r/HuntsvilleAlabama • u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ • 6d ago
Reminder: Start prepping for cold weather Events
The 10-15 day models are consistently showing it's going to get substantially colder by middle/late next week (Jan 8-ish). It's shaping up to be a pretty substantial cold as well.
With this cold, obviously comes the chance for frozen precipitation. Anyone saying it will definitely happen is lying, there are no definites this far out. But conditions are likely to support it happening, so might as well plan and prep for it.
Since we're 1.5-2 weeks out from it, go ahead and start gradually doing all of your extreme cold weather prep. Buy whatever supplies you use. Refill gas cans for generators. Get battery packs charged up. Make sure laundry is all done (at least washed and dried) a few days before the cold.
Comment below for your typical routines to give others ideas.
Edit: if we do end up having a weather episode, us mods will organize a megathread or two. Probably one with information, and one with pictures/videos/misc ice/snow banter
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u/SeriousMongoose2290 6d ago
My typical routine consists of changing absolutely nothing and not worrying about it. 30+ years here and I’ve never had an issue with this. Follow me for more tips.
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u/Gamer-Moooooom 6d ago edited 5d ago
I was going to say, when it gets super cold out we… go to work and school. 😆 eta: here for 40+ years 🥴🥴😂
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u/Djarum300 4d ago
This was my M.O. until they shut our power down Xmas of 2022. That's a problem when trying to keep pipes warm.
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u/SkeletoriAmos 6d ago
This is the ideal time to rent a cabin in Mentone, in hopes of being iced in, with all my bread and milk.
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u/Narrow-Abalone7580 6d ago edited 6d ago
Buy yourself a bag of kitty litter, a small shovel, an ice scraper, and an old blanket and keep it all in your trunk just in case. Always keep your cellphone charged. If the power goes out, your food will last for a few hours in the fridge or freezer, then can be moved outside if it's cold enough to keep it fresh. If you have a fireplace, use it for warmth and cooking simple foods like hot dogs on a stick when the power is out. Don't ever try to use your oven for warmth. Dont bring your grill inside. NEVER drive on ice or snow if you're in a hurry, nobody's life is worth your five minutes of rushed time. God bless the Waffle House employees.
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u/MFEA_till_i_die 6d ago
People get real hung up on the fridge thing on Reddit but I have gone 48 hours without electricity and just made it a point to not open my fridge and I've never had anything spoil. Obviously use good judgement and all that, but it's way longer than what most Redditors wants you to believe.
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u/addywoot playground monitor 6d ago
Yup. In 2011, meat was fine for 3 days in the freezer. Maybe 4 but I gave it away.
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u/phoenix_shm 6d ago
See also: things we all learned about ourselves from Freeze Week January 2024, https://www.reddit.com/r/HuntsvilleAlabama/s/iCTQKbNlqP
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u/JennyAndTheBets1 6d ago
Deicing salt and grippy shoe straps for walking around your property. Bought both after last year.
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago
I found cat litter to work really well last year when it iced.
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u/JennyAndTheBets1 6d ago
I hate cat litter and sand for ice. Makes a clumpy mess that stains concrete for quite a while, especially litter. I may get some use out of the playground sand I keep, but I really don’t like it for this because of post-ice cleanup.
And no, the juice is not worth the squeeze to me.
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u/ezfrag I make the interwebs work 6d ago
Be careful using salt on concrete. If your concrete isn't well sealed, salt can cause a lot of damage. Of course, that's really more for places with extended freezing weather, but I'd still recommend a good rinse when the frozen crap thaws.
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u/aintioriginal 6d ago
When it thaws? That's usually the 3 days at 60 degrees before the next freeze. I wish I wasn't serious with this one.
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago
That's fair. I just don't care and wait for the next rain to wash it all away. I can't get out of my driveway otherwise, so the mess is worth it to me.
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u/Bexlyp 6d ago
Don’t forget to stay safe when trying to stay warm.
- don’t use your oven to try to heat your house.
- if you have to use a generator, keep it 20+ feet away from doors and windows to keep fumes from seeping in.
- don’t use camping stoves or heaters that run on propane indoors.
- stay dry. Have clean socks and base layers ready to change if you do get sweaty.
- if you use space heaters or electric blankets, don’t plug them into power strips. Keep space heaters as far away from furniture/curtains as you can (3+ feet recommended).
TLDR: stay dry, don’t burn your house down, and don’t give yourself CO/CO2 poisoning.
