I sure hope this isn't a preview of what's to come for the winter.
Looks like even parts of Florida are going to get cold.
Everyone needs to bundle up. It's getting cold out there.
Up to 170 cities are predicted to get record lows for this time of year.
My area won't get it but mountain roads are already closed here. The last almost 3 miles of Mt. Baker road closed at the beginning of last month. Same with several other mountain roads.
Looks like winter has come early this year.
Next week's Arctic blast will be so cold, forecasters expect it to break 170 records across US
It's a preview.
We started embarking on an Ice Age last year.
Wrap those pipes.
I hope not. I have never liked cold.
I have a vacation house by Mt. Rainier. We have had to build the water system so that it will drain all the water out when the water is turned off. We then put anti freeze in the toilet and turn all the faucets on so the pipes or the toilet doesn't freeze.
It's a pain to do but if we don't do it, pipes freeze, the toilet bursts. Not fun. No amount of wrapping pipes will work there.
I learnt my lesson years ago when I was going away for a while and figured I should drain the pipes and turn the pump off (water is served by a spring with an electric pump) instead of just leaving a tap running. Came to find out that water has to be flushed out of the pipes, or it will sit inside them, freeze and blow up down in the basement, which is what they did. That's when I converted everything to Pex Pipe so that won't happen any more.
I've heard of people pouring antifreeze down the drain but that makes no sense. Besides pouring deadly poison into the water table, I don't believe there's such a thing as an exploded toilet. I've seen a frozen toilet (on the surface) but those pipes go straight underground anyway and they're not under any pressure, and the toilet surface is open so it's not confined to a space like a pipe is. I have a friend here who does that and I've convinced her to stop doing it. She does flush her pipes out though (with compressed air). I just leave a tap running a trickle.
There are types of anti freeze that aren't made for cars. It's made for pipes. Instead of being that green color and thick, it's pink and thin. It's made especially for pipes without all the toxic chemicals as car anti freeze.
I learned the hard way years ago. We turned the water off but didn't have the system to drain the water out of the pipes and we didn't put anti freeze in the toilet. The pipes and toilet froze with the toilet breaking.
It was then we installed the system to drain the pipes. We haven't had that problem since.
This is a place where if it starts snowing, leave. Fast. Because within an hour or so you can no longer leave. I've been snowbound there more than once through the years. One year while snowbound a snow plow came, or tried to come plow the streets. It got stuck in the snow. So another larger one was sent to get it unstuck in the snow. That second plow got stuck. It wasn't until a third gigantic plow thing with tires many times my size came to pull the plows out. He also pulled our cars out too so we could finally leave after being snowbound for 4 days.
Hell, I was snowbound here for a full week last winter. Didn't matter, I'm well stocked. I kind of like when those things happen. It's fun to deal with an alternate universe instead of the same old thing. I like power failures too. I don't go out and cause them, mind you, but I do make the most of it when they present.
I'll let my friend know about that different antifreeze. But I won't do it. How the hell cold does it need to get for a toilet to blow up?