Winter bared her teeth this weekend, but only briefly.
From this:
Sat, Feb 4, 6:15 AM
-39°C FEELS LIKE -48
To this:
Sun, Feb 5, 6:25 AM
-2 °C FEELS LIKE -7
We were extremely pleased that the new heating system handled the deep freeze without any problems. If it had not been for the clock, I would not have even noticed the extreme temperature just outside our door. The clock runs on a battery. It was sitting on a shelf on the living room wall, leaning up against art work on the shelf, not touching the wall. I thought that the fact that it was not touching the uninsulated wall would protect it. I was wrong. The cold damaged the battery, the clock is no longer keeping correct time. This happened last winter during a cold snap, but the clock was hanging directly on the exterior wall. I now know that anything touching the exterior walls of the house will be subject to very cold temperatures during a cold snap. Lesson learned.
Since our new system is 100% electric, I checked the hydro usage during the Friday/Saturday cold snap. Our usage doubled on those days, which is not surprising. Most of our heat during those days was supplied by the “toaster”, our electric furnace, rather than the heat pump, which does not operate below -28C. I am so very glad the furnace install was completed before this cold snap arrived! The next hydro bill will be a whopper!
The “toaster” dries out the air, so that I had to hang wet laundry on racks, which dried very quickly, then wet towels all over the house to try to keep the humidity from bottoming out. I managed to keep it above 20% relative humidity, and it will take a few days before it returns to the usual 35+%.
The weather report sees us maintaining milder temperatures for the next few weeks, thank goodness. Other than a few short cold snaps it has been a very mild winter.
Although it was a mild winter, January was an intense month.
“With 27 days of cloud cover reported… this January, it earned the city the title for the cloudiest January on record in the last decade!”
Just four days in January where the sun actually made some appearance in the sky.
So the dreary skies of January ended with a blast of arctic cold.
Spring is just around the corner!
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Sun, Feb 5, 8:15 AM
-2 °C
FEELS LIKE -6
Overcast
Wind 14 S km/h
Humidity 82 %
Visibility 18 km
Sunrise 7:21 AM
Wind gust 21 km/h
Pressure 101.2 kPa
Ceiling 6900 m
Sunset 5:22 PM
Quote
“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.”
Pablo Picasso
1881 – 1973
And yet, the diarist is not considered an artist.
If the diarist is eloquent, this writing can be a form of art. I’m glad the insane cold didn’t last long. May your hydro and heat not fail!
Joan, the cold was insane, and oh so brief, just a few days. Hard to fathom how the homeless who live in tents, or even without any shelter, manage to survive in this kind of weather. Thank you re the hydro and heat not failing! Luckily we have the wood stove in the basement now, and a pile of firewood at the ready!
Your weather sounds much like ours, though your lows were lower. If your walls are that cold that they damage batteries, it’s sounding like a really good idea to put in that spray-in insulation. If energy prices were to go up more, you might not do very well.
I counted 3 days with the tiniest bits of sun in the last 3 weeks. I’ll be glad when that changes, though I have no interest in exchanging colder weather for those blue skies.
I saw a video from an instagram account I follow in Michigan. On Saturday, she had more than a dozen robins at once in her crabapple tree, plucking it bare. Either they’re right about the weather changing soon or they’re going to be running out of food.
Teri, Ontario really got hit with this cold snap! The exterior walls do need insulation, there are a few issues with accomplishing that, because the house was built a long time and doesn’t have the wall depth that modern houses have. We have some ideas, but they are expensive. One of the kitchen walls was insulated when we put in the new windows, but the rest of the house is waiting. We did fairly well with our house energy assessment, the assessor was impressed with how well the house performed despite the lack of insulation in the exterior walls. Hopefully we won’t get too many days or nights of weather as cold as -39C again!! Could happen though, so it is on our radar.
I hope the Robins find lots of food! We aw a huge hawk in the treetops across the way, it was amazing. There are a lot of rabbits here, so this is a good hunting ground.
We had the bitter temps and now are getting warmer temps. Has been a fairly mild winter so far so am just waiting to see if Mother Nature gets nasty in March or April and dumps a ton of snow on us. LOL I sure hope all the homeless people were able to find warm shelter. I also worry about the stray cats and dogs. Our little town frowns upon aiding strays in any way unless it is to take them to a shelter but the shelters around here are so overcrowded. Stay warm!
Eileen, I sure hope we don’t get large amounts of snow in March or April. When we lived at the country house is was full-on winter until the first week of April, snow in the shady areas until May. Yes, the stray cats and dogs would be having an awful time in these cold snaps. Stay warm!