Great another storm!

[magnosis]

Epic (and scary!) story, Dan !!  Thanks for sharing :-)


@brotherluv  please stop trolling... I wont say it again.

[brotherluv]

I'm not trolling and certainly not regurgitating other peoples opinions I've found on Google...just giving my opinion...I was under the impression that's what this is about mag...

[sas]

Now everyone please play nice , or this thread will get shut down.

[magnosis]

I was reading the City of Ottawa's emergency mangement's page...
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/emergency/during/what_to_do_en.html#P39_2155

Shouldn't they revise the last bits under Severe Lightning Storm (or add a new section on Severe Wind Storm // Tornado) ?

In the case of extremely strong winds (and/or a tornado), as far as I know staying in the car is a bad idea.  You could get tossed around like a piece of paper....  Almost every single Tornado show or article I've come across suggest getting out of the car and laying down flat in a ditch.  That way the wind won't pick you up.

And I'm trying to remember whether it's better or worst to seek shelter under an overpass, or inside a big culvert.  Didn't Mythbusters run a piece on this ?  There was something about pressure building up and winds accelerating from the funnel effect...

So yah.  Extreme winds = lay down flat.  Extreme lightnings = don't lay down flat (ground shocks are more common that most people think).  What if there are both ?

Maybe South Park had it right: in any disastrous circumstances, one solution: duck, and cover (ahaha).  

[bt]

And I'm trying to remember whether it's better or worst to seek shelter under an overpass, or inside a big culvert.

Far, far worse.  They can act as wind tunnels and debris catchers.  If anything but the weakest tornados passes directly over an overpass, the most likely result for anyone taking shelter under them is to be sucked out.

[magnosis]

This is what I was inclined to believe, but I remembered a tv show ("Mythbusters" ? "I should have died" ?) showcasing a family that did exactly this, and survived.  Now that I think of it, this is why they made the show :-)  it was a very unlikely turn of events....

[Greatwhite]

During Sunday's wind, my friend had the back window of her Dodge Grand Caravan blow out.  There was no tree, no hail -- just wind.  She and the kids were in the car at the time.

I was downtown getting a shawarma, and some dude was talking about a neighbor who managed to get  home just as the storm hit, but stayed in the car in his driveway --- and a tree got blown on the car, trapping  him there.  He was OK, but -- duh??  You're 10 feet from your front door, run for it. (or at least duck & cover!)

There's a severe thunderstorm watch in effect right now in addition to the heat advisory.  They were saying that today may set a record for hottest day EVERRRR recorded.  I'm enjoying my central air more than ever today - I just hope that once peoples' programmed thermostats turn on their AC at 4 so it's cool by 5, it doesn't take out the power grid (again).  http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/08/14/power.outage/index.html

I'm cooling the house down now in preparation for an outage later!!

[dan2x38]

I saw a program on survival of an earthquake. This character in California researched the procedures have checking out over a 1000 buildings, injuries and causalities. The old believe of getting under a doorway is not a good idea it seems. The wood splinters and stabs you for one thing and there were other reasons to not to mostly they are further inside teh house so it is harder to be found. Near a wall actually away from appliances. The walls fall and triangles of rescue (think that was term) are created. Same as do not get under desks and tables but instead lay beside them in the fetal position again triangles of rescue or survival.

In addition to those tidbits a wooden house is better than a brick one. The wooden house can sway more and is more flexible. Brick buildings are killers. The strength in bricks is holding the weight vertically when they are standing upwards. They can support something like 700 men. No lay that same brick wall horizontal it cannot even support a young child.

It was very interesting and certain these techniques would work for other serious destructive forces. I think I should go look for that article might be worthwhile relearning what I forgot from the program.

[bt]

There's the (in)famous news footage of a family and a news crew taking shelter from a tornado in an overpass in Kansas in 1991.  They all survived completely uninjured.  But the overpass was a different construction, with open girders and an area that could be used as a crawl space among them, and the tornado did not pass directly over them.

[magnosis]

I just hope that once peoples' programmed thermostats turn on their AC at 4 so it's cool by 5, it doesn't take out the power grid (again).

Happened yesterday in Cantley.  We lost power for only 5 minutes though, around 6:30.  I immediately figured it was a grid overload.

There's the (in)famous news footage of a family and a news crew taking shelter from a tornado in an overpass in Kansas in 1991.  They all survived completely uninjured.  But the overpass was a different construction, with open girders and an area that could be used as a crawl space among them, and the tornado did not pass directly over them.

Yes this is the one I was referring to :-) Thanks. It's been featured in many different shows, as a "do not try this" kind of thing.