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u/POVoutfitters 5d ago
Be sure to have a battery powered carbon monoxide detector or a combined CO2/Fire Detector, especially if you’re running a generator.
Many intelligent people have succumbed to sickness or death due to CO2 finding creative ways to sneak into the sleeping quarters of its victims.
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u/Viola424242 6d ago
Whenever there’s a chance of an extended power outage, I make sure to have food on hand that doesn’t require refrigeration or cooking, such as granola bars, jars of peanut butter, packets of tuna, whole fruit, and yes, bread.
I keep a few gallons of drinking water around, and I fill up a couple of buckets with extra water for the dogs just in case we lose water.
I also gas up my car and charge my batteries and power packs.
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u/Rune_Rosen 6d ago edited 5d ago
Are there any recommended roads to avoid in Huntsville during the cold? I’m having to head up on Jan. 10-11 up to AAMU for school, but we don’t get ice, let alone snow, down here in Dothan.
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago edited 6d ago
I would figure out this week if you can have contingency plans to come up any earlier next week and decide on whether to use said contingency as we get a more definite forecast.
As for roads, I'd recommend sticking to interstates as much as possible as they'll have the most traffic, and thus the most residual heat to melt from cars, and they'll be the most maintained by state and local services.
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u/newspapermane 6d ago
Not necessarily during the cold, but ice makes things tricky. The city typically tries to prepare the main roads if ice is expected (or if it has happened). If you stick to those and are cautious/careful then it should be fine.
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u/ezfrag I make the interwebs work 6d ago
In Huntsville specifically, they'll close the elevated portions of Memorial Parkway (US 231/431) and possibly the bridges on I-565 if the roads ice up. Other than that, most of the well traveled surface streets are usually OK. AAMU campus will be pretty dead if it ices up.
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u/GarlicJuniorJr 6d ago
I’ve never heard of doing laundry before it gets real cold. What’s the reasoning behind that?
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u/WSpinner 6d ago
If the power goes out, no washing...
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago
👆🏼This. Also if pipes freeze/burst and your water is out for an extended period of time.
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u/AppFlyer 4d ago
I’m a big fan of draining outside spigots if possible, turning off all outside water access, and blocking crawl space vents. I usually use rigid foam, but this year I’m going tape plastic over the foam with painter’s tape.
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u/Heavy_Front_3712 6d ago
We always climb into our crawlspace and make sure all the pipes are still insulated.
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u/addywoot playground monitor 6d ago
Thanks Shaggy - bought some ice spike type things.
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago
Ice spike type things?
Also, you see my idea about the megathreads if snow hits the asphalt?
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u/Traditional-Pie-7749 6d ago
Keep a few days worth of water and non-perishable food in the pantry in case the power goes and roads are bad. Keep the gas tank half full or higher and throw an extra coat/blanket in the trunk of the car. Check on old neighbors every few days to make sure they don’t need anything. Make French toast if there’s snow or ice.
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u/Substantial-Wolf5263 6d ago
I hope to see a van sliding into a gas station again and if your tires are bald dont change them keep doing what you normally do and let them tow operation guys get that bag this season
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u/LovelyHatred93 6d ago
I know you probably felt great typing this, but coming from a plumber, no one is going to take your advice and they will all act very surprised when things freeze.
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u/Godspeed117 6d ago
My first winter here. Moved this past summer from NY. Can’t wait to see what is considered cold. 😎
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u/ootfifabear 6d ago
Buy the bread now and Stick it in ur freezer. If ur desperate for space stick it in the snow later
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u/squashmaster 4d ago
What does laundry have to do with it? Unless you go to a laundromat. It's actually a good idea do be doing laundry/washing dishes during the extreme cold, keeps the pipes working.
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4d ago
Unless there's a power outage. Can't do laundry (as easily) without power.
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u/squashmaster 4d ago
Well, if theres a serious outage that will last a long time when its gonna be below or nearly below freezing for days continuously, you got wayyyy bigger problems than some dirty clothes lol
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 4d ago
Might as well do all your laundry before the potential outage is the point
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u/EVOSexyBeast 6d ago
Anyone saying it will definitely happen is lying
is wrong, sure, but ‘lying’ means something else.
