Wishing the whole house generator we ordered 10 days ago was installed.

I'm not sure what a work guest is, but since it involves work (as in employment) I'm surprised that you ,rather than the workplace, are paying.

Here, we got ice last night that did not appear on radar, as it apparently condensed from very low above the ground. So people had no warning and there were lots of multi-car and truck wrecks, and vehicles off the roads. It is the thinnest ice, topped by just a little snow later in the night. Snow actually improved traction, but still it has been deadly out there.

I stayed at home all day. No sense in adding to the ER burden.

In central Oklahoma. The storms moved in to our area about 7:45 a.m. Many parents already delivering their kids to school, or kiddos waiting for buses that were way late. Some schools closed, some stayed open. But it was a nightmare. Frigid cold temps and moisture make a mean combo. We had thunder-sleet. And lots of it. Parts of the Oklahoma City area were clobbered w/ice & sleet and then some got nothing.

My work closed this morning, but not before I'd already emailed in and said I was going to work from home. Got the notice a few minutes ago, we'll be closed tomorrow too. We may get just a glazing or we may get slammed. Two more rounds before all of this is over.

We are stocked up on firewood in case the power goes out. At least we won't freeze.

Central KY and it's about 1/4 inch on the tree limbs right now.

Hope the storm is letting up for all of you... just miserably cold, cold here

right now...no new snow. Be safe.

Lost power for 5 1/2 hours overnight. It was sleeting but we’ve seen it much worse. Supposed to be getting another wave today.

DFW is getting hit hard with sleet right now. The area is going to get hit again this evening. I have no plans to leave the house until the roads are better. MY concern is keeping my pool pump running. We have been below freezing since Sunday & I have never owned a swimming pool before moving in here a couple of months ago. I have already had to get my pool guy out yesterday because the pump stopped running. It's a learning experience.

I didn't hear any reports of possible ice storms in our area (NE Ohio) on the local news this morning. Maybe I'd better turn the TV back on. Plus I need a few groceries but wanted to wait until payday which is tomorrow. It sure is cold here, tho.

ETA: Just sunny and very cold this afternoon. The front porch was icy tho and I did put some ice melt down.

Just saw it on weather.com. It looked pretty bad. Stay home be safe.

What’s a work guest? A contractor from out of town?

Jrb, hope you will get your whole house generator installed soon. How long is the waiting time in your area? We just got ours installed in Dec, it took about 2 months, we ordered it in Oct. We were told that was faster than normal since we ordered a 24K Generac, there weren’t many people ordering that size, and they had a couple of them available at their warehouse. There was a long waiting list in our area for the popular sized whole house generators. Hope that’s not the case for your area.

I don't understand the fascination with the work guest.

We're in research, and researchers visit each other. Mostly to discuss progress in research. And to establish collaborations to further research. So this person came and gave a talk, as is very common, and met with a lot of people. I have to imagine it's not singular to my work area. I would think lots of people get visitors. Such as auditors who come, people setting up computer or financial or insurance systems for your company, advisors who come...

Nashville ended up not being too affected by the storm, I hope everybody else is okay!

@summersrhythm_z6a, we were told there was a typical 5-6 week waiting time before install. Not sure if it’s a supply chain issue or they’re backed up on the install end.

west central illinois has dodged the bullet numerous times so far this winter. given that last year was nothing but ice/snow/wind/bitter cold for what seemed like endless months, maybe mother nature is taking pity on us.

over the years, we've certainly had more than our share of ice storms with huge tree limbs littering this 20 acres (some just missing structures), below zero temps, backbreaking shoveling of many inches of snow, as much as 10 days w/o power (no heat, no running water, blah blah blah).

hope everyone is staying safe and warm!! the news films of texas last night were frightful; so many accidents! black ice is the worst!

This thread made me think I should call my sister in Austin and check on her, since she called me last week to see how I was doing with the rain. We were not affected adversely by the rain, and so I thought perhaps she was okay as well. I sent her an email a couple of days ago because I was not sure she would have time to talk to me, and I wanted her to check a company called Millennium, which had sent me some mail saying that I need to transfer funds from an IRA account that I did not know I had.

My sister wrote back today (Friday) and told me that she has had no electricity since Tuesday! I saw Greg Abbott on the news a day or two ago, and he said that the grid in Texas was just fine, but perhaps he was wrong.

I think this time around, it was ice on trees taking down the power lines. What has your sister been doing to stay warm and devices charged?

I haven't talked with my sister yet, but I will call her today and see if she answers. I'm sure she won't want to talk very long, so that her phone can stay charged. I do not know what she is using for email, but probably her phone for that as well. I might have Kevin call her.

I know that she has gas heating, but since electricity is required to run the fan for the heat, that might not be working. It was down to 27-28° for lows on Tues and Wednesday, but I believe that her house would retain some heat. I don't know how good her insulation is. She and her husband are probably having to wear blankets. She does not have a fireplace, but she could turn her oven on (I think) and at least heat the kitchen, but then she might have an electric oven. I think she will at least have hot water, unless the water heater has an electric ignition.

This is a long time not to have electricity.

Lars, one of my brothers lives in Leander just NW of Austin and it was pretty bad there, but amazingly he did not lose power. Trees are down all over his neighborhood and several branches fell on his roof and heat pump, so far he doesn't know if there was any roof damage but will inspect for leaks as things thaw out. Hope your sister retained her power and came thru ok.