Alberta Clipper or Saskatchewan Screamer

[greg g]

Yup that is what the guy on the news called it. Whaterver our northern friends are starting to share their biggest export. Frigid arctic air. Supposed to be in the single digits tonight here with a high of 11 tomorrow. Probably lots colder in other places. Shel you got your firewood in? Guess we will fire up the pellet stove in the morning and expand our carbon footprint a bit. May need to open the heater vent in the garage to keep it a bit warmer. I am only protected down to 10 degrees, with my 75/25 water coolant mix.

[Don Coatney]

Greg;

You need to move to Tennessee.

[RobertKB]

Greg, we are glad to share with our friends. Actually in the part of Alberta where I live, we are getting one of our famous Chinook winds. Chinook is the aboriginal word for "snow eater". It is well above freezing, sunny and windy. We had a ton of snow lately and now only have about a half ton. Hopefully it will all be gone soon. Two more days should do it. We will send it on when we are done. Actually, if the roads dry a little more, I may get the '48 Dodge out shortly but I will still need to shovel the huge drift behind my garage. I can only hope as I sure miss driving the old girl!

[TodFitch]

...snip... I am only protected down to 10 degrees, with my 75/25 water coolant mix.

Gee. I have a 50/50 mix in my car to protect it down to the frigid temperatures expected in my area. It is 70F outside right now. Supposed to get down to 43F tonight, so we will need the down comforter (like to sleep with the bedroom windows open).

On the other hand, our reservoirs are dry, the mountain snow pack below normal and the forecast is for a dryer than normal winter. So we will be having water and fire issues for the indefinite future.

[greg g]

Don't really need the 50 50 mix as my car is stored for the winter and it hardly ever gets below feezing in the garage. My reading indicates water cools better than commercial glycol based coolant. So I have choosen my mix accordingly, enough to provide anti rust, lube the pump, and cool the motor. Only time I have ever seen it higher than 190 was when sitting idling for 45 minutes waiting for customs at the Canadian border, I believe in those conditions a 50 50 mix would have been puking out the overflow.

[55 Fargo]

Greg, In the Winnipeg area, (200 miles north of Fargo ND, 450 miles northwest of Minneapolis, and 800 miles east of Calgary Alberta), it is right now-15 f.

Tonight it will be down to -30 f, with a windchill by morning of -45 is possible.

Right now it is 50 in the garage, with heaters on.

Now doesn't 0 seem balmy compared to this...........Fred

[RobertKB]

Fred, sorry about the warm weather in Alberta. We decided to ship it south instead of east as we got a better price!

[55 Fargo]

Robert, thats okay, we Manitobans are tough,Torontonians would perish here, Winnipeg is known as the coldest big city in the world.

We suffer in winter, but a Manitoba summer is probably the best in the prairie region of Canada.

[RobertKB]

Do you have a summer in Manitoba??

[55 Fargo]

Much hotter humid days and warmer nights than Alberta, unfortunately we need the central air here even at night.

Summer nights are very warm in southern Manitoba, gardens grow very well here........................Fred ps so do the skeeters unfortunately and Winnipeg has never had snow in July or August either, I have personally never seen snow here in June Or Septemebr either

[RobertKB]

Fred, what are you smoking? No snow June through September? I understand Winnipeg only has two seasons........ Winter and Road Repair.

I have never been to Manitoba as I always go west to BC when travelling in Canada by car. I am sure Manitoba is beautiful but never seem to have a reason to go there. Have family in BC and Alberta so tend to stick around the two western provinces.

[55 Fargo]

Fred, what are you smoking? No snow June through September? I understand Winnipeg only has two seasons........ Winter and Road Repair.

I have never been to Manitoba as I always go west to BC when travelling in Canada by car. I am sure Manitoba is beautiful but never seem to have a reason to go there. Have family in BC and Alberta so tend to stick around the two western provinces.

Robert, BC on the coast, has only 1 season rain and more rain, the interior and the Okanogan Valley has beautiful summers though. Robert Winnipeg has summers much like Southern Ontario, mind you there shorter, but hot and humid, lots of standing water, why else would we have so many skeeters

[laynrubber]

Well this will the 4th week of consistant -30C weather. Not even a break like Saskatoon had, day time highs have never gone above -22C.

Tonight..........-39C with windchill making it feel like -44C.

That, friends is only a very slight breeze too.

Sigh

I want to put my snow blower in the back of truck and keep driving south until someone says...."hey what's that thing for" !!!

We had the hangar doors open last night to move an aircraft in, water was starting to freeze in the drinking fountain within 20 mins

[JohnS48plm]

We're down to 0 F right now it may go to -2F tonight and tomorrow night. We leave for South Carolina in two weeks, I can't wait. Next year we may have to go south earlier in Jan. JohnS

[55 Fargo]

It's -25 f here right now, with a windchill of -40, it's supposed to be up to 35 on the weekend, sn't happen fast enough............Fred

[Young Ed]

Fred its plenty cold down here in mpls too. -6 for my morning drive. Supposed to be -19 tonight. Yeah like you 30s by monday.

