Houston will have extreme cold and temperatures could drop below 20 (MERGED) (home, floor)

[kemahkami]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

Im a bit worried about my Mexican Fan Palm. Can they survive weather that cold for 24-48 hours?

As long as temperatures warm up faster on Tuesday morning, they should survive even if temps dive to the teens. Probably should use fungicide on the growth points through the spring, though.

[Ghost Town]

I see 75% chance of snow on Monday. That could help to protect trees

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by WRM20

Pipes under a pier and beam house are safe. None of the folks I knew in 1983 who lived in pier and beam houses had any issues, and we spent several days below freezing with a low of 11 or 12. Letting your faucets drip contributes to low water pressure for everyone, which is bad if a house catches on fire.

The key word is "drip". Not a trickle. A drip in every house in the neighborhood doesn't equal one person running a shower full blast.


And up north, where they have much more experience dealing with cold, standard advice is to drip faucets under 20 degrees.

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

I read yesterday that you can set your sprinkler system to run for 1 minute every few hours to keep the water moving. Seems like a good idea?

Do you want to transform your entire yard into a skating rink?

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by ScrappyJoe

There's a slight chance that the cold is overdone, and Houston gets by with low twenties - upper teens. The reason is that weather models account for snow cover in terms of the temperature predictions, and a lot of them actually include sleet and freezing rain as "snow." As a result, it's possible that models are seeing the "snow" in Houston, responding to the cooling effects on the atmosphere, and then diving temps down, hence the forecast you saw.

Doubt it. Weathermen often get the precipitation wrong but are usually pretty close on temperature.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

Do you want to transform your entire yard into a skating rink?

Yes, that's my goal. Will it work?

[kemahkami]

Originally Posted by oceangaia

Doubt it. Weathermen often get the precipitation wrong but are usually pretty close on temperature.

That's not the point. I'm saying that the actual low temperatures that verify go hand-in-hand with how the pattern actually plays out - how precip we end up getting, and whether that precip is snow, or more of an icing/sleet event, how fast the skies clear out at night, etc.

[Ghost Town]

Well, closer it gets, more accurate temperature prediction is. At this point I don't see any reason to deny temperature prediction. So far everything turned out to be quite accurate. Monday is going to be all day in 20s with the temps dropping to low 10s at night. It's not going to be a quick drop only for few hours. That will be a good test of the heating systems.

[JL]

Had to use small bath towels and plastic bags to cover them for my outdoor pipes/spigots since HD and Lowes ran out. Used duct tape to tape them all around. Will open my cabinet doors and let water drip while turning the heat up to 75 deg late tonite.

[Ghost Town]

Originally Posted by JL

Had to use small bath towels and plastic bags to cover them for my outdoor pipes/spigots since HD and Lowes ran out. Used duct tape to tape them all around. Will open my cabinet doors and let water drip while turning the heat up to 75 deg late tonite.

Wow! 75 is a lot.
Last night I turned off the heat on a 1st floor for a night. It dropped from 69 to 59 in 10 hours.
My house is not super insulated. Sunday night probably will have to leave the heat on.

Yesterday I sprayed outdoor spigots with polyurethane foam in addition to the regular hard covers.