Texas weather

buickanddeere

Well-known Member
By the sounds of the weather reports . There will be water pipes , engine cooling systems and tire ballast frozen and split . Where it has not been a concern before .
By the appearance of the multi vehicle wrecks on the news . Drivers are traveling too fast and winter tires are unheard
of .
Going to ride the snowmobile trails on our Long Weekend .

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Do people still use water in their radiators in the deep south,that just doesn't makes sense to me, but it's their call,Their was a weather man showing all the cold and snow coming in, and then he said their were two more coming in behind this one, for sat and sun, it affects 41 states!
 
Short answer:yes some winters it doesn’t get below 27-28 in south Louisiana so if we had a summer use only tractor we would drain the whole cooling system.when necessary
 
It is scary. Folks in the Panhandle get this kind of weather and are prepared. Central and South Texas seldom does and 30 year olds have never seen this. I checked all my tractors and my son's. The cars and
trucks are OK too. My worry is power lines coming down and our rural waster system pumps. I managed the system for 10 years and know what can happen. We made it thru the one in 1989 ok but I worry about my
daughter and her house.
 
You are right it’s not.my house is on pillars so when it gets below 27 or so degrees I drain the pipes.never had a broken pipe yet cause when I plumbed it I made SURE it all drained out
 
I landed at DFW right after a big ice storm about 10 years ago. The crew van picked us up and we went out on the elevated highway which had at least 6 inches of ice on it
which was developing huge potholes. Being elevated caused the highway to ice up badly. They had no road salt and were trying to break up the ice with road graders that
were mostly just getting in the way. What would have been a 20 minute trip took several hours. It was the worst traffic jam I can ever remember being in.
 
I guess some do just run water. They are sure not doing themselves any favor when the block is full of sediment eating away at the freeze plugs.

A lot of people never bother draining their boat engines because it's "not supposed to get that cold here". Then a cold spell comes, they forget or can't get to it because the roads are icy.
 
There are hundreds of thousands of homes built in Texas where the hot and cold supply lines are placed above the insulation in the attic.

Beagle
 
Here in N. Tx, it will get below 0F first part of the week for the low on a couple of days with his in the teens. I have never seen it below 10F and that was
back in the mid '80s. I put in new water lines back in Dec. replacing the originals I installed in 1979. House is on pier and beam. When I designed and
built it, I put all but the entrance water line in the walls and the ones that had to run along the floor joists are well insulated. Entrance line is insulated.
Covered the Water Meter. Water runs off and on during the day and I let several faucets seep at night. I did put RV antifreeze in the shower P traps to
keep them from popping. I "hope" that I thought of everything, and being a senior, the bladder will ensure that I "get to" check things periodically
throughout the nights.

The dog has an insulated, heated house with porch and is getting house warmed, double gourmet rations twice a day. Her water container has an
electric "pipe tape" rolled up in the bottom which is keeping that clear.

Farm lines that need to be are shut off and drained.

On the comment about what new construction consisted of and other things affecting folks, this will be a disaster. Building materials are already out of
sight...glad I don't have any construction projects planned. Glad I just paid my annual house/farm insurance premium for the year. I switched to Farmers
last year and even with all the bad weather around the country my rates stayed very close to last year.
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I do not envy you folks that have this as a way of life....your being used to it and prepared or not.
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On the underground faucet leaking comment on here this morning, neighbor's across the road, about 4 years old started leaking and had to dig it up to
get to the valve. At least that was back in November and the weather was nice.
 
Somewhere I picked up a forecaster, may have been on one of the Dish channels, that said this deep freeze has NOTHING to do with global warming.....said that it is still very real.

What I'd like to know is, if the Alaskan and Canadian permafrost and Greenland, Iceland, and the N pole ice is all gone, where did this blizzard get the resources to produce what it is producing?
 
While it is not done in the south. It sounds like the water lines need to be about 4 foot deep or so. Then they don't freeze and all is fine that far. For the inside lines if they were to put some insulation over top or around the lines it would help for a night then if it does not warm up it will still freeze through. Some bales of straw around the foundation or skirting on a trailer would also help with holding the heat in and cold out. If there is a way to have a heat vent open some to the basement of crawl space would save it for a few days/nihgts with minimal expense. Remember plastic and pvc lines can't be thawed out with the welder like copper and steel lines can be.
 
I've checked everything on the property. Some old things were drained. All the stuff I use was already up to par as far as anti-
freeze. I'm sure there will be many casualties in the area; frozen blocks, frozen pumps, frozen pipes. But even though we rarely
get this kind of weather it's not hard to find a weather forecast and figure out what you need to do.

I actually have seen more (old tractors) where they were filled with straight glycol and no water.

As for roads, cash strapped county barns can not afford to maintain salting equipment that is only needed once every 15 to 20
years. There are no plows. It's cheaper to just close everything down. Anyway, they don't have the staffing to keep roads clear
during weather that accumulates snow/sleet. They usually just put sand on the road which to me seems to make things worse.

And true that most do not know how to drive on contaminated roads and that's mainly because they have no chance to gain
experience with it. We do get icy roads enough that people should be wise enough to slow down but inevitably on the first day of
such a weather event people typically try to go as they always do which for the dfw metroplex means bumper to bumper at 75 mph.
On the second an later days people remember and drive more carefully.

I drove in that mess for years. When they re-did 183 they managed to keep three full lanes open throughout construction. All
three lanes going 70+ in a 55 mph construction zone during rush hour. One vehicle trying to go the speed limit will cause an
accident.
 
I texted my sisters in New Braunfels that I was sending some global warming to them from Michigan. We
are all natives of Mich.
Younger sister is in Victoria, this week-end, visiting her daughter and grandchildren. I suggested that
she plan on staying for a few days. She is.
 
Forecasters are predicting for Monday and Tuesday low to mid 20s down here in south Texas.
I will drain the water in the shop and yard lines. I have 50/50 antifreeze in my Farmall M. Tires are dry.
Plumbing pipes are in the attic, I have them insulated as well as blanket insulation placed over them. This has worked for previous cold snaps.
 
There's a bowling alley that goes from Canada to the Gulf. The Norther is the bowling ball.

Almost every year we get strong cold fronts all the way into late May with a noticeable drop in temperature.
 
. We like it when we have warm air blown from the South and raises the temp above freezing on occasion through the winter .
 

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