As I sit gazing out at my office window at the sunny day warming up to 80 degrees in North Texas, Winter Storm Astro has already dropped over seven inches of snow in North Dakota and over nine inches in Minnesota. Winter storm warnings have been issued for seven states and I haven’t even eaten lunch yet. I should thoroughly enjoy this day, because winter is coming early this year.
Temperatures in the southern states will drop to 40 degrees lower than normal for mid-November, while record snowfalls are predicted for Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. For two weeks, part of the country may remain below freezing. The only states unaffected by the colder air will be specific states in the Southwest, Hawaii, southern Florida and Alaska. With temperatures averaging nearly 70 degrees in Fort Worth, Texas during November, many of us Southerners are probably unprepared. Weather experts are urging all of us to prepare early for the incoming cold weather, reminding citizens all over the United States that forecasts call for temperatures cold enough to cause hypothermia.
Northerners, used to frigid temperatures and plenty of snow aren’t caught off guard. Some are even hopeful it will help them bag an early season deer. Even so, severe winter weather has already caused over 100 vehicle accidents today in Minnesota. On the other hand, these rapidly falling temperatures might send some Southerners scrambling for pipe covers, firewood and boxed-up coats.
You can get ahead of the game this year by fully preparing for winter now. Read these following severe winter weather articles for help.
- The Top Five Best Winter Weather Prepping Tips
- Winterize Your House
- Get Your Car Ready
- How to Prevent and Treat Hypothermia
- How Do I Prevent My Pipes From Freezing?
- Last Minute Items to Get Before Everyone Else Does
- Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
The majority of these posts were part of The Shooter’s Log series, “30 Days of Preparing for Severe Winter Weather.” You can find the entire series here.
Has winter weather already affected your area? Tell us how you are coping in the comment section.
[suzanne]
Call me ignorant, stupid, nieve. ..whatever, but sense the article concerns preparing for cold weather, I thought someone may know something about legally requesting a company to change their policy on reasonable comfort in my workplace/living quarters.
I drive a truck, over the road, which means I sleep where I work. The company trucks are equipped with automatic shut down after 5 minutes of parked idle time if the outside temperature is between 70 and 27 degrees. The truck is equipped with a heater unit that runs solely off the batteries. Operations claims the unit will run 8 hours on fully charged batteries. The issue there is…fully charged “New” batteries will run the unit 8 hours. My batteries are over two years old and will not run the unit more than 4 hours (usually less). When the voltage drops below 12.6v everything shuts down. The truck must be started and kept running for an hour to bring the batteries back to full charge(at idle). The company shop refuses to replace the batteries because they are still serviceable to start and operate the truck. I changed employer’s because the last company had trucks that would idle indefinitely but if I idled the truck more than 25% of my on duty drive time they deducted $330.00 a week from my pay. Any legally valid advice is greatly appreciated. I like the company but I don’t want to freeze my tail/lose sleep another winter.