Crazy weather down in Ok and Texas
Contributors to this thread:General Topic
From: kakiatkids
15-Feb-21
Just watching the news, you guys in Texas, and Oklahoma are really getting slammed by the cold. I can't remember ever seeing temperatures like that down there. Hope everyone is safe.
From: Pat Lefemine
15-Feb-21
Lots of hunting camp pipes are gonna bust no doubt.
Hogs will be wicked active under the feeders!!
From: RW
15-Feb-21
I'm in amarillo texas 0 right now had blowing snow yesterday morning,we get this here in the panhandle but my son is in ft worth , it is 6 with several inches on the ground. He said it is a mess they don't know how to drive in it , guess you saw the 100 car pile up last week and that was just a little frozen drizzle.
From: LINK
15-Feb-21
Couple hours ago. Windchills of -30 or greater.
Couple hours ago. Windchills of -30 or greater.
A normal day for Apauls but my hands and feet don’t like it.
From: t-roy
15-Feb-21
Gonna be quite a few stubby eared calves this year down there, for sure. My buddy down there, is right in the middle of calving.
From: LINK
15-Feb-21
Me too t-Roy. Thankfully nothing born since Friday. We’ve had a few lose the tips of their tails. A calf born at night in this likely won’t make it.
From: Shiras42
15-Feb-21
Troy, went on an on-base Oryx hunt with a friend and they called the oryx with frozen off ears "Shrek". My home town in Broken Bow, NE (not OK) was -35 this morning actual temp.
From: EmbryOklahoma
15-Feb-21
I’m actually down in South Houston/Pearland area for work. It was in the teens last night with a decent dusting of ice and snow. Woke up this morning around 5 AM and felt a chill in the air. You guessed it, no power.
Back home in Broken Arrow, OK (Tulsa area), it’s single digits and 6-10” of snow. Everyone has power there.
Nothing like being stuck in a hotel room, no power and bored s—t-less. I’d rather be at work, but the company closed our Tulsa and Houston facilities for safety.
From: Ok...Russ
15-Feb-21
Same here in OKC area. Minus 6 actual temp this morning and somewhere around -25 to -35 with wind chill. When it gets below zero, it really doesn't matter. Dog sure loves it more than we do! Of course we're supposed to go out and throw the ball.
From: Brotsky
15-Feb-21
Russ, the ball rests for no man or weather! It must be thrown (and fetched)! At least that's how it works at our house. -45 wind chill here this morning, I was very happy that my lab declined the normal length of his walk. We made it to the end of the block and he'd had enough!
From: Ok...Russ
15-Feb-21
Same here Brotsky plus Rio is 'young and dumb' or should just say he's being a kid! We have an alternative - lots of squirrels in our neighborhood so I let him out the side garage door and command "find em" and like a rocket he's across to the neighbors then ours to other neighbors looking for those damn squirrels!! Like a kid, we have to spell out squirrel or Rio will know what we're saying and run to the door. One good thing about being a hunter is I've got insulated boots, heavy duty coveralls, etc...IF I have to get out and play ball. IF.
From: EmbryOklahoma
15-Feb-21
Russ... “ Like a kid, we have to spell out squirrel or Rio will know what we're saying and run to the door.” Same thing with our little wiener dog. It’s “SQ” around here. If you say squirrel, it’s the equivalent of ringing the doorbell.
From: t-roy
15-Feb-21
Pretty apt description, Shiras! We used to get feeder steers out of Wyoming/Nebraska, and always had several with short ears and stubby tails.
From: Ok...Russ
15-Feb-21
Rick, you'd lose Tater in one of the snow drifts!
From: drycreek
15-Feb-21
About sums it up....
From: BigOk
15-Feb-21
On top of the cold and snow, now the electrical companies are saying they may do controlled temporary blackouts to conserve power to avoid power outages.
From: Ok...Russ
15-Feb-21
Generator filled up, extension cords in garage, extra gas in shed, fridge and freezers full - the ice storm in October has me ready for whatever OG&E throws our way!! I think they're doing the rolling 'brownouts' in parts of Tx(dallas) according to a co-worker.
From: NoWiser
15-Feb-21
-29 on my truck thermometer this morning when I parked to hike out and check my mink traps. Those who say that it doesn't really matter once it's below zero obviously haven't spent much time in -30 to -40 real temps. There's a BIG difference between 0 and -30.
From: Mike Ukrainetz
15-Feb-21
And there’s another big difference between -30 F and -47 F with a -65 F windchill! That’s what we got last week in Alberta and now the polar vortex is hitting you guys in the south. At least we are set up to handle it. I feel sorry for you all. Best of luck!
