Old Weather Forum

Posted: **Sun Dec 12, 2021 7:56 pm**

I think in the UK the plan is to switch to VOIP in the next few years for everyone - there may be a basic handset at a discount but my area hasn't been contacted. Since I live near to Glasgow I will have mobile phone as an option BUT if the alarm systems used by many vulnerable people use the internet line then they may be in trouble. Scenario: power cut, no lights, person falls and can't get up, mobile phone by bed but wearing alarm bracelet/pendant. They press the button but no response. Can't get to phone so person lies there until power comes on or someone comes who can get into house.

My mother used to leave her pendant by the bed and say defensively - I know where it is. There is even less chance of someone carrying their mobile phone with them, at least until the younger generation grow old. Mine (non-smart phone) is in my handbag which is downstairs by the coats.

Posted: **Sun Dec 12, 2021 8:33 pm**

Scenario: power cut, no lights, person falls and can't get up, mobile phone by bed but wearing alarm bracelet/pendant. They press the button but no response. Can't get to phone so person lies there until power comes on or someone comes who can get into house.

My insurance company gave me a fall alarm pendant that uses the cell phone network instead of the land line to get help. So if I'm out hiking and fall it will still be able to help, and has GPS to give my approximate location. However, the pendant still needs to be charged daily. So it will eventually fail anyway during an extended power outage. My mother had one that used the land line and would only work if she was near the house and there was power.

I am looking into getting a heavy duty backup battery system that would be able to keep charging my critical electronics for several days. It is supposed to be able to even run a refrigerator for something like 8 hours. It costs around $600 US. I have considered a gas powered generator, but don't like the noise, pollution, and need to store the gas to power it. With the battery powered system, you just keep it plugged in until needed. However, unlike the gas powered generators, where you just keep adding gas, once the battery runs down, that's it until power is restored.

Posted: **Sun Dec 12, 2021 10:03 pm**

Hi Gordon.
Looks like a small array of solar panels or a mini wind gen like a vertical windmill may be the answer.
https://www.doityourself.com/stry/home- ... sign-ideas

or for a more professional job I like the header picture at this site

https://cleanenergysummit.org/best-vert ... -turbines/

I do however notice nearly all of the models on that site are currently not available on Amazon but it gives you an idea of designs and sizes.

Posted: **Sun Dec 12, 2021 11:31 pm**

I looked into wind turbines a while back and found that there just isn't enough wind at my house to generate much electricity. The amount of electricity generated would never pay the cost of the wind turbine during its lifetime.

I have lived here for over 20 years and the only outage that lasted for more than a day was due to an ice storm that hit when there was almost no wind. The weight of the ice caused tree branches and entire trees to come crashing down.
The wind remained calm for the following week until after power was restored. It was also mostly cloudy the entire time. So the solar panels wouldn't have been much help either.

I believe the battery storage device will be a good solution because the longer power outages are so rare here.

During that lengthy power outage, I had a Prius that I used to charge devices. I kept the engine turned on, but it only ran when its battery started to run down. I no longer have a hybrid, but do have a car that will shut off the engine if it is not moving and the battery has enough of a charge. So it can be used in a similar manner, except that the engine will run more often because its battery is so much smaller than the one in the Prius.

Posted: **Mon Dec 13, 2021 2:20 am**

At 70yo when we moved into the new house with 4kw solar I decided the payback time for a battery was to high even though we do not use much power.
Over the 10 months we averaged 14.8kw/d output from the inverter and used on average 4.782Kwh @ 21c/kWh grid electricity and exported 10.03kWh @ 10c/kWh return. Plus we had to pay Grid access charge of 79c/day. We were away from home for a 6 weeks of that time.

Posted: **Mon Dec 13, 2021 9:20 am**

It's been several years since I last looked into home wind turbines. I just took a look around and was surprised at how many are on the market now and how inexpensive some of the are. However, they all seem to need a minimum wind speed of 4 to 6 mph to start the generator. Winds that fast are very rare at my house. So they wouldn't be producing much electricity; most of the time none. As I write this, the wind speed is 1 mph with a peak gust of 3 mph over the past hour.

Posted: **Wed Dec 15, 2021 6:44 pm**

My rain gauge says just over an inch of rain after yesterday's storm! That is about 1/4 of last year's total. Now, if it could keep that up every other week for the next 3 months!

Posted: **Sat Dec 18, 2021 6:37 am**

A nice warm(ish) day today.
1700hrs 34.6C, Rel Hum 40%, wind Northerly 6-11kts.
Last nights low 14.7C

Posted: **Sat Dec 18, 2021 10:27 am**

Up here that qualifies as hot if not heat wave. Mind you the humidity would be MUCH higher, so you would drip quietly.

Posted: **Sat Dec 18, 2021 11:01 am**

I have been in 50c and low humidity with no problems, at 30c and mid humidity I melt.

Posted: **Sun Dec 19, 2021 4:10 pm**

Stuart, you report 14c in the evening a couple days ago; now it is 50!!!! no wonder you melted. Stay safe, that is dangerous.

Posted: **Sun Dec 19, 2021 7:36 pm**

The unusually hot 50c was back in 1972 or 73 I forget, near Port Headland in Western Australia. Very dry area (usually)

Posted: **Thu Dec 23, 2021 2:49 pm**

It looks like we might have a white Christmas.

