I think this was Winnipeg, or more likely Saskatoon!

[motto]

No Harry, I'm sure it was Sascartoon.

David