Great catch! We’ve been keeping taps dripping and keeping cabinets open to heat the pipes and we’ve been lucky so far. My next door neighbors not so much! Their pipes burst at a T junction and their whole basement has a drippy frozen icicle down in it!
Luckily our biggest issue so far (knock on wood) is trying to keep some humidity up while my leo sheds , the bitter cold plus the heating is making things super dry here.
Good luck everyone and merry christmas eve!
Sorry to hear about your neighbors basement. Nobody needs that stress this close to Christmas.
We had a power outage at around 1AM the other night, and I was absolutely terrified when i woke up, as it had gotten to 30F according to the weather (which is insane for the Phoenix area!) Thankfully it was for only around 30-40 minutes, and my room is rather warm, so all the snakes are fine. But man, I’ve been obsessing over prepping for proper emergencies since, and I’ve found this post just in time!
Yeah its certainly awful for those of us in the midwest or even for those friends further north, but I can’t imagine what it must be like for y’all in the south/south-west! At least us midwesterners are used to cold winters (although -20 is a bit much), you all in the southern US must be feeling super cold right now since its unusual!
I’m from northern Pennsylvania, so relatively unphased by cold and winter weather in general, just more distressed by the abysmal infrastructure, preparation and emergency response down here. I can be prepared for cold weather, but apparently the state of Texas cannot
My thoughts exactly. Amd we usually dont have these temps until February in our neck of the Texas woods.
Just hit 31 in south Florida at 3 am 
. I am really worried about my mango trees and my orchids.
I don’t know if it’s the massive weather shifts or what, but this storm has given me an amazing Christmas gift: one of my two non-feeder hatchlings from this season finally ate unassisted.
I do hope everyone is staying safe and warm. @lumpy I hope your trees & flowers make it through unharmed, that’s absolutely frigid for Florida. Hoping the warmer temps come soon!
Thank you, I think they will. We have had winters where the temp was 32 ish. Just covered with place at this point.
I feel kinda guilty that it’s currently 73F and sunny here in Santa Barbara, CA. It’s supposed to get up to 77 today. Yesterday was also beautiful and sunny. It’s supposed to rain most of next week (which is a good thing, we really need the rain), but we lucked out with spring/summer weather for the Christmas weekend. It has been chilly at night and in the early morning, but it hasn’t frozen. (Of course, this weather isn’t at all unusual here, it’s a big part of why cost of living is so high here, so take some solace in knowing that my rent is probably a lot higher than most of you, and for a much smaller home.)
I hope you all stay safe and warm! I know this is a really rough winter in most parts of the country. And @lumpy I hope your mango tree makes it! We had a banana tree when I was a kid, and it was doing great and producing fruit for a while, until one year we had an unusually cold winter and it froze to death. 
Hopefully your tropical plants fare better!
And happy holidays everyone! I hope you all have an amazing holiday in spite of the weather.
Don’t feel guilty… I am envious though…LOL
Temps are supposed to climb steadily throughout the week and by Friday it’s supposed to be 51°f and rain.
Kind of a rollercoaster ride here in Ohio .
Ohio and life once again teaching me you are NEVER ALLOWED TO RELAX.
Today was a rainy 50, so we let our guard down. Then a car nearby hit an electric pole and took out the entire 3 block transformer breaker and we had a full power blackout. The cool humidity drew heat out of our old (1970s) house very quickly, and we lost 5 degrees in under an hour.
Luckily (?) I was running a fever today from my chronic pain condition, which made me the perfect heater for the boy to cuddle with for the two hours we were losing heat.
Also, mom came up with a great idea! Small tea candles in the oven don’t produce a ton of smoke, but around 6 of them can throw a good bit of heat, enough to warm a pot of water or some slate stones on the oven rack above the candles. We heated up a river stone for Gak and I this way, and we sat with a warm rock for a while lol.
After the power returned he got a rice bag heated, and he seemed perfectly content and worn out from exploring the sofa when his fever heater got too warm for him.
Just a reminder that life will kick ya in the rear if you take too big a sigh of relief for dodging the worst of the storm 
kinda thread necromancy here to remind people that it is AUTUMN in the North half of the globe, so Southern-hemisphereans get ready for summer heat, but the rest of us?
Time to check all your electronics and ensure you have backup plans! Time to make sure you have reptile heat packs, Check the Fire/CO monitors and fresh up the batteries, check the fuel for that generator and be sure it runs, check your plans for power outages (and be sure you have heat solutions, potable water, food, and temporary human waste management for yourselves in place!)
I’m going through this thread again to be sure I am ready for Snow Season and the lousy power grid around here.
Another reason why Pittsburgh is great. No power grid issues ever
I had cold chills when I read this, Logan. I hope you didn’t hex yourself. Never say never…
The reason I am so confident about that is Pittsburgh used to produce TONS of steel which required a lot of power. However the power production never decreased after the steel mills shut down which even now leaves us with way more energy than is needed (I think well over twice from what I remember). But with my luck anything is possible
