Since Friday, we began to experience the coldest winter here in Tianjin (harbour in northeast china) in 50 years! So we can do nothing but to stay at home at weekend. How is the rest of the world?
[OP]
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Since Friday, we began to experience the coldest winter here in Tianjin (harbour in northeast china) in 50 years! So we can do nothing but to stay at home at weekend. How is the rest of the world?
LIMAC CNC Router Ltd
Tianjin, China
Member
Wettest year on record. River in my home town flooded and crested at 30.7 feet (9.357 meters). Bridges destroyed, homes ruined, livestock lost. Pretty bad.
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-Lud
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Justin, that's terrible and I feel for you. I do Find some humor in the photo you posted. Sponsored by Century 21?
Our winter here in Cleveland didn't really start until mid-Jauary, as opposed to last year where we had snow in November IIRC.
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Well isn't that a water parkOriginally Posted by Justin Ludwig
Contributor
It seems the USA has seen non-typical and extreme weather conditions most everywhere. Here in western Arkansas the winter has been very mild, warm even through December. I understand the El Niño phenomenon is a big contributor to weather patterns this year. Stay warm.
My three favorite things are the Oxford comma, irony and missed opportunities
The problem with humanity is: we have paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and God-like technology. Edward O. Wilson
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For some reason, I suspect that we're going to need to just come to expect "weather extremes" going forward...which is not a pleasant thought.
--
The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...
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Here in the Pacific Northwest Portland, Oregon had the wettest December on record. It looks like January may do the same. Salem, Oregon broke a high temp for the day at 60ºF.
Even with all the rain, the tropical storms coming this way have kept it warm. Usually things are frozen this time of year. Some of the trees in the yard are already starting to set buds.
Last year we had what is being called a wet drought. Lots of rain but no snow pack. It looks like we are getting some snow this year.
Is it just nature getting even with man kind?
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
[OP]
Member
Wow, seems everywhere has opposite weather from past. We were having warm winters in the past 5 years.But this year, even the southern states here snowed, which had no snows in the past 20 or more years.
LIMAC CNC Router Ltd
Tianjin, China
Contributor
Very mild winter for us so far. We have had a few days below zero but thats it. This week into the upper 30's again, very uncommon for January.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.
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Glad you got that one, Jerome.
Matt, the Wright's flew their helo around and took pics then marked all the photos they posted. I didn't feel like editing it, but the irony is there.
-Lud
Contributor
Forecast is 60 degrees here on Friday. Sixteen would be more normal.
Contributor
Hi Mary, your weather has been the opposite of mine in Canada.
It's about 6 degrees (Celcius) today, far warmer than it should be.
There's no snow accumulation on the ground, also very strange.
How cold is it now in Tianjin?
regards, Rod.
Member
Wind chills around 0 a week ago and temps at 60 in a few days. I'm sure it will be back to ice and snow in a couple of weeks.
Contributor
Second year in a row with lower than normal snowfall. Also very warm in December such that many lakes did not freeze until January.
Contributor
Crazy warm around the DC area till a week or so ago. Then it got cold and then it snowed and snowed and snowed....
Funny story. We were pretty prepared for the snow with a John Deere X304 tractor and 44" snow blower. Before the snow, Ilya (my son-in-law) and I put on the blower and tire chains. I didn't realize it at the time but I did a lousy job on the chains. That comes into play later.
So Ilya is out there blowing snow at 12:30am and he hits a rock, breaking both auger shear pins. He doesn't realize it and presses on with what is now a really crummy plow. He gets to the bottom of the drive and turns around to come back uphill. This puts stress on the chains (badly installed by me). One chain just plain falls off. The other sort of stays together and wraps itself around the axle and linkages, popping one loose. Did I mention that the X304 is 4 wheel steering? Well, now it's three-wheel steering. Ilya has no idea what's going on and wakes me. We retrieve both chains (one in the snow and one on the tractor), re-mount the chain on the good wheel and we manage to push the tractor back to the garage with one tire sort of flopping around but providing thrust in every direction but the one we want to go. That all took about 2 hours.
I had it all fixed the next day. I re-mounted the chains nice and tight. I fixed the steering linkage. All that remained were the shear pins. We didn't have spares, or more properly, couldn't find them. So, instead of 6mm bolts, I opted for 10-24 bolts and lock nuts. Over the weekend, I probably went through 20 bolts but I didn't care. I could have put in something bigger or drilled the hole out for 1/4-20 but I wanted to ere on the side of protecting the mechanics. We got through the snow and learned some valuable lessons:
1. I learned how to properly install tire chains
2. Ilya learned how to pre-flight a snow blower.
3. We now check the augers any time we hit something and pretty much every time we get off the machine.
4. We back up a lot and have learned to recognize the appearance of the snow when one auger or the other is not turning.
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