Ice Storm
Other thread was far down
We got hammered. Washtenaw/Wayne border around 94. Lost power about 5:15, lines with limbs on both DTE lines, significant tree damage, driveway blocked, walked the dog in the middle of the field and in three minutes saw two transformers blow about 1/4 mile away as well as several trees go down.
37 week pregnant wife at homes as well. Stay safe out there everyone. Be aware of electric lines above and below.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:19 PM ^
Yikes. Stay safe!
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:17 PM ^
Stay safe, be well, wishing you all the best and move south. It’s going to be 80 in North Carolina tomorrow.
February 23rd, 2023 at 4:55 AM ^
Times like this make me extremely glad I moved to NC. Stay safe everyone
February 23rd, 2023 at 7:33 AM ^
No kidding. We had enough of the storms and grey skies years ago.
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:10 AM ^
It's supposed to hit 80 here today in northern, VA. :-)
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:18 AM ^
everybody knows chimps don't do great in snow
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:30 AM ^
The worst ice storm I ever experienced was when I lived in NC many years ago. The region was paralyzed for at least 5 days. It was surreal.
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:44 PM ^
Was it around 2003? I remember hearing branches snap off of trees all night long....and saw several broken limbs that had fallen onto cars the next day. I was working for a growing biotech company in RTP at the time and our offices were in trailers. A tree had literally fallen through our trailer.....so they sent me back home. That was a big storm!
BTW.....it's 85 and sunny here today.
February 23rd, 2023 at 11:33 AM ^
I’ve lived a lot of places and NC is definitely one of the better places to live for me, but the two worst I’ve storms I’ve lived through were in NC and Saint Louis.
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:39 PM ^
Blech, I'll take my ice storms over 80-degree days in February! I lived in DC for a long time and I liked the mild winters, but you still definitely had seasons. I enjoyed an occasional unseasonably-warm winter day for sure. But 80 is just too much; gets freaky and weird. Feels...unnatural. Even for that part of the country.
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
I like winter, I really don't want to be in a place that is all that warm.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:28 PM ^
It’s pretty bad in Ann Arbor too. Keep hearing tree limbs falling everywhere. Looks like the rain has at least let up but everything will remain super icy overnight.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:05 PM ^
Is there an alternative to DTE?
Summer rain storms cause 24-72 hour outages lol, going on years now, and if there's no alternative to DTE, then what incentive do they have to fix these messes of lines they've neglected to maintain?
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:32 PM ^
You can set up solar with a battery backup, we did this last summer, with a Nat gas generator in reserve.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:44 PM ^
Consumers is around in some of the metro Detroit areas but there is no option to switch if you’re a DTE customer. So you either have to move to an area that is serviced by a DTE competitor or go solar/natural gas backups.
February 23rd, 2023 at 11:52 AM ^
No doubt solar would have made for an amazing backup the past couple of days. /s
February 23rd, 2023 at 4:11 PM ^
I just got a dual-fuel electric start portable inverter generator that uses either gas or propane. It is very convenient to just hook up a propane tank from your gas grill, RV, or have spares on hand instead of storing gasoline which spoils eventually, spills, etc. In an outage you can use either or both types (not together) if necessary.
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:27 PM ^
Thank the schmucks in Bloomfield Hills who, back in 2015, sued DTE for $54M because they were trimming their super special Bloomfield trees (which are, to the eternal ire of some, not quite as special as Birmingham trees, and everyone knows it) too aggressively.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:32 PM ^
Hopefully power comes back soon for you and your wife Bryan. I'm in Ann Arbor and I really have no idea what's going as we haven't left the house all day. Our power did flicker a few times about 9pm. Fingers crossed. Were in a fairly new Subdivision so trees are not huge and haven't noticed any tree damage. Just see a little icicles hanging. Also AAPS has cancelled school for tommorow. Stay safe everyone 🙏🏽
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:32 PM ^
Nearly half a million without power in metro detroit today. It’s gonna take a while to get everyone back up. But hopefully sooner than expected
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:33 PM ^
I lost (and got back) power about 10-12 times in a span of an hour or so this afternoon. I've had a productive time resetting my clocks.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:40 PM ^
Here in Northern California, we are under a freeze warning. Normal temperatures in the morning are a little about freezing, but right now it’s that + high winds and it doesn’t warm up much during the day. Should have snow in the hills later this week - always a treat! I heard from my son on campus - he says everything is fine where he is. Hope that the rest of you are able to weather this weather…
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:20 PM ^
Southern California is under their first blizzard warning since 1989. Weather reporters are freaking out.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:25 PM ^
I remember driving down PCH in Malibu in a blizzard one thanksgiving in my old suburban. Maybe 1985?