[Norm's Coupe]

Actually, I don't know what all the fuss is about with the media talking about the cold and snow we're experiencing this week. Let's face it, we're in Wisconsin and it gets cold here every year. Maybe not as cold as this is every year, but none the less, it's been a lot colder here in past winters. So, it's nothing new.

Supposed to be between -10 to -25 the next couple of nights without the windchill. With the windchill they're saying between -30 to -40 degrees. I've seen it at -60 or so back in the 70's. It's hit the above temps a lot of times since I moved here in 1971. I remember one winter where the temperature didn't get above 10 degrees for 35 days in a row. It's just a fact of life. We get cold winters once in awhile and moderate ones other times. Just grin and bear it. It will get warmer in a few days.

As for antifreeze. I've always run a 50/50 mix in all my cars, even when I lived in Louisville, KY. Never had a car boil over or puke coolant in the summer. So, that's what I keep in all my cars, still today.

[Young Ed]

Where's my global warming?

[Tim Frank]

A Saskatchewan Screamer?....there is a really easy and cheap joke there, but it would be too OT, and too cheap and easy even for me....

[greg g]

Hafta keep a better watch on that weather dude.......

[Joe Flanagan]

There is also something known as a Cleveland Steamer, but that is best left to other places on the Internet. It doesn't have anything to do with the weather.

[B-Watson]

Robert, thats okay, we Manitobans are tough,Torontonians would perish here, Winnipeg is known as the coldest big city in the world.

We suffer in winter, but a Manitoba summer is probably the best in the prairie region of Canada.

Actually, winters in Edmonton are very similar to Winnipeg - except longer.

I lived in Winnipeg for the first 31 years of my life and Edmonton for the next 13 years, so this is not coming from some "I heard that ...".

I have never known it to snow in Winnipeg from May through September, but I have been in an August dump in Edmonton and just missed one on a May long weekend. On that one I was coming back from Winnipeg, nursing a minor sun burn, and arrived in Edmonton to find the city digging itself out from a snow fall. From +25C in Winnipeg to -5C in Edmonton!

Here in Vancouver we have two seasons - wet and wetter! Or so it seems at times. This past month we have had more than a few days of "white rain".

And I miss the summers in southern Manitoba! They do get very hot and humid (the Gulf Stream plays a part in the latter) and there are some pretty violent thunderstorms. Here there are very few storms, unlike Manitoba where, at the end of a hot, humid day, the sky gets black on the western horizon and a cold wind picks up force blowing from the west.

The lightning lights up the night almost to the point of daylight and the thunder sounds, and feels, like someone is dropping bowling balls on the floor above you. On the truly bright lightning flashes, the ensuing thunder is enough to shake the dishes in the cupboards and the light fixtures hanging on the ceiling. If you live high enough in an apartment, or are in a house on the bald prairie, you can watch the show as it progresses from west to east.

Weather is so boring in Alberta and B.C.

[B-Watson]

Don't really need the 50 50 mix as my car is stored for the winter and it hardly ever gets below feezing in the garage. My reading indicates water cools better than commercial glycol based coolant. So I have choosen my mix accordingly, enough to provide anti rust, lube the pump, and cool the motor. Only time I have ever seen it higher than 190 was when sitting idling for 45 minutes waiting for customs at the Canadian border, I believe in those conditions a 50 50 mix would have been puking out the overflow.

A 50-50 mix would not cause the system to overflow if it does not with a lower ratio of antifreeze. All the antifreeze does it raise the boiling point. So, if water boils at 212F, adding antifreeze will raise that temperature limit, just as it lowers the freezing point.

If your car runs at 190F, adding antifreeze will not raise that temperature. The engine temperature when the car is idling or running is not controlled by the coolant mixture but by a number of other things, usually inside the engine block or radiator.

For example, if your car gets hot enough when idling to loose coolant on a predominantly water based mixture, adding antifreeze will raise the temperature at which it boils. And if that temperature is higher than the engine temperature at idle, it will not boil over. But it will not raise or lower the engine's operating temperature on its own.

On the other hand, the thermostat controls the MINIMUM temperature - thus a 190 thermostat opens around 190F and will close at that point if the coolant temperature drops.

Bill

Vancouver, BC

[greg g]

My theory is that the 50 50 mix is not as effective at temp transfer, therefore in compromised situations, extended idling in high temps, it would actually not absorb as much nor transfer as much heat at the radiator. there for the engine coolant temp in those conditions would rise, maybe not boil over, but would allow the engine to get hotter. personally I like 200 and not boiling over rather then 218 and not boiling over.

[Norm's Coupe]

Greg,

We have to go with what we think is best for our own cars. However, as you and everyone else knows, I let my car idle in the driveway or garage a lot of times. Maybe not 45 minutes, but it has gone a good 30 minutes before without going above about 185 to 190 degrees, with the 50/50 solution. I have the 180 or 185 thermostat in the car. And, even sat in a line at Culvers drive-thru for a good 30 to 40 minutes or so on a mid 90's day with high humidity and still didn't go over those temperatures on the gauge.

I like the 50/50 for two reasons.

1. It's easier to measure the mixture, plus now you can buy it premixed at 50/50, and that makes it even easier to mix.

2. Don't have to worry about draining the coolant or heating the garage when it gets cold like this.