What's the weather where you are?

[Turgon]

An update here in Ontario, the ice has reeked havoc in certain areas and one eyewitness on the news claimed to have personally seen 15 transformer explosions from his balcony in the Scarborough area alone (a district of Toronto). There's still no power where I live and probably won't be until at least Wednesday I suspect, but have been staying with my parents in the meantime whose electricity came back rather quickly.

Just a few hours ago everyone heard a 'boom' that shook the house and it was felt by the family of my sisters boyfriend as well and they live about a 10-15 minute drive west. Not sure if that was a transfomer explosion, an overhead comet or something else.

The Mayor won't call for a state of emergency and I'm not sure what would constitute an 'emergency' but there are still hundreds of thousands of people without heat and electricity and the temperature will be dropping to double digit negative celcius tomorrow and over the next few days. You can hear trees cracking under the weight and pressure of the ice and I can only imagine what would happen if Southern Ontario received any major wind gusts. Things already seem fragile with the electrical grid at the moment even with Hydro companies working around the clock..

 

[Lilou]

I'm glad to hear you had a place to go with electricity and heat, Turgon. I hope people have gas stoves or fireplaces, but many are probably unprepared. I heard the people in the Northern Michigan were told they may not have electricity restored until Saturday! They have brought in electric crews from as far away as Oklahoma. It really is a pretty big deal.
Hope you all don't get strong winds.

We've been pretty lucky here in SE lower Michigan. No ice, minimal snow (maybe an inch/2.5 cm yesterday). Our temps took a nose dive today and by Thursday the highs will be 8F/-13C.

 

[ytain]

I'm also in Toronto, in North York district. I had no power for like 36 or 38 hours, so I braved the cold night along with my cat. The power came back, but only for the lights, not the fridge or stove, and the heating is not back on yet (water type heating), because the electrical wiring for the stove and the fridge is on a separate feed line. I spoke to the superintendant and she told me that it is the same for all the residents in the apartment building complex. So I'll brave the cold nights for the next nights.

We'll see how it goes. It brings back some old memories of life during the communist dictatorship.

Ytain

 

[Gaby]

I just read it in the news... Take good care and be extra careful!

_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25489412

Torontonians are used to snow, but an ice storm is something different - and dangerous. Virtually every tree branch and twig is encased in ice. Many streets are blocked by fallen branches and festooned with yellow safety tape where live power lines have come down.

Trams are running again, now overhead cables have been cleared of ice, but subway services are disrupted. Flights have been delayed, if not cancelled altogether, at one of the busiest times of the year. Pedestrians are walking mainly in the road, avoiding pavements as slippery as skating rinks. On main roads traffic is moving, albeit with delays where traffic lights are not working because of power cuts.

The utility Toronto Hydro says it could be up to 72 hours before electricity is fully restored - well after Christmas Day. The city has opened warming centres for those without power, but many face a cold, dark and disrupted Christmas.

A severe ice storm has brought snow and freezing rain to Canada's biggest city, Toronto, and to much of the east of the country.

At least 11 deaths have been blamed on the storm system in Canada and the north-east US, which was also affected.

The storm left hundreds of thousands of people in the region without electricity.

Travellers were stranded at airports in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal as dozens of flights were cancelled or delayed.

Via Rail warned customers travelling between Toronto and Montreal, Ottawa and New York of delays on Monday.

An estimated 10-30 mm of ice built up on trees and other surfaces in the greater Toronto area during the storm.

Sheets of ice fell from buildings and flew off moving vehicles, Canadian TV channel CBC said.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said on Monday that a state of emergency was not being declared at the moment.

"Thoughts are with those without power due to the ice storm," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper tweeted.

The Toronto Hydro power company said that it may take up to 72 hours to get everybody in the city reconnected.

Efforts to restore power continued through the night but around 250,000 Toronto Hydro customers were still without power on Monday morning, according to its website.

Tree damage was "extensive and worse than originally anticipated. It is slowing down the pace of restoration," a statement said.

Another 100,000 were without power in wider Ontario as well as about 50,000 customers in Quebec and about 6,000 more in New Brunswick.

Earlier Toronto Hydro's chief executive officer Anthony Haines said it was "truly a catastrophic ice storm that we have had here, probably one of the worst we've ever had".

"We've got lines down everywhere."

Toronto has opened emergency warm-up centres for people without power.

And officials have warned high winds forecast for Monday could lead to falling branches and more downed power lines.

'Complex and large'

Over the border in the United States, many flights were also cancelled due to the storm, at one of the busiest travel periods of the year.

More than 400,000 people were also left without power in Michigan, New York state and New England.

The US National Weather Service described the storm system as "complex and large", warning that "another round of snow and ice" was expected for New England on Monday as the storm winds down.

At least four people were killed by flooding caused by the storm in Kentucky, while a tornado was reported to have caused extensive damage in Arkansas.

However, the system has also brought record high temperatures to some parts of the east coast of the US, with the temperature in New York's Central Park reaching 21C, with records also being set in several other cities.

