OT: Weather (just weather)

[Goldseatsaud]

On 1/18/2024 at 5:22 AM, spndnchz said:

Better than a tornado Auntie Em

I’ll roll the dice. No white crap here

You guys will have snow right up till May lol

[Doohicksie]

HOLY MOLEY

 

Another view.

 

[matter2003]

3 hours ago, Doohickie said:

HOLY MOLEY

 

Another view.

 

What was that idiot doing driving at that speed in those conditions? Dude should be fired on the spot, he clearly poses a public safety risk to anyone he comes in contact with when he is out on the road.

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, matter2003 said:

What was that idiot doing driving at that speed in those conditions? Dude should be fired on the spot, he clearly poses a public safety risk to anyone he comes in contact with when he is out on the road.

How fast do you think he was going?  Looks like about 10-15 mph on icy roads and oh, by the way, there's a slight downhill.  To me it looks like he might have come in slow (much slower than what was seen in the video), started sliding downhill, turned left to get the front end off the slick street and into the yard to try to get traction. 

As someone who lives in Texas, a lot of the time they simply don't salt or sand the streets here.  They're just not equipped to do that.  I would think St Louis would be better about that being further north, if an emergency happens during an ice event, what are ya gonna do?

Edited January 22 by Doohickie

[JohnC]

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

How fast do you think he was going?  Looks like about 10-15 mph on icy roads and oh, by the way, there's a slight downhill.  To me it looks like he might have come in slow (much slower than what was seen in the video), started sliding downhill, turned left to get the front end off the slick street and into the yard to try to get traction. 

As someone who lives in Texas, a lot of the time they simply don't salt or sand the streets here.  They're just not equipped to do that.  I would think St Louis would be better about that being further north, if an emergency happens during an ice event, what are ya gonna do?

Could you explain to me why Texas refuses to be part of the national grid so when nature causes breakage in the grid there is no ability to bring in power from the other parts of the grid until the lines are restored? The people who are affected end up paying humongous bills until the lines are repaired because there is a supply/demand cost system. 

 

[Doohicksie]

6 minutes ago, JohnC said:

Could you explain to me why Texas refuses to be part of the national grid so when nature causes breakage in the grid there is no ability to bring in power from the other parts of the grid until the lines are restored? The people who are affected end up paying humongous bills until the lines are repaired because there is a supply/demand cost system.

Because Texas as a state has an inflated view of itself.  The grid did hold up this time, in no small part to wind power.  😉

[JohnC]

16 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

Because Texas as a state has an inflated view of itself.  The grid did hold up this time, in no small part to wind power.  😉

I think it was a couple of years ago when the grid was badly damaged that it resulted in people getting utility bills in the $ 1000s. Texas may be the only state or one of the few states that are tied into the national grid. That makes no sense to me. 

[Doohicksie]

You mean "not tied" but yeah.  There are three grids in the U.S.:  East, West and Texas.

The multi-thousand-dollar electric bills came from people who chose providers who priced electricity directly based on the wholesale rate.  When there wasn't enough electricity to feed the grid, the prices briefly went to infinity (effectively).

I still don't totally trust the grid, but they have tried to make it more robust.  Our utilities are still hung from utility poles; I think that's probably the weak link in the chain at this point.  (Newer neighborhoods have buried utilities, but our neighborhood was built in the 1950s.)

[SwampD]

2 hours ago, JohnC said:

I think it was a couple of years ago when the grid was badly damaged that it resulted in people getting utility bills in the $ 1000s. Texas may be the only state or one of the few states that are tied into the national grid. That makes no sense to me. 

1 hour ago, Doohickie said:

You mean "not tied" but yeah.  There are three grids in the U.S.:  East, West and Texas.

The multi-thousand-dollar electric bills came from people who chose providers who priced electricity directly based on the wholesale rate.  When there wasn't enough electricity to feed the grid, the prices briefly went to infinity (effectively).

I still don't totally trust the grid, but they have tried to make it more robust.  Our utilities are still hung from utility poles; I think that's probably the weak link in the chain at this point.  (Newer neighborhoods have buried utilities, but our neighborhood was built in the 1950s.)

There should be more grids. A lot more.

[Doohicksie]

13 minutes ago, SwampD said:

There should be more grids. A lot more.