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u/Upset_Sun3307 6d ago
Y'all know people live in places like Alaska right?.... I think we'll be just fine. If your driving on snow or ice just remember to downshift vs hitting your brakes to slow down so you don't loose traction
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago
You know this isn't Alaska right? We don't have resources to maintain snowed/iced roads to the same extent the north does. No one here has winter tires, chains, or studded tires. Our roads don't have as wide of a shoulder as a lot of the north does, so sliding off the road becomes a more severe situation more easily.
I wish people would quit making it like it's just the people's fault for why we have such an issue. It's the infrastructure and economics of it that plays a huge part.
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u/EVOSexyBeast 6d ago edited 6d ago
I disagree with them comparing Alabama to Alaska, infrastructure makes all the difference there.
But culture definitely plays a big part, too. The roads were bad but not undrivable the whole week like people make it sound, I drove around that whole week, albeit slowly, because I was moving from Kentucky and I got around fine. There were some other cars on the road too so I wasn’t the only one.
Walmart being closed was interesting, i’ve never seen walmart in KY close because of snow even in much worse driving conditions. There were some videos of cars sliding off the road, but people from further north know not to lock your breaks like they did in the videos on this sub.
In California they will close schools and people panic because of what we consider a normal rain shower, now that’s definitely because of culture and not infrastructure.
Take the exact same roads and driving conditions in KY vs Huntsville and people down here will freak out more because they’re not used to it. I mean you made a sticky post announcing for everyone to prepare because it’s going to get into the 20s soon…
Nothing wrong with it and nothing worth making fun of Alabamians for but culture definitely plays a role.
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago
My partner had to go to work all week. It took some serious work to get her car to the end of the driveway safely. Once she was on the road, thankfully between here and there isn't hilly at all. But her car had to stay at the end of the driveway because it's too steep to traverse every morning/evening.
I know there were tons who would have had the same issue. Even more who have hills/mountains between their residence and work.
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u/EVOSexyBeast 6d ago
Yep that’s what we had to do most winters when I lived in eastern KY. We had a long curved gravel driveway down a hill and we built up gravel high on one side so in the winter we could do a semi-controlled slide down the driveway and the gravel keeps us from sliding into the ditch. Then we park at the bottom of the hill and hike up until we’re able to drive back up it again. We had an alternative walking path up the hill through the woods.
It was just a normal winter for us, though i do see how that might sound crazy to someone from the south who never had to deal with that.
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u/blasek0 6d ago
Deserts have a different problem with rain where all the oil drippings that normally get washed off on a regular basis with normal rainfall dry out on the road and accumulate over the months instead, and the first bit of rain after months without it is significantly worse than a normal rainfall would be because it's picking up way more oil bits than a more comparably wet area. Relatively unique problem to the desert southwest, at least here in the states.
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u/Upset_Sun3307 6d ago
I grew up driving in Chicago so the stuff we see down here is nothing. That last ice storm we had last year,yea I went about my day normally just drove a bit slower.
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago
Tell me... How are the mountains in Chicago?
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u/gumbysweiner 6d ago
A lot of people at work had to stay there because they lived on the mountain and couldn't get up.
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u/Upset_Sun3307 6d ago
Just say your scared... Unless you live on Monte Sano or Green Mountain there really aren't many mountains in the Huntsville area. Soo yea if it's icy don't go up there
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u/ShaggyTDawg ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 6d ago edited 6d ago
There's plenty of pretty steep grades on regular roads in the area. Madison has a pretty decent mountain in the middle of it, Monrovia has two, and lots and lots of hilly roads and driveways (my own included, and I don't live on any mountain). Lots of people live on Green Mtn and Monte Sano. So there's large portions of the area that are affected by either living on or near hilly/mountainous terrain. No amount of "driving slow" or "experience from up north" can make a car not slide down a steep driveway. And nothing you can do if there's a mountain between you and where you need to go.
Also... you're*
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u/csquared2525 6d ago
I love how bro just keeps comparing his driving experiences and situations from states up NORTH that see snow and ice all the time and not basing his view on reality of what it’s like in ALABAMA.
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u/Upset_Sun3307 6d ago
I've been driving in Alabama for the better part of 20 years.... So I've experienced both. The weather we get here really isn't a big deal like everyone makes it to be.
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u/bujoojoo 6d ago
That’s because there are 40 snow plows/de-icing machines for every square mile in northern cities and Huntsville has 2 guys in the back of a pickup shoveling play sand out on the parkway. Kinda makes a difference…
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u/sampman69 6d ago
Buy all the milk and bread!