More Cold Weather

We have been in a deep freeze all day.  The thermometer has barely risen above zero, if at all, and there's a brisk wind out of the northwest.  The wind chill register on my weather station swings up and down with the wind velocity, and mostly is registering well below zero.  Another cold night ahead.  Last night we saw a -22 on the thermometer that is on the back side of the house.  The others may be skewed a bit as one is a digital attached to a window, and the other that is attached to my weather station has an indicator station in a somewhat protected area under the deck.  We notice both of these show consistently warmer temperatures than the old mercury type at the back side of the house.  However, when it gets to the zero and below level, a reading a few degrees one way or the other doesn't matter much.  It's just darned cold, and we put on extra layers. Fred doesn't leave the house without his fur hat, and Woody and I simply don't leave the house . . . !

George Parizo shared this interesting photo, and here's what he wrote: 

This strange shaft of light seen over Joe's Pond in the winter is known as a Sun Devil. Caused by the sun shining through frozen moisture. “Winters Rainbow,” not often seen in the Northeast and like a Rainbow, it lasts just only a short time. Keep your Camera handy.

George Parizo

George didn't say when he took the picture, or what time of day, but it is certainly unusual.  I'll post further information if/when I get it from him.  

George and Pat also sent this lovely digital greeting - I think he sent one a few years ago that was similar - I remember because it is very striking.  The frost on our windows doesn't get quite that decorative!

We do have frost on our windows now that we have the insulated blinds.  In this cold weather, we've had the blinds down almost 24/7, and there's a little ridge of frost and ice built up along the lower edge.  Once the blinds are up, the frost melts and I'm able to wipe the moisture away, but yesterday and today I just let the ice stay in place with the blinds down.  When it warms up, I'll take care of it.  There is certainly a big difference in the amount of draft around the big windows in the living room, especially.  I never noticed it when we had the wood fire going, it was almost always warmer than we needed, even for sitting still; but we're using only the boiler this winter, and keep the blinds in place in order to conserve oil.  So far, even though it's been an unusually cold fall, we think our oil consumption is considerably less than before we made the changes, adding more insulation, the blinds, and the more efficient boiler.

When we burned wood, I used to keep large rocks near the wood stove, and on cold days, placed them under my desk in my office so I could keep my feet warm.  I don't need them anymore because there is a heating element under my desk keeping me toasty warm.  So we retired the big round rocks - but I won't toss them out.  We may need them again if we should decide to burn wood again.

I have the scanner going today, and there have been several mishaps with cars and trucks sliding off the roads.  One was on Route 2 near the Goodrich Maple Farm this morning.  The driver was hurt, but I don't know how badly.  Just now there's information about a truck off one of the exit ramps near Lyndonville.  It started snowing a couple hours ago, so that is making driving hazardous.  When it's this cold, the salt doesn't work, and sand will not stick much.  Makes things tough all around.  Road crews are busy trying to keep things safe and traffic moving.  It will probably be a busy night for them.