Sunday, January 17, 2016

A winter arctic air incursion!

Date: January 17, 2016 log
Loc: Forsyth MO.

Detail: Following was the official National Weather Service forecast for Sunday, January 17, 2016: 'An arctic front was approaching the Ozarks this morning. This feature was forcing a band of snow across central Missouri, which will eventually drift southward into southern Missouri throughout the day.'

They then went on to state that the 'coldest air of the winter' will arrive during the nighttime hours dropping some areas into the single digits! Snow accumulation were expected to be light, anywhere from a dusting to up to an inch. Swell!

I wanted to see if I could do all that I could to conserve both heat (and therefore energy use) over the following 24 hours. [I plan to post figures and data logs on Monday, January the 18th]!

 The take away from the data at right was that 38.8 kWh figure! That was the total energy use to heat and maintain my dwelling for the 24 hour period where the average outdoor temp was 23.2 degrees!

UPDATE: On Tuesday, things did get a little dicey as  Old Man Winter cranked it up a notch! At about 3:00 PM, a very light drizzle began to come down and my windshield had about a tenth of an inch of ice on it. Traffic was also slowing to a crawl and reports form friends told stories of one hour commutes home from work becoming 6 hour endurance contests!

In the closeup picture taken Wednesday morning, at right, you can see a clear demarcation line on a piece of wood that gives one an idea of the amount of ice that covered elevated and exposed surfaces. I gauged the ice at about an eight of an inch in depth.

After taking a short breather during the day on Wednesday when the temperatures were forecast to get to the upper 30's, southwest Missouri residents were advised to brace themselves for a much stronger winter style mix of both rain and snow as a stronger (but, more moisture starved) storm passes slowly overhead! 

NWS forecast for Wed evening: Mostly cloudy. A 30% chance of freezing drizzle...snow and sleet after midnight. Low in the mid 20's. Light wind early in the evening becoming southeast around 10 mph in the late evening and overnight...

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