From: t-roy
15-Feb-21
At least it’s a “dry” cold!
From: x-man
15-Feb-21
Just another day up here in MN. Our local power company buried the power lines decades ago. Haven't had a power outage due to downed lines since. I can hear the ice crack and heave on the lake from inside my house when it gets this cold. Sometimes vibrates the foundation.
Good friend now lives in Midland Texas. They lost their furnace on Friday, well froze on Saturday. Not fun, and they're used to MN winters.
From: JL
15-Feb-21
It's supposed to warm up by the weekend. I've been watching the weather for a break to drive southbound.
From: newfi1946moose
15-Feb-21
Born and raised in the St. Lawrence River Valley in far up NNY. We had a small dairy that had to be taken care of whether it was 40 or -45. Prayed that the barn would be warm enough that water would not freeze. I was not in my teens yet but I could clean the gutter and wheel the load up the ramp and dump!.. Went to a larger herd and a gutter cleaner. Had to stand on the NW corner of the barn and scrape the lags and pray the lags on the spreader would not freeze up on you. To celebrate our second year of marriage the boss and I went to the Steak & Stinger in Lake Placid and spent the night in Saranac Lake (frequently the coldest spot in lower 48). Plugged the old car in. -45. Started the next morning easily but the power steering screamed. -12 here at 6 am and around -35 with the wind. Lots of snow and drifts in Okfuskee, OK. Stay safe!
From: Lawdy
15-Feb-21
Warmed up to 25. Working on my tractor with just a wool shirt and bibs. We haven’t seen 32 degrees since early January, but the lowest was only -30. Not bad up here as we have had no ice, just snow. We heat with only wood and I have burned 2 cords so far in the wood stove and a couple in our cooking stove. We are used to cold up here. The woolies go on in November until April. No heat upstairs in our farmhouse. Heavy quilts with the window cracked open. Sleep like a baby but it’s an adventure getting out of bed.
From: Shiloh
15-Feb-21
Below zero wind chills tonight down here in central MS. Plenty of gas for the heat, cooking and generator just in case. Plenty of wood for the fireplace. Not for heat. I just like to watch the fire and I hate wasting downed hardwood. #blessed
From: JL
15-Feb-21
My biggest concern when it gets frosty down south is being around folks who aren't used to driving in the snow or on icy roads. Black ice is the worse.
From: x-man
15-Feb-21
Right. AWD cars are the worst invention ever. Too much confidence when the roads are slippery. AWD gives plenty of "GO" but no "WHOA" and no steering. The roads were safer when we all had to feather the RWD cars.
From: midwest
15-Feb-21
Not one damn mosquito at least!
From: NoWiser
15-Feb-21
You are correct, Mike. Zero isn't bad at all, but each 10 degree increment colder makes a huge difference. In my experience, -30 is when shit really starts to break from the cold. I've never experienced much colder than about -35 and probably will never get the chance to be outside in -45.
From: Kevin Dill
15-Feb-21
It’s said to be zero and sunny in Fairbanks, AK right now.
From: x-man
15-Feb-21
Walked a mile back to our apartment in college when our car broke down back in 83-84. It was -65 wind chill. Don't ever want to experience that again! There's a whole nother realm of cold beyond -30, trust me.
From: JL
15-Feb-21
I've been under a helo when the OAT was -16 in Voyager NP in February. Don't know what the wind chill was from the rotor wash but it was extremely painful and difficult to function. Can't imagine living in real cold stuff....or trying to draw a bow.
From: Hackbow
15-Feb-21
Being a transplanted northerner to the DFW area, it hasn't been too bad for me. But very little of the infrastructure or services are built to handle what we're experiencing. Our power just came on after about 13 hrs off today. We had to postpone a bunch of work and my crews were looking at no pay for a week or two. We managed to pivot and pick up some commercial de-icing and snow removal work. Making lemon slushies out of lemons!
From: 3rd Degree
15-Feb-21
It's so cold.......
It looks like a button on a fur coat!
From: Lost Arra
15-Feb-21
Baffled by a frozen hot water line to washing machine. Every other line in the house is open. I cannot believe it's in the wall. I've got two small holes in the sheet rock and can feel the pipe is warm from blowing the hair dryer in the wall. I'm guessing it's in the slab.
From: JL
15-Feb-21
^.....have you opened up the outside spigots to see if water will flow from them? That might help you troubleshoot where the frozen line is. If you loose water pressure or have no water pressure....you might have a split line underground leaking.
