Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

eukaryotewritesblog.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 346 posts

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#291

Post by phil21 »

dlcarrier wrote: post #97
colechristensen wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those of us with above ground power lines especially not in cities experience power outages. Particularly when it's near freezing and there's significant ice accumulation.

My parents have underground power lines, and they've lost power multiple times, from vulnerabilities in the infrastructure. The transformers are still above ground, in big green boxes, and occasionally someone will drive into one and knock out power. The substation is also above ground, and once they lost power because a mylar balloon landed in the substation and shorted some lines. They've also lost power from rolli…

Underground power lines are weirdly vulnerable to lightning strikes.

I lived through two >24hr power outages at my previous place that had buried power lines into the subdivision. Both due to lightning strikes on trees that happened to be close to the buried lines. The lightning then fed into the line, and you could literally see black scorch marks on the lawn that followed the wiring until it eventually dissipated.

This required digging up 30-40ft of melted wiring each time and re-running it. These appeared to be direct-burial cables fwiw.

Talking to the utility guys, it was pretty common for this to be the failure mode. I found it pretty interesting and somewhat ironic.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#292

Post by NetMageSCW »

matttproud wrote: post #72
brabel wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, here in Sweden it’s mandatory to change tires. Once I did it a bit late and drove on some ice, just a little. The car was like on ice skates for a little while .

Driving discipline, culture, and rules in North America are Mickey Mouse. The reality of car dependency there means that there are people driving and owning cars who can't really afford to do it properly, nor do they know they need to do it properly (e.g., having a second set of tires for the winter). You can see this evidenced by the rust buckets on the road that look like they are one pothole away from losing part…

The United States also covers a vast difference in climate. What good are snow tires for people in South Florida, or Texas, or New Mexico? Where I live I switch between summer and all season cause we get enough snow to justify snow tires once a decade for a couple of days. This year has been the worse with two weekends with a decent amount of snow that was cleaned off the roads by Tuesday.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#293

Post by NetMageSCW »

Tor3 wrote: post #90
brabel wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, here in Sweden it’s mandatory to change tires. Once I did it a bit late and drove on some ice, just a little. The car was like on ice skates for a little while .

Indeed. The first thing I do when buying a second-hand car (I never buy new cars, what a waste of money) is to buy the best winter tires (and summer tires if needed) that money can buy (lots of that available, as I save so much on the car). I never have any problems in any conditions (and there are a lot of "conditions..") All seasons tires are rubbish. Also the "new" ones (re sister comment).

That hasn’t been true for a very long time.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#295

Post by phil21 »

computerdork wrote: post #23

Moved a year ago from California to northern Michigan. To add to this list, specifically regarding "Do NOT get wet and cold": o If you're walking out in the cold, have many different ways to keep your feet and your hands warm, because usually, you'll have a good-enough coat and winter-pants that'll keep your core relatively warm, but it's the very ends of your extremities that get cold (just got a small amount of fro…

> thick gloves

Gloves are not for severe cold. They are for dexterity during limited exposure time - as no gloves can keep your fingers warm for very long no matter how well-made they are.

Look for mittens or "choppers" as we called them back in the day if you are going to be outside for a long period of time. These are outer shells (leather or gore-tex/etc.) with various types of removable liners. You basically layer your hands inside them. For folks outside all day you usually would have a few liners on hand to replace when they get wet.

Add a heat pack (iron oxide) to these on those super cold days and you'll be pretty much set.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#296

Post by NetMageSCW »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #168
dlcarrier wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in the foothills in Northern California, and I've never met anyone here that changes their ties out for winter. When there's chain controls, they'll let you through if you have winter rated tires, including all-season, and all-wheel drive, otherwise you need chains. Everyone I know who drives a lot in the snow gets a vehicle with all-wheel drive and everyone else carries chains. (really they're cables, on a small…

All-season tires are not winter rated. They are 3.5 season at best. True winter usage only exists in all-weather or snow tires with the 3PMS symbols.

It depends. I use All Seasons in winter and have for over 40 years without issue because 9 years out of ten winter weather means 0.25” of snow one night during winter. The tenth year we might have three inches over a couple of days.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#297

Post by beloch »

>"Do NOT get wet and cold."

This is very true whether the source of the water is outside or inside your clothing.

Unfortunately, this warning is immediately preceded by the recommendation that you should use rain-gear in winter. A lot of rain gear is very lacking in breathability. If you go out and do something physical in raingear, you will likely wind up drenched in sweat. i.e. Wet. The moment you stop being physical, you will get cold. i.e. Cold and wet. This is a recipe for hypothermia.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#298

Post by fleroviumna »

boringg wrote: post #169
yokoprime wrote: post #25

> In the first really heavy winter storm of the year, your power might go off. This is understandable Having lived in Norway most of my 40+ years on this earth, I can with some confidence say that this is not an universal truth. I don’t think I’ve experienced any power interruption of over 1 hour in winter ever, and it’s been at least 5 years since the last time. Yes it snows here. A lot.

This article is a bit painful to read. It should be lessons from living in the remote wildnerness in winter. Pretty much all those problems are relative to rural infrastructure and poor home building. If you live in an area with heavy snow load you want an A-frame roof to de-load the roof (for example see: Tahoe, CA ~ 500-800" snow a year).

[dead]

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#299

Post by jabroni_salad »

bombcar wrote: post #283
FuriouslyAdrift wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indiana here. Power outages due to fallen tree limbs, frozen trees "exploding", ice accumulation on lines, etc. is fairly common. It can take days to bring a grid back up after a major outage. The lead time to replace a city-sized transformer is nearly 4 years, now (ask Puerto Rico about that). https://www.powermag.com/the-transformer-crisis-an-industry-...

It’s not really a question of urban/rural but more a question of “buried transmission lines” or not. We have buried lines and have few if any power issues. richer town a bit over does not, and loses power once a winter or so.

Unfortunately that won't always save you. One of my clients spent a pretty long time unpowered because some creek bed froze (why did they bury thru a creek bed???). When I called for followup they advised me that the truck they sent to remediate had its hydraulics freeze so there was an additional delay.

Re: Lessons you will learn living in a snowy place

#300

Post by helle253 »

> Do NOT get wet and cold.

One thing i keep saying over and over, and few believe me, unless they know from experience - is that winters in Chicago are actually significantly more miserable than Minneapolis, where I went to college.

Minneapolis winters are so cold that everything is dry as a bone, so the cold doesn't 'stick' the same way - Chicago winters sit mostly in the 20-40 range where it's both wet and cold (often raining at a balmy 34-38F), and it's much much more immiserating to be outside.

Post reply on HN