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:29 AM ^
May have been 1989. That was the last blizzard warning issued for SoCal area.
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:48 AM ^
it was either '85 or '86 given where i was living. and as far as i know it wasn't a blizzard warning, just a sleet blizzard as i drove down PCH and up topanga canyon.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:51 PM ^
Huh, that’s going to be a lot of fun.
I lived in SoCal for four years and encountered one snow event. It snowed in the high desert where I lived and in the mountains where I drove to commute to the Valley. The news reporters were out reporting on isolated snowflakes in Malibu, etc. The freeways back home were all closed, so I slept in my car and stayed for work the next day.
Snow in the San Gabriels isn’t a shocking development or anything, and wind isn’t a shocking concept either, but combining them will have some… dramatic results. Not the week to go exploring near the peaks. The Grapevine should be a lot of fun, even.
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:06 AM ^
Yeah, 14 up to Palmdale isn't staying open through this one. :-)
As for the Grapevine - that's "fun" on perfectly sunny days! I don't even want to imagine that in big snow.
February 23rd, 2023 at 11:43 AM ^
My son has been begging to play in the snow all winter... Sunday we'll finally get up into the San Gabriels and find a place to go sledding. Not the high peaks but up around 4 - 6000 feet.
February 23rd, 2023 at 1:07 AM ^
Weird. I just looked up LA's forecast. Basically for the next week highs in the 50s and lows in the 40s and good chance of rain most days.
February 23rd, 2023 at 9:39 AM ^
Nature of LA. The basin is at lower elevation, but there are mountain ranges of varying sizes everywhere. It’s not uncommon for there to be snow at very high elevations (eg Mt. Baldy) but colder systems can drop the “snow line” down to elevations that intersect with commutes and residential communities. Some ranges are more central than others; the Santa Monicas are lower and right in the middle of things, and snow of any kind there is extremely rare.
I’m told that the Antelope Valley got some, which isn’t unheard of but is also quite rare. That’s where I lived.
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:11 AM ^
I always liked Mt Baldy.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:25 PM ^
Yes, this is an interesting storm from the California perspective too!
I'm down in SoCal --- the Ventura County portion of the Santa Monicas will likely get a couple inches of snow on Friday! And for the first time ever - the LA NWS office has issued a blizzard warning for the San Gabriel Mountains, including portions that are line-of-sight, "less than 10 miles away" from the Valley towns of Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank.
Very unusual. As regards the Santa Monicas snow - the Santa Susanas further north in Ventura County get snow roughly 2 of every 5 winters. So not that unusual. But a measurable snow further south and closer to the coast, while it has happened before, is more of a once-in-a-generation event.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:44 PM ^
Sounds bad. Stay safe and good luck everyone.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:44 PM ^
I'm about 5 miles west of Kalamazoo dogsitting for my daughter and son-in-law, they left for a Florida vacation and cruise a few hours before the first of the freezing rain arrived here mid morning.
We've mostly dodged the bullet here so far as the temp has hovered around 32F all day. I was just out with the dogs 15 minutes ago, the trees have less than a quarter inch of ice coating them but no ice on the drive and sidewalk yet. It's been raining all day, so if just a degree or two colder we'd be in much worse shape.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:50 PM ^
Morning dog walks might be looking like this.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:10 PM ^
He meant to do that. WEEEEE!!!