But they should back each other up.  That's the problem with the Texas grid:  It's isolated, so when we did have problems in 2021 there was no fall back.

[SwampD]

6 minutes ago, Doohickie said:

But they should back each other up.  That's the problem with the Texas grid:  It's isolated, so when we did have problems in 2021 there was no fall back.

Texas being isolated is the exact reason why it is own grid. I think the people that got those enormous bills should have had to pay them. Screw'em. That was the deal they signed. Just because they lost the bet, doesn't mean they should get out of paying it.

[ubkev]

We've had snow on the ground for 14 straight days. That means it snowed twice 2 weeks ago and it's been cold enough and hasn't rained for the longest amount of time in the last 3 winters. 

All of that ends tomorrow. 38 and rain, followed by 40and rain and 50 and more rain. 

God, I love snow. 

[JohnC]

9 hours ago, SwampD said:

There should be more grids. A lot more.

 

8 hours ago, SwampD said:

Texas being isolated is the exact reason why it is own grid. I think the people that got those enormous bills should have had to pay them. Screw'em. That was the deal they signed. Just because they lost the bet, doesn't mean they should get out of paying it.

What choice does the customer have regarding the inflated bills due to an outdated system? They signed the agreement because there was no other choice.

As @Doohickie pointed out, the problem isn't that Texas has their own grid system so much as they don't have an ability to draw from another system when theirs is down. Another reason why there is a refusal to join a national system is that they don't want to pay for a system that has higher quality standards. Sometimes when you try to save a penny you end up paying a $$$. The people who end up paying the piper are the customers who had no other choice. 

[Doohicksie]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

What choice does the customer have regarding the inflated bills due to an outdated system? They signed the agreement because there was no other choice.

Incorrect.  There are a lot of choices for energy consumers in Texas.

There is one Grid Operator (ERCOT, a public/private entity) and one electricity delivery system (ONCOR), but consumers buy electricity in Texas from any of a number of energy retailers.  The largest is probably TXU Energy.  Each retailer is just a go between between ONCOR and the consumer and each has its own billing structure. 

There was one company, Griddy, that basically charged consumers a monthly flat fee and then charged consumers whatever the instantaneous wholesale rate was.  As such, there was no margin to mitigate the spikes and consumers simply couldn't afford $9,000/kW-hr, so the company went bankrupt.  Under normal conditions Griddy was the best deal for consumers, but when the grid crashed and prices spiked the company had no way to mitigate that.  They saw what was coming and begged their customers to switch, but the way the companies work you can't switch instantly Griddy was screwed.  But that was only like 0.01% of customers in the state or something like that.

My company "overcharged" me enough that when things crashed they were able to eat the overages.  And we never lost power. 

(My friend who lives a mile away lost power for 4 days in subzero temps.  His wife feeds a bunch of feral cats, so when cold snap hit they let the cats stay on their enclosed porch.  They stayed in their house.  Luckily they're avid campers and had good cold weather gear.  The set up a tent in their living room and slept in it.  I think it got down to about 30 degrees in their house.)

Edited January 23 by Doohickie

[JohnC]

4 hours ago, Doohickie said:

Incorrect.  There are a lot of choices for energy consumers in Texas.

There is one Grid Operator (ERCOT, a public/private entity) and one electricity delivery system (ONCOR), but consumers buy electricity in Texas from any of a number of energy retailers.  The largest is probably TXU Energy.  Each retailer is just a go between between ONCOR and the consumer and each has its own billing structure. 

There was one company, Griddy, that basically charged consumers a monthly flat fee and then charged consumers whatever the instantaneous wholesale rate was.  As such, there was no margin to mitigate the spikes and consumers simply couldn't afford $9,000/kW-hr, so the company went bankrupt.  Under normal conditions Griddy was the best deal for consumers, but when the grid crashed and prices spiked the company had no way to mitigate that.  They saw what was coming and begged their customers to switch, but the way the companies work you can't switch instantly Griddy was screwed.  But that was only like 0.01% of customers in the state or something like that.

My company "overcharged" me enough that when things crashed they were able to eat the overages.  And we never lost power. 