 

[Windmill knight]

We had very stormy weather last night in the UK. Today morning was the first time that on my way to the station I couldn't cross the park because it was flooded - and then all trains were cancelled. This weather has been ongoing for one or two weeks, but last night was the strongest. Here are some pictures, although these were last updated before the heaviest last night:

_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25495897

 

[Alada]

We had very stormy weather last night in the UK. Today morning was the first time that on my way to the station I couldn't cross the park because it was flooded - and then all trains were cancelled. This weather has been ongoing for one or two weeks, but last night was the strongest. Here are some pictures, although these were last updated before the heaviest last night:

_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25495897

Yep, very stormy in the UK yesterday which has produced lots of flooding and another strong storm system headed our way in a couple of days.

There was a weather guy on the BBC yesterday saying that this was almost the deepest low pressure ever recorded here (down to 930mb in places), and that the wind speeds in the jet stream were the fastest he’d ever seen in his life (around 270 miles per hour I think it was).

 

[manitoban]

An update here in Ontario, the ice has reeked havoc in certain areas and one eyewitness on the news claimed to have personally seen 15 transformer explosions from his balcony in the Scarborough area alone (a district of Toronto). There's still no power where I live and probably won't be until at least Wednesday I suspect, but have been staying with my parents in the meantime whose electricity came back rather quickly.

Yes, the ice storm sure has caused chaos, lots of trees down in my area too, (and live power lines) but we were lucky as our power came back on after about 6 hours. I did get a nice toasty fire going in the meantime, so it wasn't too bad.

 

[davey72]

Snow in Hawaii _https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=631446180248389&set=a.164395890286756.39737.164132046979807&type=1

 

[Voyageur]

Snow in Hawaii

Not so unusual for this particular mountain (Mt. Kea) that nears 14,000 ft - they even have a ski team. _http://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/hawaiimauna-kea/

People don't equate Hawaii with snow; i would not have either unless seeing it for myself some years ago.

 

[davey72]

I hadn't realized what was happening in Ontario. Hope things get better soon.

I was wondering if anyone had heard of any volcanoes going off in Thailand recently, as my roomate is out there. He called me, and said that it was raining ashes.

 

[luke wilson]

Reporting from south west england here... Rainy and windy outside, not as cold as last year nor has any snow hit the ground so far this year, at least in the south west.

I thought they were reporting the worst winter in living memory or something like that at the beginning of the season... What happened? In fact, by my reckoning this winter has been rather mild compared to last.

 

[Dirgni]

In my family we are going to our family's graves at Christmas Eve - always around the same time in the afternoon. When we are at the first grave the twilight is just coming and usually it is night before we reach the other one. This year we were already on our way back when night replaced twilight. We were walking slower compared to earlier times. It was unusually bright and the weather continued to be more like spring than winter. Usually there are clouds but not this year. The brightness could be due to the missing clouds or sunlight reflected more compared to the past (dust in the air?).

On the drive to the graveyard I saw a dark gray contrail - all others were the usual white. It could have been the 'trail' of a plane to or from Munich airport or something else...

 

[Minas Tirith]

I thought they were reporting the worst winter in living memory or something like that at the beginning of the season... What happened? In fact, by my reckoning this winter has been rather mild compared to last.

It is rather strange, especially over the last couple of days: Strong gales and heavy rain alternating in quick succession with sunshine: Is this April?

But there are more storms coming and thousands are still out of electricity:

_http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25517504

M.T.

 

[Deleted member 8431]

Hi guys!

Seems like we were very lucky and avoided the big mess. Haven't been out much yesterday but things didn't get as icy as in Ontario for instance. We received mostly snow and some sleet instead. The conditions were bad nonetheless but not as bad as I had anticipated. Nothing like the 1998 Ice Storm at least. The hot air mass seems to have gone just south of here by very little. But now it's gone and cold is on the menu again. Will get worst in the following days/week.

Thanks for the concern!

Peace.

If it keeps snowing at the same rate we are going to beat our last record of 555 cm. So far we are quite in advance of that record year.

Indeed. Here is an interesting website which keeps track on snowfalls through the province and the averages. Maybe your area is included in there.

_http://www.climat-quebec.qc.ca/htdocs/data_dyna/page/fr/Tableau_Precip_Saison/Tableau_Precip_Saison.html

As for Montréal, we have received 86.1 cm of snow while the average is 72.4 cm. That's only about 3 less cm than last year when we had the greatest snowfall ever in 24h (on that very day actually). In December alone, we received 69.9 cm while the average is 48.9 cm.
In some other places though, they received twice if not thrice the average amount!

There is also the fact that almost none of this snow has melted so far due to the intense cold which make it all more impressive. There are already huge piles of snow everywhere. If it keeps going at that rate, it'll become a real challenge for the city workers.

More snow is to be expected next week and so on. We will have warmer temperatures on the weekend but it will also get back to really cold next week.

Brrrrrrr!

 

[Maat]

All my thoughts to all that might have suffered from Dirk and then Erich storm in Europe. In my area it was much much less than in 1999 hopefully. I hope that all of the concerned area are OK.