Althouse: Sunrise. It was 7:05, and the "feels like" temperature was 12 below.

January 14, 2025

Sunrise. It was 7:05, and the "feels like" temperature was 12 below.

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48 comments:

Yancey Ward said...: I live in Oak Ridge, TN and have lived here since 2011. This has been the coldest winter by a good margin I have experienced here. This is the sort of winter here that hasn't really been seen since the late 1970s.; 1/14/25, 5:30 PM
TaeJohnDo said...: Looks chilly. I'll counter Yancey's observation with my observation here in central NM: It has been a very mild winter here, but I can't say it has been the most mild I've seen. Compared to the other parts of the US experiencing the cold weather, it is downright balmy. Stay warm, y'all!; 1/14/25, 5:41 PM
BudBrown said...: This has been a cold winter. It's been in the 60s like every day. But then it hasn't been in the 30s much, much less freezing. Hasn't been a hard freeze here in a while.; 1/14/25, 5:47 PM
wendybar said...: Too bad he was too chickenshit to say this when it mattered instead of waiting until Trump won in a landslide....

Citizen Free Press
@CitizenFreePres
BILLY BUSH BREAKS SILENCE ON TRUMP TAPE.

Interesting comments in this new interview with Tucker Carlson.

https://x.com/i/status/1879138935835918754; 1/14/25, 5:54 PM
rhhardin said...: In Central Ohio there was a ice storm around 2005 followed by no power for two weeks and temperatures never rising above zero, dropping to minus 20. You can heat the house by keeping the basement door open and letting the basement floor heat the house to its own temperature, of about 40 degrees.; 1/14/25, 6:02 PM
Big Mike said...: @BudBrown, the abnormally cold weather is due to Anthropogenic Global Warming (TM). Just ask one of the true believers.; 1/14/25, 6:07 PM
Big Mike said...: @Yancey, I live up I-81 from you, in the Shenandoah Valley. It’s seriously cold here, too.; 1/14/25, 6:10 PM
Mason G said...: It's been pretty much normal here, lows in the mid 20s and highs around 40. This time last year though, the lows were in single digits.

I'm sure Climate Change must have had something to do with it.; 1/14/25, 6:16 PM
Aggie said...: A winter blast is coming to our region this weekend. But it's not out of the norm for the season.; 1/14/25, 6:29 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Headline: "California's Wildfire Crisis: the Financial Fallout for Insurers and Residents"

"Utility companies face significant losses and power disconnections as the Los Angeles wildfires, likely among the most costly in California's history, wreak havoc across the state."

Could there be a Luigi Mangione fan setting fires in LA?; 1/14/25, 7:05 PM
Jaq said...: Great tip, RH!; 1/14/25, 7:05 PM
Jaq said...: I am kind of interested in Grok, as an AI, but alas, I don't have the self discipline to have an X account. I spend way too much time doom scrolling. Same with TikTok. Will. Not. Touch. Too addictive, like the little movies in "Infinite Jest" that turned people into zombies by delivering perfect and irresistible pleasure.; 1/14/25, 7:11 PM
Jaq said...: Cold Fusion... Not dead yet? Sabine Hossenfelder - YouTube; 1/14/25, 7:17 PM
rhhardin said...: The chief temperature effect to watch isn't feels like but actual temperature. The limit on how fast you can work is set by aerobic capacity, and a large percentage of it can go into heating up all the air you breathe to body temperature. Wind doesn't matter at all for that, only actual temperature.; 1/14/25, 7:22 PM
rhhardin said...: Scarves don't work as heat exchangers because the input path and the output path are the same, meaning the CO2 level rises, defeating the point of breathing. The basement floor is geothermal heating. The ground under it keeps it at constant temperature for a long time.; 1/14/25, 7:51 PM
Flat Tire said...: I grew up in Springfield, Illinois but have been in N. Cal for 55 years. I was back 10 days ago and it snowed 6". I thought it was beautiful and drove around a lot running errands for elderly family. Schools were closed and I did not see a single snowman, snow ball fight or any sledding on the few hills in town. What is wrong with kids and their parents?; 1/14/25, 7:51 PM
rhhardin said...: Ride a bicycle and you'll notice that you're a lot slower in the winter. A good bike rider runs right at the edge of aerobic capacity, where any faster would get you out of breath over any distance. It's a lot slower, not a little.; 1/14/25, 8:13 PM
Original Mike said...: "You can heat the house by keeping the basement door open and letting the basement floor heat the house to its own temperature, of about 40 degrees."