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:06 PM ^
Same area as you rob, which I'm guessing is Mattawan/Almena area. Looking outside is mind boggling to see rain and standing water while everything else is covered in ice. At my home, I have trees falling all around my house which includes one that has been cracking for the last 3 hours. Scary part is if it falls it is coming right into my living room and taking out the power that keeps flickering on and off.
To everyone else whose getting it much worse if you have power and more importantly heat be sure to offer your home to friends or family who may be without if possible. Regardless everyone please stay safe.
February 23rd, 2023 at 1:07 AM ^
Yep. Nice area, as Jimbo Price would say.
I took the pooches out again 15 minutes ago and while waiting for them to finish sniffing yesterday's poop, saw a bright flash in the sky towards the NW and initially thought it might be lightning. Looking at lightning data on my weather app, though, shows the nearest strikes in the last half hour are 600 miles away. So it's very likely it was a transformer blowing somewhere between here and Paw Paw.
February 23rd, 2023 at 11:34 AM ^
My update: I lost power sometime overnight. One of the critters started barking like crazy around 5:45 am and it took me about 2 seconds to realize the power was out. Once daylight arrived, I got a good look at the beautiful crystal landscape while walking the dogs. Neighbors have a large tree limb down (that might have been what got "Kip" barking) and a lot of branches down in the surrounding neighborhood everywhere but here. My son-in-law had a couple dying trees removed last summer and nearly everything else on their yard is a pine, spruce, or evergreen of some type.
It's now "warmed" to 38° and most of the ice is gone, still a bearable 64° in the house. 40 miles away it's 50° already in Benton Harbor.
And the neighbor is saying power restoration is projected at 2pm. Yay.
OTOH, my place in northern Kent County was spared most of the ice, although it's still an ice-cold 24° there. Very few power outages being reported anywhere north of I-96. Bigger YAAAYYYY!
February 23rd, 2023 at 1:01 AM ^
Texas corners area of Kalamazoo, blocked by trees on both sides of the main road, no power.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:45 PM ^
Power just went off in Madison heights. I assume it's a down line from trees. Hope it doesn't get too cold overnight and they fix it soon.
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:46 PM ^
Snow up north. No big deal but I’m guessing most schools closed tomorrow.
OP, blessings to you and preggers wife
February 22nd, 2023 at 10:53 PM ^
Randomly, I can actually comment about a local events thread: I’m in a2 for a couple of days visiting family after a health issue.
And it happens that I’ve driven around way too much today, including getting lunch with a good friend in Detroit. Remarkably, I didn’t find a single road, or even driveway, that was at all difficult… but ice has formed on everything else. Tons of tree falls, including maybe 20 between Saline and Ann Arbor at 94 where I’m staying. Scattered and sometimes rolling power outages.
It is pretty spectacular, unless your power is off, and a lot of power is off.
I’m supposed to fly back to Duluth tomorrow. It was just happenstance that I chose to fly through O’hare instead of MSP, but that is the only reason I have any chance to make it, because the cities are getting hammered right now. “Only” 7 or more inches in Duluth to add to the six we got Monday; still hoping to make it back and see my family.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:01 PM ^
I actually live in Idaho. That is all.
February 23rd, 2023 at 10:19 AM ^
Moscow, perchance?
February 23rd, 2023 at 12:00 PM ^
I wonder how good the vegetarian menu is there?
February 23rd, 2023 at 4:06 PM ^
Ha, no. Eastern Idaho, home of a big nuclear lab and just waiting for Yellowstone to blow. It's cold, frozen and empty. I still have November snow under my December to February snow on property.
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:11 PM ^
Not a good day for tree lined streets. Nervous!
February 22nd, 2023 at 11:14 PM ^
A friend of mine was flying from LGA to DTW tonight and made it with an hour delay but he's still got to navigate 94 and the Lodge to get to Southfield. Hope the roads aren't super slippery.
Bryan, we're at 37 weeks as well. Hope your baby waits until the weather is better. Wishing you all the best in the pregnancy home stretch.