Winter storms in the US
 

We just finished having a record cold December, no record lows just every single day and then a start to the coldest January. Temperature has risen and the rain has started to wash away the snow. Very happy watching our weather report.

Then just to make us feel guilty, videos of the storms lashing out across our neighbours to the south. Some of the videos where of places we had visited in the past so where of special interest. Ice, snow, and even tornadoes do not make life enjoyable. TV reported at least 15 states that where hard hit and more to come.

Hope that nobody got hurt, suffered any property damage, or went without power and heat. Sometimes winter really sucks.

Cold? Burrrrr. Never could understand why early people would settle so far north.

I lived through one winter in Reno, Nevada. Doesn't snow much in Reno, but even the simple act having to scrape frost off the car windows was too much inconvenience for me.

Malaria and Yellow Fever tended to move people further north, or just kill them off.
Another thing is free refrigeration.

I heard the key selling point for selling refrigerators to the Eskimos was "Put your food in this box, so it will NOT freeze!"

Quick question, I've always wondered, why do they keep building timber houses in Tornado areas? They blow away and people die (and if they survive, termites eat them) Here we don't have many Tornados, most are out at sea, but our buildings are Brick and Stone and last a few thousand years at least.

I'm assuming it's to do with cost?

Never thought of it like THAT. Hmmm. I have a solution. Since it would be silly for us to rebuild our homes with bricks and you guys rebuild with wood, LET'S SWITCH! You live here and we live there.

Probably due to cost and availability of materials. But have to agree, you would think that even building with wood you could build something that was a little more resistant to a tornado. Maybe you can't? Any engineers out there that can comment? Don't forget though that to build it stronger is going to cost more in the short term, maybe not in the long term as you won't have to rebuild it.

Very few homes are damaged in tornadoes except for trailer parks (caravan) that they seem to seek out. Most of the damage is from trees falling down and floods.

Of course I have never actually seen a house damaged by a tornado.

What about the entire towns and neighbourhoods completely wiped out by huge storms?

Where where they ? I'll have to look it up.

We call that "acceptable losses". Of course, we mourn the loss of all those hardworking, gullible taxpayers, but we'll make more.

Until the big one hits California around San Fran and Oakland, but hopefully not the Jelly Belly Factory tour site.

It would be very expensive to make a house "tornado proof". Many of the newer homes in Tornado Alley are built with a safe room or basement. Other options are to have a storm shelter installed in your yard or garage. I have seen areas where the only thing left after a major tornado are the home foundations.

Even with CMU walls, again the CMU would need rebar reinforcement to hold together in a big tornado. The roof needed to survive a tornado would need to be concrete. If not, it would pull off.

The tornadoes did make last Sunday evening a little more exciting around here.

If you want to see pictures of major tornado damage, the Oklahoma City area has been hit several times in the last 10 years. The small town of Jarrell, Texas was completely destroyed in the 90s.

Tornadoes are like an invisible Godzilla stomping through an area. Destruction TV reports would be more fun if the weather person could say, "Godzilla was seen approaching east of our city and the National Guard is powerless! Run for your lives!!!"

Here, in Southern Ontario, Canada, I believe it's a matter of convenience, lower cost, and tradition (habit... we've always done it this way). It's common here for people to rent their hot water heater, where in other parts of the world, that would raise eyebrows.

Chalk it up to "weird ways of life."

In southern California, you have to provide your own apartment refrigerator. In northern California, refrigerators are normally included.

Mother natures urban renewal. In the US the early settlers would burn down their houses to get the very expensive hand forged nails, when they moved, to build the new house.

Bummer. If they practiced Japanese-style joinery they could have spared a pack of matches.

I always thought there where many brick houses in Ontario or are the bricks just a facade??

Temperature here is rising and the rains have come to wash away the snow, sand, and salt. Now lots of frozen street drains and flooding in some areas, advantage to living on top of a hill. Local mountains closing ski hills because of avalanche warning and mountain rescue will be busy the next few days.

No El Nino this year.

And, since we're talking about bricks, this reminds me of a question that has bothered me for many, many years...

Just exactly what does it mean by "she's built like a brick house"? You know the tune. Why is this more desirable than a woman made of redwood or reinforced concrete? Has SAE published papers on this?

"Just exactly what does it mean by "she's built like a brick house"?"
You stack bricks. ;)

Preferred building materials is mostly about what is available. Those that could afford it used stone because of the fire resistance and security from invaders. Everybody else used wood, wattle, sod, and mud.

With the need for shipbuilding, Europe and the Mediterranean area cut down nearly all their forests. So wood was no longer available

PS Weird. went to type longer and wrote lumber

You see a lot of "brick" houses. When you do, they're practically guaranteed to be brick facade over wood frame. Ditto with stonework. I remember visiting Ireland and being amazed that it's common to have stone, concrete, or cinder block walls.

Houses are not built to last in most of Canada. The country is only 150 years old! The buildings, much less.

At the rear of my house, they used undressed stone, in places you can still see the hand drilled shafts where they placed the dynamite back in the early 1800's.

Almost 150 I think they mixing up the birthday cake already:) hope that some of it makes to western Canada as well

Trees are growing faster than we can chop them down so good for the economy.:angel:

2017 is the year of the sesquicentennial celebration, though July 1, 2017 is the exact anniversary of the enactment of the Constitution Act.

Steve the snow will be gone soon and the storms forgotten by summer, have you applied for your free Parks Canada pass?

Nope. Haven't been motivated to so far.

I think it's odd to need a pass to get in free. Why not just show any ID that you're a Canadian resident, like a driver's license? Nope. Too simple. Here's the process that lets you get in free...

Meh.

Going to Banff and Jasper with the grand kids this summer so it will save some cash.

Visitors from other countries can also apply for a pass this year as well, but ID should be more than enough for taxpayers.

BlueRover: FYI, I'm a big fan of convenience, ease, and simplicity... and I'll pay to get that :-)