[Greatwhite]

Well, I think I might now why the power didn't go out all over Ontario last night at 4... My friend works with me, and a couple years back when Ottawa Hydro sent around the invitation to be a "peak saver" and get a new thermostat that could be controlled remotely by the Hydro company - he jumped on it.  He thought that they would only really "nudge" people who had their thermostat set too low and move them to a reasonable number.

He works from home, and his wife runs a daycare from their home as well.  So  you need the house to be "comfortable" all day.  He sets his thermostat to 26 (like I do) because you don't need a 22 degree house in the summer - you just need a couple degrees cooler than outside.

At 4pm, it started getting real warm in his house.  He looked at his thermostat to see that it was 28 degrees and rising, and there was a little "peak saver" icon lit up.  NOTHING he could do was able to turn the AC back on.  Around 8, the icon went away and the AC turned on.  His house had reached 29.5 by that time.

Seems to me that the hydro company isn't really using that system as advertised...  I understand WHY they would just cut the AC the way they did and turn them on in phases around the city, but when they said "in peak times, we may put your thermostat up a couple degrees" - I didn't read that as "we're shutting it off and controlling when you can cool down!"

AND - that is why I kept my own thermostat.  You guys can blame me if the grid fails again during this heat wave.

[bt]

Peaksaver is actually supposed to work by regulating the power flow to the AC unit, not by directly changing what your thermostat is set to.  It's applied evenly within an area that Hydro determines it is needed, regardless of what the thermostat is actually set to.

I turned it down because I don't trust that artificially lowering the power flow to my AC would not damage the AC.  Not everything can handle lower voltage/amperage than what it's meant for.

[JetJumper]

Peaksaver is actually supposed to work by regulating the power flow to the AC unit, not by directly changing what your thermostat is set to.  It's applied evenly within an area that Hydro determines it is needed, regardless of what the thermostat is actually set to.

I turned it down because I don't trust that artificially lowering the power flow to my AC would not damage the AC.  Not everything can handle lower voltage/amperage than what it's meant for.

to me this doesn't make sense.  The thermostat does not have the main power leads going into it.  It sends a analog signal to the A/C unit to either turn on or off.  I can't see how its possible to control the amount of power going to the A/C unit.  Its either on or off.  The only way that I logically can see the Power company controlling when the A/C unit comes on from this device is by increasing the temperature in which the thermostat tells the A/C unit to turn on.

[JetJumper]

Just looked into it.  this is how it operates.

However, in half-hour intervals, your CAC will be adjusted on and off. For the first 15 minutes, it will continue to produce cool air. And for the second 15 minutes, the fan will continue to run to circulate the cool air in your home.

https://www.saveonenergy.ca/Consumer/Programs/Peaksaver.aspx

So really all they are doing is controlling it on and off, not regulating the amount of power to it.

[bt]

Well, it turns out we're all wrong on how it works.

How does it work?
On the hottest weekday afternoons during the summer, when the use of air conditioners is greatest, Hydro Ottawa may signal to your thermostat to cycle your air conditioner to alternately run for 15 minutes and pause for 15 minutes over the course of the peaksaver event - weekends and holidays are excluded. The duration of the peaksaver event is typically 4 hours. Your fan will continue to run so you may not notice that an event is taking place.

[Greatwhite]

Well, it turns out we're all wrong on how it works.

lol.. true story!   My thermostat is set to hit 26 degrees, then turn off the AC unit and the fan still runs for circulation until the temp rises to turn on the AC again.

I think that my friend's furnace fan is set to the lowest speed so he was probably not getting the circulation that he "should" have.  It's certainly not how most people interpreted how it was going to work back when it was advertised, though.

I just didn't want anyone diddling with my thermostat!

[ryancarman.com]

you guys thought the wind was bad here??

video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWeu87CK9fk&feature=player_embedded

story

http://gizmodo.com/5823808/these-australian-waterfalls-are-running-upwards

HA!

[magnosis]

woaaaaaaaaaaa !!

(and so says half the office staff gathered around my monitor)

[brotherluv]

http://m.yahoo.com/w/news_america/nasa-data-blow-gaping-hold-global-warming-alarmism-192334971.html?orig_host_hdr=news.yahoo.com&.intl=us&.lang=en-us

[Greatwhite]

Keep believing everything you read

Hehe.. Just kidding.  Good find.  Computer models can only predict as much as we THINK will happen.  The atmosphere can change drastically in 5 years, in a way that we hadn't thought of.  This shows that not all predictions are right, regardless of what super computer they come from.