There's a once-in-twenty-years cold snap across much of the US right now, and apparently also affecting Britain. How's everyone holding up? Our pipes froze and cracked so we're camped out at my parents right now, which I don't mind, but which is slowly driving my wife crazy. Having the kids out of school for extra days isn't helping either....

Hot water line froze. I still had cold water and after a while the hot water must have thawed because I got it back. Unsure of the damages. Wind knocked over and shattered some ceramic statues in the lawn that my grandma and grandpa had put up before grandma died and granpda gave me the place and I'm kinda bummed about that.

Also, this house was built in the seventies and is rather poorly insulated. With the heater running full throttle it hasn't gotten above 55 degrees inside, so I've been wearing the heaviest clothing I own since yesterday.

I've been incredibly lucky when it comes to the weather: I just recently came back from visiting my brother who lives in the U.K. In the part of the country where he lives, there was great weather. (We were right in between the massive storms in the north and south of the country. It missed us entirely for the most part.)

And the other way in which I am incredibly lucky is that I live in California. ;-)

We just had a few days of 40 degree Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit)

It's nice today, but the previous 3-4 weeks had nighttime lows below -25C, and a few mornings with -45C including wind chill, -35C without windchill. One of those -45C mornings my van didn't start, and I had to walk (although it's only 4 blocks) in it. Yipes.

Yay Manitoba, Canada.

EDIT: Btw, for the metric impaired -32C and -32F are exactly the same temperature.

The temperature scales cross at -40.

I feel kind of bad. It was so warm in Boston that I had to take my long underwear off.

That may not sound like it's all that warm, but I mean I really had to, not just that I didn't need it. Way above freezing.

So... twice in a month, eh? (Three, if you count next week's upcoming cold snap.)

Buffalo had its first blizzard in twenty years. It was pretty fun, although a bitch to dig out of the next day.

It hasn't been horribly cold the last little while in Salt Lake City, but because it's surrounded by mountains, we've had a nasty inversion which has made for lousy air quality. And I recently had bronchitis, so I can't kick this cough.

Yesterday was the first day I'd been to class since the term started last week. Tuesday didn't count because I was there for less than an hour before everything got shut down.

It's raining! Finally!

Freaking COLD

I'm just glad I live in an area where this cold isn't that unusual- if you're prepared for zero, you're pretty much prepared for ten below. The poor folks on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line, however...

Waterline in one of my family's rental places burst last night. Was running all over trying to find a working flashlight so I could crawl under the place and find the water shut off valve. Not fun.

I was braced for zero today, so low teens felt kinda nice. I'm expecting more snow and cold this weekend.