Code: Select all

The extended forecast summary for Victoria.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date              | Night         | Morning      | Afternoon    | Evening       | Max | Min | Prcp | Wind
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday 23 Dec.  |               | Mainly Sunny | Cloudy       | Cloudy        |   5 |   3 |    0 |   22
Friday 24 Dec.    | Rain          | Cloudy       | Mainly Sunny | Sleet         |   5 |   2 |    3 |   22
Saturday 25 Dec.  | Sleet         | Mainly Sunny | Mainly Sunny | Fair          |   3 |  -2 |    3 |   29
Sunday 26 Dec.    | Snow          | Light snow   | Cloudy       | Partly cloudy |  -2 |  -7 |    3 |   25
Monday 27 Dec.    | Partly cloudy | Mainly Sunny | Cloudy       | Partly cloudy |  -6 |  -7 |    0 |   36
Tuesday 28 Dec.   | Fair          | Mainly Sunny | Mainly Sunny | Fair          |  -4 |  -6 |    0 |   18
Wednesday 29 Dec. | Partly cloudy | Cloudy       | Cloudy       | Snow          |  -1 |  -6 |    1 |   14
Thursday 30 Dec.  | Snow          | Snow         | Cloudy       | Cloudy        |   2 |  -1 |    7 |   14
Friday 31 Dec.    | Cloudy        | Mainly Sunny | Mainly Sunny | Partly cloudy |   2 |  -4 |    0 |   11
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extremes          |               |              |              |               |   5 |  -7 |   17 |   36
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: **Fri Dec 24, 2021 7:13 pm**

The forecast is for a chance of snow tonight and tomorrow. There's supposed to be a good chance of precipitation. It's just a question of whether it will be cold enough. If it does snow, it will be the first time in my life that I've seen snow falling on Christmas. I lived in Wyoming for a couple of years and there was snow on the ground for Christmas, but no snow coming down.

Very cold air is coming down from Canada and by next week high temperatures are expected to remain below freezing. This is a big change from the warm Fall here. The first frost usually comes in October, but there has still not been any frost yet this Fall/Winter.

Posted: **Sat Dec 25, 2021 3:19 pm**

13C and raining here this fine Christmas morning!

Posted: **Sat Dec 25, 2021 3:39 pm**

We had 0.4 cm of snow last evening and, technically, we have a white Christmas. When the sun comes up I'll send a photo, if I can get out the door! In places the snow is piled as high, or even higher, than the soles of my shoes.

This is the official forecast from Environment Canada:

Today Periods of snow. Amount 2 cm. Wind southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 except west
50 gusting to 70 near Juan de Fuca Strait. High plus 2.
Tonight Snow. Amount 10 cm. Wind northeast 30 km/h gusting to 50. Low minus 5. Wind
chill minus 13 overnight.
Sun, 26 Snow ending in the morning then a mix of sun and cloud. Wind northeast 40 km/h
gusting to 60. High minus 1. Wind chill minus 14 in the morning and minus 9 in
the afternoon.
Sun Night: Cloudy periods. Windy. Low minus 9.

This is the forecast from the ECMWF model.

Code: Select all

The extended forecast summary for Victoria.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date              | Night         | Morning      | Afternoon    | Evening       | Max | Min | Prcp | Wind
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday 25 Dec.  |               | Cloudy       | Cloudy       | Snow          |   2 |  -2 |    3 |   29
Sunday 26 Dec.    | Light snow    | Cloudy       | Mainly Sunny | Cloudy        |  -2 |  -6 |    1 |   40
Monday 27 Dec.    | Partly cloudy | Cloudy       | Cloudy       | Cloudy        |  -2 |  -5 |    0 |   40
Tuesday 28 Dec.   | Cloudy        | Cloudy       | Cloudy       | Partly cloudy |  -1 |  -3 |    0 |   11
Wednesday 29 Dec. | Fair          | Mainly Sunny | Mainly Sunny | Light sleet   |   1 |  -3 |    1 |   14
Thursday 30 Dec.  | Sleet         | Heavy rain   | Showers      | Partly cloudy |   6 |   1 |   14 |   43
Friday 31 Dec.    | Partly cloudy | Mainly Sunny | Mainly Sunny | Partly cloudy |   3 |  -2 |    0 |   11
Saturday 1 Jan.   | Rain          | Rain         | Rain         | Partly cloudy |   6 |   1 |    8 |   22
Sunday 2 Jan.     | Partly cloudy | Cloudy       | Rain         | Rain          |   4 |   2 |    8 |   22
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Extremes          |               |              |              |               |   6 |  -6 |   35 |   43
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted: **Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:07 pm**

As promised. Notice how we have trained the snow to fall only on the grass, trees and cars. Not on sidewalks or the roads.

Posted: **Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:23 pm**

Looks lovely!

Good system. I wonder if you could train the log keepers

Posted: **Sat Dec 25, 2021 4:45 pm**

Very pretty. I'm staying near Keswick in the English Lake District for Christmas and there's a light dusting of snow of the top of the hills now (and a yellow weather warning for snow and wind tomorrow!)

Posted: **Sat Dec 25, 2021 8:05 pm**

The snow hasn't made it down this far yet. It's been raining this morning with a low of 2.4 C. Winds are still out of the Southwest. They are still forecasting lowering temperatures later today with snow. So we should just barely have a white Christmas. They expect the winds to shift to the North tomorrow, bringing down the extreme cold from Canada.

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