(My friend who lives a mile away lost power for 4 days in subzero temps.  His wife feeds a bunch of feral cats, so when cold snap hit they let the cats stay on their enclosed porch.  They stayed in their house.  Luckily they're avid campers and had good cold weather gear.  The set up a tent in their living room and slept in it.  I think it got down to about 30 degrees in their house.)

The issue I am bringing up doesn't deal with the variety of companies that draw their electricity from the Texas grid. The issue is that the Texas grid is a separate/independent grid that doesn't have the ability to draw from the national grid when part of its system goes down.  This is by design. So, when part of its system is damaged/shut down due to weather, tornados etc. it takes longer to get back on-line in comparison to other regions that are tied to the national system and temporally can get electricity from outside sources.   

[French Collection]

5 hours ago, JohnC said:

The issue I am bringing up doesn't deal with the variety of companies that draw their electricity from the Texas grid. The issue is that the Texas grid is a separate/independent grid that doesn't have the ability to draw from the national grid when part of its system goes down.  This is by design. So, when part of its system is damaged/shut down due to weather, tornados etc. it takes longer to get back on-line in comparison to other regions that are tied to the national system and temporally can get electricity from outside sources.   

Like all utilities around North America, there is only one circuit running in front of your home that you can connect to. There may be options for delivery but they are all buying from the one company that owns the wires.

Grid ties in Ontario are not the greatest. The transmission system is fairly robust but is geared to provincial supply. We have lines that tie into Quebec, Manitoba, New York, Michigan and Minnesota but they lack the ability to supply more than a fraction of the demand. Quebec could be a great supplier but they prefer to sell their huge surplus of electricity to the US. Many of those transmission voltages are not compatible with other provinces.

[Sabres Fan in NS]

Another Nor'Easter this afternoon and tonight.  Snow this time.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/maps/radar

Yous have to scroll to right to find NS.

Edited January 26 by Sabres Fan in NS

[Wyldnwoody44]

On 1/23/2024 at 1:02 AM, ubkev said:

We've had snow on the ground for 14 straight days. That means it snowed twice 2 weeks ago and it's been cold enough and hasn't rained for the longest amount of time in the last 3 winters. 

All of that ends tomorrow. 38 and rain, followed by 40and rain and 50 and more rain. 

God, I love snow. 

It's crap. 

 

I skiied Le Massif today, it's amazing. But even up here they barely had the ability to open up the mountain until after the holidays. 

Luckily the rain didn't hit this far north, but I saw pics of Holiday Valley today and man, that's just so sad. 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

This one's gonna be fun ...

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/city/ca/nova-scotia/terence-bay/alerts

 

[Sabres Fan in NS]

An honest to goodness blizzard here now.

Started slowly yesterday.  Was very bad overnight.  Still raging today.  Will be tomorrow and will finally move on (stalled over NS) Monday evening.  Expecting about 50cm (about 20 inches) of snow blown into huge drifts in all.  That is a lot of snow for Halifax.  Much more in the north mailand and Cape Breton.

[Big Guava]

3 hours ago, Sabres Fan in NS said:

An honest to goodness blizzard here now.

Started slowly yesterday.  Was very bad overnight.  Still raging today.  Will be tomorrow and will finally move on (stalled over NS) Monday evening.  Expecting about 50cm (about 20 inches) of snow blown into huge drifts in all.  That is a lot of snow for Halifax.  Much more in the north mailand and Cape Breton.

Enjoy...outside of 2 weeks in early-mid January here where we picked up about 50-80 inches of snow depending where you are, it's been a very quiet winter here. Temps heading back into the mid 40s and even 50s for a few days next week in WNY.

[Wyldnwoody44]

I want snowwwwww

[Big Guava]

25 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I want snowwwwww

Go to Anchorage, they are pretty much the only place in the US getting any right now

[SwampD]

1 hour ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I want snowwwwww

Dude,… so bad!!!

[TheAud]

1 hour ago, Big Guava said:

Go to Anchorage, they are pretty much the only place in the US getting any right now

I am in Lakewood, Colorado and we have gotten about 10 inches of extremely wet, heavy snow in the past 5 hours. It was rain this morning. Thursday was 59 degrees and sunny. Looks to keep coming down for another hour or two at least. I was planning on going to see the Univ. of Denver hockey game tonight but now, no way am I heading out on these roads.