Unless you've got a means to circulate the basement air to the upstairs I don't think you're going to keep the upstairs from freezing.; 1/14/25, 8:30 PM
rhhardin said...: Basement air rises when it's warmer than the house wants to be.; 1/14/25, 8:42 PM
rhhardin said...: That's where snow-shoveling heart attacks come from. The air heating job has to be added to the snow shovel job.; 1/14/25, 8:45 PM
Christopher B said...: Via Powerline, Democrats behaving badly, Minnesota edition. More background here.

TL:DR - The MN House election ended in a 67-67 tie, until the discovery that the Democrats ran a candidate who was not a resident of the district that elected him. The candidate was disqualified pending a new election, giving the GOP a 67-66 majority. In response, the Democrats have been falsely claiming that 68 seats are required for a quorum, and that the Democrat Secretary of State can dismiss the legislature until 68 legislators are present. They refused to show for the start of the session today after conducting a fake swearing-in on Sunday that will supposedly allow them to start drawing pay. It looks like the MN GOP has found a pair, kicked the Secretary of State out of the chamber when he tried to end the session, and proceeded to elect their speaker and other officers. Legislative business will resume in MN tomorrow.; 1/14/25, 9:06 PM
Original Mike said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/14/25, 9:07 PM
Kathryn51 said...: Meanwhile, here in Puget Sound area of WA state, we might have hit 31 degrees overnight once or twice. No Snow (yet) this year. No frost on the cars or plants. Trees are beginning to set buds. The earliest flowers (primroses) are showing early color. It's been very mild and at this point, it hopefully holds because nothing is worse than unseasonally early buds on fruit trees and shrubs and then we get hit with a hard freeze.; 1/14/25, 9:07 PM
Aggie said...: A pretty good story on how the J Paul Getty Museum - in the heart of the Palisades district - has so far survived the fires more or less unscathed.

Inside the dash to save the Getty Villa; 1/14/25, 9:11 PM
Original Mike said...: "That's where snow-shoveling heart attacks come from."

Sure…; 1/14/25, 9:15 PM
Caroline said...: Over the last few days, the psalm for morning prayer in my Magnificat Catholic devotion has touched on the theme of the awesome power of God in creation, and the corresponding nothingness of man in the face of the power of the sea, of mountains falling upon us, and of course, fire.
We seem to have lost the reflexive fear of the Lord that our ancestors had, a healthy respect for the awesome power of nature’s God, and suppose that we should be in control of raging fires, wind, water.
But starting with Katrina in ‘05, we look to government to save us. We rebuild where we ought not. We rebuild better than what was there before, and someone else pays. But events and losses in Florida and California, where vulnerable coastlines are built up with mega mansions built on sand, are increasingly unsustainable. This will become clear in the days to come. Perhaps we will see a return to humility before the awesome power of nature, and live within its limits.; 1/14/25, 9:16 PM
Mason G said...: "The candidate was disqualified pending a new election..."

Why wasn't the candidate with the second most votes declared the winner? Running an ineligible candidate shouldn't result in a new election.

Try that argument ("My original return wasn't completed properly? Well, I'll just file a new one then. No harm, no foul.") when you file your taxes and see how far that gets you.; 1/14/25, 9:16 PM
Howard said...: DOGE *intern* Marc Andreeason on Hoover Institute Uncommon Knowledge; 1/14/25, 10:16 PM
wildswan said...: When I woke up this morning I saw the Answer in a flash. They can't fight wild fires very well because the Santa Ana keeps the planes down so they can;t spray water. HENCE they should spray water from the ground and the buildings as they do in Barstow, California. They have a mist effect you walk through when you come in to the Barstow mall from the desert so it's cool and moist inside the perimeter. Similarly they should have a sort of water net they deploy to spray water around the perimeter of a threatened town and into the air so the sparks are extinguished. Either they have an attachment they put on hydrants which rises at a right angle above the hydrant and then sprays water in every direction like a shower. or they have some of those hoses with a line of holes on them so the lawn is sprayed with 15 jets at once. And they form grids of these hoses and put them in place when they see the fire is coming and spray down the perimeter of the town when the planes can't get up to dump water.
It just seems ridiculous to listen to the Blueblather about how fire engines can't put out wild fires and planes can't get up in the sky to dump water on wild fires so - what can you do when a town is threatened by a wild fire? Go to Ghana, there's nothing to do at home? I say, you have to spray up the water from the ground and the buildings the way they do in Barstow and wet the whole town down.
Also, you could try to do some competent thing - like practicing to meet the situation of town vs. wild fire rather than convening a committee to make a report after a terrible disaster. Why is a committee needed? Why don't the various chiefs - fire, water, power - already know what's needed? Why can't they just tell the Governor what they now see must be done? Why doesn't he fire everyone who can't explain in a few sentences what went wrong in their sector? and keep it up till he reaches the one who can explain.; 1/14/25, 10:20 PM
Mason G said...: "Why doesn't he fire everyone who can't explain in a few sentences what went wrong in their sector? and keep it up till he reaches the one who can explain."

