It’s been cold. Really damn cold. With most of the continental United States under the effects of an Arctic deep freeze, maybe it’s time to shed some light on why the southern half of the country complains about it.
It’s important to add that I am not opposed to winter weather in general. I haven’t always lived where I currently reside, and in fact, I prefer Rocky Mountain seasons. I love the mountains and the relative predictability of the climate. Down here, we just don’t have that. And it seems like our friends in the northern states have recently gotten a taste of what winter is like for the rest of us.
Winter starts out pretty mild most years. Having a December holiday with sunshine and 75-degree weather is fairly common. But in January and February, it gets a little more unpredictable. We can literally drop from 65 to below freezing in a couple of hours when a front blows in. And it is never what the forecast predicts. Never, ever.
For example, this past Saturday, we had a high in the mid-60’s. The cold front blew in just before sunset, and we were sitting at 30 shortly before bedtime. This front wasn’t supposed to even hit us until midnight, and the Sunday high was still expected to be in the mid-30’s. I woke up to 12 degrees on Sunday morning. And as of the time of this writing, it still hasn’t gotten above freezing.
Our infrastructure isn’t prepared for this level or length of freezing temperatures. Everyone remembers what happened in 2021. And not everyone has the means to winterize their homes properly.
My home is nearly 70 years old. It is not winterized properly. No insulation in the walls. Drafty doors and windows. And every winter, the pipes in my kitchen are guaranteed to freeze anytime the temperature is below 30 for longer than 12 hours.
I can’t run the dishwasher. I can’t run or drain water in the sink, which limits my cooking options to keep dirty dishes at a minimum. I can’t even do laundry because the washer and dryer sit on the same outside wall as the rest of my kitchen plumbing. I’m fortunate that my bathrooms and water heater are both set along inside walls, but that won’t do any good if there’s another blackout.
And we are expecting more blackouts down here this year, no matter what the power companies do to reassure us. We were lucky this week that there was little or no precipitation with the three and a half days of hard freeze. But there’s more risk on the horizon.
We’re looking at a bit of a warm-up before another wave of freezing temperatures hit us again. And this time, we’re anticipating rain and snow to accompany it. It is entirely possible that we’ll see another massive power outage, and it won’t be any easier to get through than it was three years ago.
So, keep your fingers crossed, Adventurers. Winter 2024 is going to be a doozy. I’ll keep you all posted on how my household weathers the rest of the season and look forward to what Spring will bring us.
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