Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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How’s this for cold comfort? Sask-atoon’s deep freeze is likely the longest streak of low temperatures below -25 C that has numbed this city since record-keeping began in 1892.
The 24-day streak started cruelly Dec. 13 after relatively mild temperatures and continued at least through Monday, said David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist.
“That’s the thing that’s brutal,” Phillips said from Toronto, where he was enjoying a temperature of -4. “We can all handle a few (cold) days. It’s the long haul that wears you down.
“It’s really a shocker, the duration of the cold.”
Phillips said he couldn’t find a longer cold snap in Saskatoon’s recorded weather history during a look through the records Monday. Even during the infamous January of 1950, when temperatures hit -46 and -45 (not counting any wind chill), the cold streak of -25 or lower lasted “only” 21 days.
The first two mild weeks of December kept the month from being Saskatoon’s coldest ever. It still averaged -20.6, the sixth-coldest December on record and the most frigid since 1983.
Prince Albert was slightly colder in December, with an average temperature of -21.4, while Regina registered -18. Neither of those burgs have suffered a -25 streak approaching Saskatoon’s, Phillips said.
The normal average temperature for Saskatoon in December is -14.3.
The historic streak could end today. Environment Canada was forecasting a low of -23 for today, before another drop Wednesday.
There’s no good news on the horizon.
January is expected to be colder than its normal mean temperature of -17, said Environment Canada meteorologist Bob Cormier. The three-month period of January through March is also expected to be colder than normal, he said.
The frigid temperatures and the bad timing of the New Year’s Eve snowstorm has left city snow crews well behind schedule.
As of Monday, snowplows still hadn’t touched almost one-third of the priority streets, which range from arteries such as Circle Drive and Eighth Street to bus routes and minor collector streets. The major arteries have been cleared once, but may need a second pass, said Gaston Gourdeau, manager of the city’s public works branch.
Ninety per cent of bus routes are cleared, but many minor collector streets still haven’t seen a snowplow.
“We’re looking forward to warmer temperatures,” Gourdeau said. “It’s been tough for everybody.”
The New Year’s Eve storm was a double-whammy for snowplow operators.
Many city staff were on holidays. Hydraulic parts of heavy equipment respond more slowly, like everything else, in the cold, forcing crews to get less done than they normally would.
Gourdeau predicts snow crews will be in some neighbourhoods clearing out trouble spots by the end of the week.
He said he decided against implementing a street parking ban to speed up snow clearing for two reasons.
The city hasn’t had the staff to guarantee cleanup within 72 hours until this week.
In frigid weather, it’s also difficult to ask residents to move cars off the street to spots where plug-ins may be unavailable, he said.
FWIW, http://www.centralmainediesel.com has a nice list of generators.
I’d gone off looking for the Honda 12kW Diesel (only to find it was now discontinued: http://www.hayesequipment.com/eb12d.htm ) and discovered this page.
Two things I learned there:
1) There are now lots of folks making 3 fuel generators, including my favorite Honda 1kW. I want a new one now! (Propane, Natural Gas, & Gasoline). It ought to run for days and days and days on a large propane bottle or ‘forever’ with a natural gas connection. Cost was a bit higher at about a kilobuck. One of these, or more likely it’s 3kW sibling, in the garage (vented outside!) next to the gas clothes drier and I’d be all set. Only thing missing is the co-generation water heater fitting!
2) You can get Lister type Diesels already set up for vegetable oil! 3kW and 6kW. These are probably India origin (their Listers are good, but ought to be cleaned and inspected before first use… sometimes some casting sand or paint chips are left inside…) Listers are very ‘funny fuel’ tolerant and since they run ‘way slow’ they tend to last a few hundred years in continuous use 😉 Well, maybe not quite that long… AND it is already set up for a hose to the hot water heat exchanger! If I were on a farm somewhere I’d be placing my order for one of these today.
Almost makes me wish I was living in the frozen north (or central or east) and suffering power outages so I’d have an excuse to buy one. Almost.
I assume that they make 50Hz models for the EU / UK and there is someone selling them there. At any rate, if you have a couple of thousand $$, there is no reason to put up with power outages and it looks like you can have your choice of at least 5 fuels: Diesel, Gasoline, Vegetable Oil, Propane, and Natural Gas (sometimes in the same generator).
I’ve got a 4 cyl 10kw propane generator attached to my house. It’s fantastic! And a dedicated 120 gallon bottle means it will run for quite a long time. It’s got its own dedicated shed as well. Came with the house. One of the guys who services it twice a year says the City of Tacoma (WA) has an identical one used as a backup for their water treatment facilities. It’s definitely an industrial model.