From: PushCoArcher
15-Feb-21
Perfect hog killing weather.
From: buckhammer
15-Feb-21
The coldest I have ever seen occurred in the early 90's. I was living in southern MI in the country near a town called Bloomingdale and I had 3 consecutive mornings of -20, -22 and -25.
On the first morning of -20 I got ready to go to work and my vehicle wouldn't start. So I phoned a girl I worked with and she came and picked me up for work in a brand new Dodge Dakota that her husband had stolen off from a dealers lot a few days earlier. Neither she nor I knew the vehicle was stolen. Her husband told her he had purchased it new.
On the second night when it got to -22 I set my alarm and got up twice during the night and went outside and started my vehicle and let it run for and hour each time so that it would start in the morning for work.
On the third night when it got to -25 I removed the battery from my vehicle when I got home from work and brought it in the house. I heated my home with wood and the woodstove was in the basement. Directly above the stove I had cut a 2 foot by 2 foot hole in the floor and placed a steel grate in the opening to allow the heat to more easily make it upstairs. I placed the battery on the grate to keep it warm and placed it back in my vehicle the next morning. The car put up a fight that morning not wanting to roll over but the warm battery was the difference and she finally fired.
From: Huntcell
15-Feb-21
Isn't there some rule about not posting pictures of Hillary?
From: Tradman and Huntress
15-Feb-21
This guy came in 15 minutes after the feeder went off, and the deer had already mopped it all up. I'm surprised he's not bedded up in a pig pile to keep warm. Too bad the wind is so brutal right now, or it would be an awesome night to be out there with the thermal!!! ~C
From: newfi1946moose
15-Feb-21
Guys...I migrated to OK to get away from the cold and snow....I am in a state of complete confusion...must be global warming...gonna text /bidenbumma to drill me a new gas well just like the one a mile to the east of me! They fracked it, also!
From: Tradman and Huntress
16-Feb-21
We have water dripping in all our faucets to keep the pipes from freezing, a fire in the woodstove because two heat pumps are running non stop, and am shoveling snow with a grain scoop. Yesterday they announced rolling blackouts because gas wells are freezing up and they can't meet the demand for electricity or natural gas. Ponds are frozen too thick to break ice with a tractor anymore, so having to use an axe. And boy, you tall about being hard on batteries! We're just not used to this nonsense, and certainly not for such an extended period of time!
From: Treeline
16-Feb-21
Totally different ball game for the folks down south to have these kinds of temperatures. Up in the mountains everything is built for it and the roads are maintained (mostly). Hard to believe -15 in OK! And sounds like the wind has been rough, too. Hopefully it breaks soon!
My folks are having to feed a lot extra and break open water with them an ax for the livestock and wildlife in Texas. Really rough on them in their 80’s.
From: Woods Walker
16-Feb-21
"Right. AWD cars are the worst invention ever. Too much confidence when the roads are slippery. AWD gives plenty of "GO" but no "WHOA" and no steering. The roads were safer when we all had to feather the RWD cars."
X2!! It's 4 wheel/all wheel DRIVE, not STOP! This fact should be exhibited on the control panel of all vehicles!
I can't believe how stupid a lot of people driving on the roads are in the winter. In the south where this kind of weather in not the norm I can understand it. But here up north you'd think they would have figured it out by now.
I lived in Wyoming in the 70's. Back then , running off the road/being stuck in the winter was far more than an inconvenience, it was a matter of life and death. I learned real quick to detect black ice and to ALWAYS "be prepared".....warm clothing, shovel, etc.
From: Ok...Russ
16-Feb-21
Seems to me that the car isn't the problem - nothing wrong with AWD or 4WD - it's the person behind the wheel. Figure I might as well jump on the what's this have to do with OK and TX cold temps bandwagon. -16 this morning in OKC area. And I'll stick to my comment No Brainer since it was taken so literally - below zero doesn't matter because I'm not getting out in it. How about -16 to -30 is that a close enough comparison?
From: No Mercy
16-Feb-21
-29 real feel here in sunny ND this morning. Don't worry-our coal power plants are churning and producing power for all the frozen wind turbines and snow covered solar panels down there-we got you guys covered! :-)
From: JL
16-Feb-21
It's a balmy 11 degrees here in northern MI right now. Hard to believe it was colder in OK. At this rate, Oklahoma might have a new type of resident that heads south when it's cold.....snowbirds!
We have a 2012 CRV AWD. The AWD system is an electric rear end. It only engages when the computer senses the front wheels spinning. IMO.....quality all season tires is what gets your thru the ice and snow. Tires that are low on tread or poor quality will mess you up.