Good luck with that. Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley: "We don’t control the water supply. Our firefighters are there to protect lives and property and to make sure that we’re properly trained and equipped. That’s my position on this. So if there’s no water, I don’t know how the water gets to the hydrants."

"I don’t know how the water gets to the hydrants."; 1/14/25, 10:35 PM
reader said...: In talking with my husband i realized that I can sound a little heartless when talking about the fires...I welcome Red Cross, United Way, private donations, but I am on the fence about federal bailouts.

I grew up in California. My dad and our neighbor used to go out and help firefighters in LA county in our neighborhood during the 1960's. Was that before lawsuits or before public sectors unions???? I'm not sure. Now you're not allowed to. If my dad didn't go help he was on our roof with a hose watering down our roof. Some fires they (dad and neighbor took us (my sister and I) to watch the fireman fight the fires).

A volcano in Florida is an unexpected natural disaster. A blizzard in LA county is an unexpected natural disaster. A wildfire in LA....not at all unexpected.

I sat with neighbors during the Cedar Fire. We were laughing because newscasters kept worrying about it hitting rancho santa fe....except it had to go through our middle class neighborhood to get there. They weren't talking about us.

During the Witch Creek fire San Diego had national guard out in what seemed like 24 hours (good job!) but was LA paying attention? No. It took a lot of time for San Diego to get the military to help fight the fire. Lots of retrospective on that. They needed waivers cuz it was windy and dangerous. Welp, it seemed like LA didn't learn from that because it was days before the military was helping with precision drops of sea water on the fire.

Free daycare, DEI, support for people here illegally sounds nice. Paying for utilities and clearing brush doesn't sound nice. But which is more important? A well funded fire department in California should be a no brainer.

Every time we have a red flag in San Diego we hear helicopters overhead to spot smoke. Did that happen in LA?

At some point people have to be held accountable for the choices they make. It's like raising a child, they aren't going to learn if they don't have to face the repercussion of their choices. Voters in California have made a lot of choices.

And the talk by Newsome about waiving environmental rules after the fire....Hmmm. If they aren't important enough to be enforced in an emergency are they actually necessary? Don't waive them, get rid of them.; 1/15/25, 12:17 AM
Kate said...: Feels like 12 below is cold. January, no matter where you live in the northern hemisphere, is crap. Stay cozy this month, Althouse.; 1/15/25, 12:31 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Leftist buzzword to watch for: Polycrisis

“A polycrisis is a complex situation where multiple, interconnected crises converge and amplify each other, making them difficult to manage or resolve. The term was coined by French theorist Edgar Morin in his 1993 book Terre-Patrie. It gained popularity in 2022 and was a prominent theme at the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos.”; 1/15/25, 1:58 AM
wendybar said...: Here's a good article about Bob Dylan and his influence on "The vocalist of the band Aquarium, Boris Grebenshchikov is considered the founder of Soviet and Russian rock, the towering figure of the genre. Aquarium was formed in 1972 by two teenage college students in Leningrad. At the time, underground Soviet bands either covered Western artists or — at most — imitated them. Grebenshchikov figured out how to write Russian lyrics and started a cultural revolution."
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/01/bob-dylans-cold-war/; 1/15/25, 2:57 AM
wendybar said...: It's pathetic that the left let this happen. They let this man free, in front of the world, which is laughing at us because of it. How do you let a pathetic old liar get away with everything, and destroy America as much as he can on the way out?? Because you WANT him to. This is all on the Progressive party. They own the mess they have made of America. Remember that when they start blaming Trump for all the destruction in 6 days.

RNC Research

@RNCResearch
·
Follow
Biden has no idea where he is or what he's doing as he signs a new national monument into law: "I gotta fill this in?"

Fewer than six days until this disgraceful chapter in American history mercifully comes to an end.

https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1879325278008431098; 1/15/25, 3:53 AM
planetgeo said...: Here's some free consulting to the magical thinking children currently running California:

1. Don't allow building in chaparral covered hills.
2. If you do allow building in such places, they are no longer pristine woodlands so you'll have to groom and manage such areas regularly to create fire breaks and minimize tinder.
3. Any buildings you do allow in such areas should not have flammable roofs and siding, the #1 cause of entire neighborhoods being incinerated.
4. Build rain-runoff capture reservoirs in such areas solely for firefighting.
5. Outlaw the Democrat Party as unfit to make common sense, adult choices of priorities in the use of the People's money.

