Deep freeze hits northern states

Yahoo! News ^ | 21 Jan 2008 | AP

[The Mayor]

LOL!

[Bigh4u2]

LOL! good one!

[RightWhale]

After a few eight month winters dealing with -20 to zero most of the time, most people get into a routine with their vehicles so they are somewhat reliable. The Ford F150s do okay although the Chevy/GMC, Toyota, and Dodge pickups are good. The trick with the windshield is to not use the heater once you are on the road. Did I mention that aluminum alloy wheels could be a problem at -40?

[steelyourfaith]

"Hot Air Cult"

~~Anthropogenic Global Warming ™ ping~~

[Myrddin]

The trick with the windshield is to not use the heater once you are on the road.

It's pretty hard to deice the windshield and keep it clean without a steady stream of hot air on it. The down side is that the trip is 2.5 miles out and back. Barely enough time to warm up the engine. The truck is parked outside, so I have to deal with the windshield before I can leave. Sometimes it's clean, other times I have layers of snow and ice. I'm not sure about the wheels on the F150 or Mariner Hybrid. I have problems with the mag wheels on the 914, but that happens at just about any temperature. The surface where the tire mates to the rim has some serious corrosion problems. I'll probably replace the wheels with some good steel ones. The car was still drivable when I transported it from San Diego to Pocatello in 2001. I have no idea whether it is still OK. The MTBE in the gasoline destroyed all the rubber fuel lines twice already.

[RightWhale]

Something I do is lay an old blanket over the windshield at night. The glass is always ice-free in the morning even while other surfaces can be frosted up considerably. If i need to defrost with the heater i do that but if there is blowing snow I then turn the heater way down or off while leaving the blower on and it keeps the interior surface from fogging up and snow just bounces off outside.

[Alberta's Child]

I thought I had it bad in western Canada until the day I was driving across northern Ontario one October a few years back. I stopped for gas in the small town of White River, Ontario (north of Lake Superior), and I commented to the guy working there about how mild it was so late in the year (it was in the 50s, if I remember -- very warm for late October up there).

"Yeah, it's got us all concerned up here," he said, "The last time it was this warm so late in the fall we had one of the worst winters anyone can remember."

"Lots of snow?" I asked.

"Hardly any at all," he said, "but there was a four-week stretch from late January through late February where the HIGH temperature every day was no warmer than -30."

The White River itself froze to the bottom that year, and when the spring thaw came every farm and home down the river was inundated with rocks, trees, soil, and everything else that got chewed up by the ice and carried downstream.

Holy sh!t. LOL.

[toddlintown]

Holy Cow! Can you believe this? Freezing weather in January. Now I’ve heard it all!

[TChris]

The White River itself froze to the bottom that year, and when the spring thaw came every farm and home down the river was inundated with rocks, trees, soil, and everything else that got chewed up by the ice and carried downstream.

Yikes!

Mother Nature has many different ways to ruin your day. That's for sure.

[rustbucket]

My first thought about the photo you posted was that you had a penguin in your driveway. Probably cold enough.

[Cuttnhorse]

Yep, “brisk”...here in Idaho this a.m. -12 at my little casa...at 3 p.m. 1-degree. Better give ole dobbin an extra scoop of 4-Way tonight.

[Cuttnhorse]

What?? You don’t have an engine block heater??

[maine-iac7]

Too too funny!

That's a winner!

[maine-iac7]

My first thought about the photo you posted was that you had a penguin in your driveway. Probably cold enough.

Here's another one of my brother digging out my car. Good thing I remembered where I left it in the first place ;o)

[Myrddin]

The blanket approach might work...if I can keep the blanket on the vehicle. It is windy here much of the time. We often have steady 10 to 25 knot winds with gusts to 35-60. I live on a cul de sac that faces west. We get all the leaves and trash from the neighborhood. I could probably close each end of the blanket in the front doors of the F150 to anchor it. Have you ever had the blanket get wet and freeze to the surface of the windshield?

[Myrddin]

What?? You don’t have an engine block heater??

No. I'm giving that serious consideration for both the F150 and Mariner. The houses on my street (including mine) were built with a two outlet power socket between the garage doors AND a socket at the front end of the garage on each side. I suspect that was intended to power engine block heaters.

[RightWhale]

That’s what I do, close the doors on the blanket. There is a skill to this, too since the blanket will wick rain into the vehicle if the ends are inside, so you want to have small folds caught in the door and the ends hanging outside. If the blanket is wet and freezes it will be stiff, which is amusing, but it won’t stick hard to the glass, maybe just a little but it comes loose easily.

[Myrddin]

I just went outside and shoveled my driveway and front steps. It is +10 F, so the snow is like table sugar. White, crystalline and dry. I finished cleaning down to bare concrete with a push broom. Cleaning it up before it has any chance to melt helps a bunch.

Thanks for the pointer on avoiding "wicking" of moisture into the interior. The sun melted some of the snow off the F150 windshield, but left a very heavy layer of ice over the driver's side. Even the spray on deice liquid isn't touching it this evening. We're on the way down to -6 F. The sun just set, so temps will be dropping quickly.

[RightWhale]

The blanket should do a fair job at your present temperatures. I find that only a few people try this even though it works. Maybe it isn’t stylish.

[maine-iac7]

I once used a blanket - tied rocks on the four corners to anchor down - worked well