From: Lawdy
16-Feb-21
I run chains all winter on our timber and back roads and a CB is absolutely needed to alert you to a TT loaded with over 100,000 pounds of logs or tree length. They have the right of way. You reach out on the radio every mile marker. Hear a trucker answer and find a pull-off or take a snowbank. Our Notches up here can be deadly too. 21 accidents in one morning last week in Pinkham Notch. I am a fire fighter here and all our trucks are ironed up. I always have a huge come-along and two tow straps in my pickup tool box as I run hounds deep in the woods. Beats walking out 20+ miles.
From: Lawdy
16-Feb-21
I run chains all winter on our timber and back roads and a CB is absolutely needed to alert you to a TT loaded with over 100,000 pounds of logs or tree length. They have the right of way. You reach out on the radio every mile marker. Hear a trucker answer and find a pull-off or take a snowbank. Our Notches up here can be deadly too. 21 accidents in one morning last week in Pinkham Notch. I am a fire fighter here and all our trucks are ironed up. I always have a huge come-along and two tow straps in my pickup tool box as I run hounds deep in the woods. Beats walking out 20+ miles.
From: t-roy
16-Feb-21
Pretty brisk here, this morning. Good for business, though!
From: PushCoArcher
16-Feb-21
No Mercy don't worry they'll have those wind turbines up in no time. It's simple first get a helicopter (fueled by fossil fuels) and then spray the blades with a chemical agent (made from fossil fuel) so the ice won't stick. Wind energy the poster child of renewable energy.
From: Bake
16-Feb-21
Yep, that stopping thing is a big big deal. I've preached to my wife for years, DON'T hit your brakes! Slow to a stop, and downshift if you have to, use inertia and gears to slow down. The brakes should only be used to keep the car from rolling once you've stopped. ( I preach the same thing to her about deer, DON'T slam on brakes or swerve. Just apply steady pressure to brakes and take the hit. We carry insurance and drive SUVs for a reason)
My Dodge 2500 has exhaust braking. I LOVE it in conditions like this. I turn on the exhaust brake and the Tow/haul and rarely have to touch my brakes other than at really low speeds.
From: Bake
16-Feb-21
I also tell her, if you do end up in a ditch, and it's safe to do so, don't stop! That's when you get stuck. Power up and keep driving! You might have to ride the ditch a while, but a lot of times you can drive out of it too :) I may not be the best influence :)
From: Pete In Fairbanks
16-Feb-21
In case you were wondering why this occurred?
It's us getting even with all the Lower 48 businesses who refuse to ship to Alaska....!
Pete
From: deserthunter
16-Feb-21
Some one say hell froze over ?
From: Zim
16-Feb-21
From: tundrajumper
16-Feb-21
Almost 30 above here in Eagle River Alaska.
From: 'Ike' (Phone)
17-Feb-21
Lol...
From: Medicinemann
17-Feb-21
There's going to be a lot of swimming pools to repair in Texas.
From: Will
17-Feb-21
Ike that's frigging hilarious!
From: NoWiser
17-Feb-21
Using gears and exhaust to brake seems like a pretty bad idea on icy roads. We have antilock brakes on our vehicles for a reason. You can feather brakes or let up if needed, but once your vehicle downshifts and you go into a skid, it's pretty much out of your hands. Not to mention, exhaust braking on a truck is going to lock up your rear tires only, which is definitely not what you want to happen unless you enjoy looking backwards at the car following you. Am I missing something??
From: trophyhill
17-Feb-21
A day or 2 of cold weather? Really? Come on over to the San Luis Valley for a few weeks and work in this zero degree + or - for a week or 3 where ground thaw machines are hard at work. Fun stuff! I swear these construction workers on my site are some badass sons a guns.
From: RK
17-Feb-21
Here is one of my deer feeders this morning
From: newfi1946moose
17-Feb-21
Fed the horses in the newest snow but bored so dropped the RAM 2500 HD into 4 x 4 and did a bunch of 360s on the back lawn in the drifts...a bit of fun! Sunny days in a week..so they say.
From: BigSkyHntr
17-Feb-21
From: PushCoArcher
17-Feb-21
Newfi took the kids out to cut some snownuts yesterday myself.
From: Brotsky
17-Feb-21
Heck this wasn't that bad up here. I didn't even have to break out my "big coat".
From: Tradman and Huntress
17-Feb-21
That's great Rob!!! What kind of trophy fee in that big one?
-C