You're welcome. That should take care of quite a few problems besides the annual wildfire games.; 1/15/25, 4:57 AM
Enigma said...: LA depends heavily on imported water. This comes from the California Aqueduct, Owens Valley, and the Colorado River/Lake Mathews. This system was set up long, long ago, and the current residents muddle along because they refuse to take decisive action to account for decades of growth. The most obvious path is likely be seawater desalination, but they want to stop future growth and try to work with what they have. And what they have is deficient.

Have your cake and eat it too.

Hollywood movies are nothing but dreams and fantasies. California's self-management is nothing but dreams and fantasies.; 1/15/25, 5:01 AM
Enigma said...: Translated into decades:

1. Don't rashly develop a region without any local water supply (100 years ago)
2. Don't plant non-native species that use tons of water (100 years ago)
3. Don't landscape with non-desert plants (100 years ago)
4. Don't suddenly change land management when the Democratic Party and utopian environmentalist come to power (30 to 40 years ago), whereby native species and land rules block effective fire control.

On Earth Day 1970 Californians buried a car to symbolize the rise of environmentalism. They then dug it up and crushed it...act first, think later...

https://www.fallschurchindependent.com/earth-day-a-story-buried-and-exhumed/; 1/15/25, 5:11 AM
Breezy said...: Even now, after all we’ve seen wrt the lack of attention to mitigating risk of wildfires in LA, the left is balking at any condition-based support from the federal govt. They think they should get the support with no shaming consequence. Children.

What’s happening in the rest of CA even now this minute to get their acts together on this front. Anything? No, the focus is to allocate $50 mil to counter Trump in the state. Insane children.; 1/15/25, 5:24 AM
Dave Begley said...: Yesterday I appeared on behalf of a group of landowners in southern Lancaster County who are opposed to a $600m and 2,240 acre industrial solar farm. We will probably lose at the county board level, but I feel good about winning at the district court level.; 1/15/25, 5:27 AM
Jaq said...: TL;DR: While there are currently three methods that are proven to achieve cold fusion; none of them produce more energy than it takes to run them BUT, if you ran them in combination, theoretically, you could achieve a net gain in energy.; 1/15/25, 5:48 AM
Captain BillieBob said...: The democrats have revealed the playbook for the hearings. Republicans take note.; 1/15/25, 6:15 AM
Enigma said...: Yep. Keystone Kops get big mad and make fools of themselves. Send out Mazie Hirono and Elizabeth Warren as the Party's front-line attackers. Please, please send them out to speak first.

Hank Johnson, we need an updated analysis of the overpopulation issues of Guam. AOC, please open your mouth and say anything.; 1/15/25, 6:50 AM
jaydub said...: I was in San Diego Country Estates near Ramona visiting my daughter in 2003 when the Cedar Fire started to the Northeast of Ramona. As events transpired it burned right around my daughter's development and down Wildcat Canyon Rd through the Barona Reservation. We got out of the neighborhood just before the fire and made the fateful decision to head to Ramona rather than go through the reservation where around 10 people IIRC died in their cars as the fire enveloped the road. The houses in my daughter's development were on bigger lots (because everyone had horses) and the houses were at least moderately fire safe (no shake shingles, mostly adobe, etc.) and there were lots of fire breaks from the numerous horse trails that ran throughout the development. As a result, the fire only burned a couple of houses on the edge of SDCE as it burned completely around and past the development. It took us two days to find the horses where the animal rescue volunteers took them (it was standard procedure anytime a fire started in the San Diego back country - people with horse trailers would seemingly drop out of sky and take the horses of those who didn't have trailers.) That fire did considerable damage in other developments such as Scripps Ranch where houses were packed tighter and constructed and landscaped differently. Regardless, during the 25 years I lived in San Diego (left in 1996,) wildfires were just a fact of life and people responded to them differently than appeared to be the case in LA. Of course that was long before CA went completely woke and the environmental idiots took over.; 1/15/25, 7:06 AM
typingtalker said...: A lot of depth (as in depth-of-field) in that picture. Very effective and quite nice.; 1/15/25, 7:09 AM
Christopher B said...: I haven't researched the disqualification since I was more interested in what Powerline was posting about what happened afterwards. My supposition is that MN law requires it. The folks who gerrymander those seats aren't going to want to take a chance on the wrong party being seated due to a technicality.; 1/15/25, 7:51 AM
wendybar said...: Scott Adams
@ScottAdamsSays
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1h
I have bad news.

Those were their smartest members.
Quote
Scott Jennings
@ScottJenningsKY
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20h
They didn't lay a glove on Hegseth today. Why do Dems send their dumbest members to this important committee?; 1/15/25, 8:55 AM
wendybar said...: Tim Young
@TimRunsHisMouth
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15h
Democrats were more upset at Pete Hegseth drinking at a Christmas party then they were at Democrat staffers filming gay p*rn in the Capitol.; 1/15/25, 9:12 AM