Cold snap update (6 Jan 25)

As of lunchtime Monday, the day before the Feast of Nativity (Julian calendar, those on the other calendar it’s Theophany/Epiphany), a major winter storm is sweeping across the Eastern US today, and there is a rash of warnings across the region:

The trailing edge of the cold front is bringing gusty winds and some rain to Coastal GA/SC …

It should be offshore before dark. The “extreme” cold forecast for this week doesn’t seem to be materializing. The current forecast for Frogmore just barely hits freezing, for Savannah (40 mi south) it will likely hover just below freezing for a few hours the next couple of nights, with another front coming in later in the week. Inland will be significantly colder – Allendale and Statesboro, for example, will likely hit the lower 20’s tomorrow (Tuesday) night with the high only in the upper 40’s, and over 12 hours of below freezing conditions, so be aware.

Right on the coast, not a lot of precautions should be needed, covering or bringing inside exposed and delicate plants, only very exposed and uninsulated plumbing should be at much risk. On the inland side of I-95 though the longer stretch of cold means you might need to be more proactive.

There is a huge amount of contradictory advice on dripping water faucets. Why do you need to do it anyway? Because water is weird: unlike most substances, it expands when it freezes. So when in a confined space like a pipe, it can expand until the container bursts. Then when it thaws out, you’ve got a problem.

There is no hard and fast rule. Southern Living has some advice that seems reasonable. Note that some sources (like Angie’s List) have some errors – for example, they say you don’t need to drip the hot water lines when in fact in many homes in the South the hot water tanks are in unheated attics, and the feed lines are not always uninsulated, so you need to have the hot water side doing a gentle trickle as well (slow drips might not be enough, but it doesn’t need to be full blast either).