The weather

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I don’t watch a lot of television. I simply don’t have the time. There’s always something else i should be doing so sitting in front of the tv for an hour or two is a massive guilt-inducing time waster. But, sometimes I like to run it for background noise while I’m doing stuff. I turned it on today and was welcomes by the EBS/EAS alert tones (they still use  both because dinosaurs like me grew up on the older sounds. Those sounds, by the way, have an interesting backstory .. being chosen specifically for their unpleasantness)

As it turned out, we were in the path of a major thunderstorm. You know, in an era of Bidenflation, pandemic, identity politics run amok, ‘supply chain issues’, and hints of war, it’s easy to forget that sometimes the EOTWAWKI that comes a-knocking is one brought to you by Mother Nature.

As the saying goes, everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. I can’t control the weather, but I can control my response to it. Made sure the backup power supplies were on standy by, just in case…and just stuck close to the house. Not much else to do.

We get so wrapped up in those big events that we overlook that the smaller ones are more likely to catch us before the big ones do.

19 thoughts on “The weather”

  1. yup. me and 100k others are sitting in the dark tonight courtesy of an average thunderstorm that wasn’t. well, not me but many of the other 99k are. seventy plus winds took out the grid far and wide. at least a week off grid. not bad next three days, nice cool temps but back in the oven after that. one big fail on my part. i had just cleaned my rain collection tanks and didn’t want to dirty them up so soon so i had the bypass going. so now we have 50 gals instead of 600 to tide us over. i think we’ll make it but of all the bonehead moves, to listen to the weatherfools. got me again. i wish the cia or whoever would quit screwing with the weather. i’m getting too old for this crap. ….almost zero air traffic today. weird.

  3. Indeed Sir, me and mine just happened to be outside when the 1st hail stones hit and managed to get the garden seedlings covered with minimal losses. The radar signature showed that the storm intensified as it was heading north from our location. A pretty intense storm for this part of the country.

  5. Like the cellphone, weather reports are useful.

    I often wonder as a gentleman farmer how to best protect my production once I cannot get advance warnings by the weather channel.

  6. I’ve noticed that the emergency system gets used MUCH more often than it used to be used.
    I wonder if overuse will reduce it’s impact?

  7. Generator anecdote:
    We have an 11kw propane Generac. It cycles on once/week for a self-test, and seemed normal. I also have it serviced every couple years, ‘just in case’. This time the technician ran it with a load test, and noted it produced zero voltage.

    Diagnosed it – the motor was fine, but the actual generator component was completely dead, since who knows when. Part is covered by warranty, labor not so much.

    Bottom line: because we haven’t lost power in a while, I have no idea how long the generac has been out of commission.

    Bad on me.

    • This is why a TRUE generator test has the load switched on to it and runs for 5 to 30 minutes. Followed by a cooldown.

  8. I’ve been thinking about a storm shelter for years now but my wife doesn’t think we need it . We had a tornado here last year and it’s path came within 1/2 mile and she still thinks it’s not worth the expense .

  9. Trees too close to home and other buildings. Neighbors lost garage and many
    Items inside when a large tree blew over.

  10. Our Farm is on the Last Transformer (it’s actually Ours) on the Last Wire on the Far End of the Electric Cooperative. We don’t go ‘down’ often, but usually, it takes a Day (or Week, in the Wintertime) to be put back on Line. So the Generator (a Mil-Surplus Diesel 30-Kw.) runs several Times a Year. We have both Diesel and Gas ‘portables’ that are the Back-Ups to run the Barn and Well Pump, and the House (to keep the Freezers Cold).

    Don’t be like Tim – Run your Gensets with a Load, at least once a Month, and if it’s a Gasser, Turn the Fuel Off to Stop it, and clear the Carburetor so it doesn’t Corrode or Gum Up.

  11. Hopefully we can soon return to what really matters , preparing for the dark days ahead. Those days are approaching rapidly.
    Old scout

  12. Ex-utility linemen here, sources are reporting that a standard small pole mount transformer delivery is a year or so out. The local power company has crews out removing transformers with no load on them (not hooked up to a customer) and putting them in stock. A typical lightning storm takes out two or three PER STORM so things are not looking good.

    When testing stand by generators, with load, also test the voltage. Found out mine was a little high and newer appliances won’t allow the device to come on if the voltage is out of range, usually 114 to 125 volts. I have grown fond of A/C when the temps are over 105 and it’s going to suck when we don’t have it.

    Save rain water, the SW USA is going to be out soon.

    • Public utility manager here, transformers and switch gear of all types at least 14 months out. Spares are running out and we are one bad storm away from some tough decisions…

      • The delay on replacing larger transformers is even worse. There was a lot of concern a few years back about these transformers being targeted as an anti-infrastructure action by terrorists/insurgents/little-green-Russian-army-men. Fire a few AP rounds into them from a rifle, let the cooling oil leak and the transformer burn up, then wait a year or two for a replacement to be fabricated.

        I doubt the time to source and install replacements has gone down since then. But the topic never seems to be mentioned these days. Head in the sand response?

  14. EAS/EBS fatigue is a real thing. When I lived further west of my present location, tornados were a real threat. My folks had one literally skip over their home — on the ground to with a couple of hundred meters, lifted off the ground for about 500m passing overhead, then back on the ground for another 2 or 3km. Took out several building in its path. In my current location tornados are a rarity. But the weather alert radio goes off constantly, usually with warnings that are utterly meaningless to me. Flood danger? I’m on top of a good-sized hill. Severe thunderstorm? Might be an issue, if my local NOAA radio station wasn’t alerting me to severe storms a couple of hundred miles away from me. The loud warbling alarm now is largely ignored. Whoever is closest to the radio just hits the mute button. I find looking out the window much more useful as a weather alert system than the high tech network. If the sky is turning green, it’s time to hunker down. If the wind starts blowing really hard, grab the loose stuff and seek shelter. If the weather radio goes in alarm mode, hit mute because I don’t need to know about bad weather 2 or 3 states away.

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