New England Met Autumn 2023 Banter

[Layman]

26 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Draft problems are usually caused by height issues with the chimney pipe, There's a rule of thumb for how high up and how many feet away from the peak to draft properly to prevent downdrafts.

My installation is up the side of the house so we followed the 10-3-2 rule at the roof.  Easily have 6-9' above the eave and all clearances covered.  For some reason, temps at 40ish and above make it really hard to start the stove.  I have an annual tradition of smoking the place out the first lighting of every season 

[eekuasepinniW]

Could be some pretty intense aurora action tomorrow or Friday night.

Or it could be underwhelming like roughly every solar storm in the last 20 years.

[HoarfrostHubb]

2 minutes ago, eekuasepinniW said:

Could be some pretty intense aurora action tomorrow or Friday night.

Or it could be underwhelming like roughly every solar storm in the last 20 years.

Good luck with forecasting those.   

[ORH_wxman]

14 minutes ago, eekuasepinniW said:

Could be some pretty intense aurora action tomorrow or Friday night.

Or it could be underwhelming like roughly every solar storm in the last 20 years.

I miss the 2003 and 2006 days of yore. Took them for granted back then. 

[DavisStraight]

4 hours ago, Layman said:

My installation is up the side of the house so we followed the 10-3-2 rule at the roof.  Easily have 6-9' above the eave and all clearances covered.  For some reason, temps at 40ish and above make it really hard to start the stove.  I have an annual tradition of smoking the place out the first lighting of every season 

Should be drafting really good right now. 

[radarman]

Back to QC for a second... tell me the NOWdata high temps for all the coop sites in SNE isn't 10 degrees too high across the board yesterday (11/28).  It's weird.

[snowman21]

27 minutes ago, radarman said:

Back to QC for a second... tell me the NOWdata high temps for all the coop sites in SNE isn't 10 degrees too high across the board yesterday (11/28).  It's weird.

Could be a time of observation issue.

[OceanStWx]

On 11/28/2023 at 4:06 PM, ORH_wxman said:

The empirical evidence for ORH running too warm is overwhelming. I’m not sure how you can look at data for more than a few minutes and conclude otherwise. Even if you do not trust MADIS, just compare sthe ORH monthly departures to other first order climate stations in SNE and you’ll see consistently that ORH runs warmer. They are also consistently warmer than just about every single mesonet site at similar elevation near them. I’ve looked at this extensively since discovering the issue. 

 

Here’s the MADIS graph on a longer timeline. Pretty obvious step change in 2020 that also aligns with ORH’s divergence from other first order sites on monthly departure  

Sometimes these biases can be legit, if there has been some kind of use change near the ASOS/AWOS. I remember several years back CON had started running warm, and we found out that they had ditched grass in favor of rocks around the ASOS to make landscaping easier. I think we ended up putting astroturf down.

[OceanStWx]

3 hours ago, eekuasepinniW said:

Could be some pretty intense aurora action tomorrow or Friday night.

Or it could be underwhelming like roughly every solar storm in the last 20 years.

Friday night looks great.

[alex]

8 hours ago, eekuasepinniW said:

Could be some pretty intense aurora action tomorrow or Friday night.

Or it could be underwhelming like roughly every solar storm in the last 20 years.

Saw a good one in Iceland. There it’s almost a nightly event, but just like it here, it’s cloudy A LOT

[ORH_wxman]

6 hours ago, OceanStWx said:

Sometimes these biases can be legit, if there has been some kind of use change near the ASOS/AWOS. I remember several years back CON had started running warm, and we found out that they had ditched grass in favor of rocks around the ASOS to make landscaping easier. I think we ended up putting astroturf down.

Yeah and I think many years ago a similar thing happened at SEA…they laid a new runway down and it really messed with the temps. I’m not aware of anything weird with the ORH ASOS though since 2020. I know they did move it from one part of the airport to another at one point in the past 10-15 years but that was well before 2020 IIRC. 

[tamarack]

16 hours ago, dryslot said:

Draft problems are usually caused by height issues with the chimney pipe, There's a rule of thumb for how high up and how many feet away from the peak to draft properly to prevent downdrafts.

That's true for "chronic" back puffs.  However, certain wx can cause them even with the proper height.  At our first house in Fort Kent, a small (18'x20') 2-story with 12/12 roof, we had a Jotul 602 - their smallest stove at the time - hooked to the center chimney.  It furnished for temps down to about -20F, below which we fired up the leaky* old $20 parlor stove in the basement.  The Jotul's thimble was about 25' below the chimney's top and back puffs were uncommon but always came from the same conditions, a windy CF following a mild day.  I think the 70' tall balsam poplars just NW from the house would create turbulence, downdrafts in their lee that were strong enough to reverse the smoke for a second or 2.

* I referred to it as being as tight as a lobster trap.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

Anyone here use Plymouth Rock assurance for auto insurance?

Our policy with Geico just sky rocketed for no reason and I’m shopping quotes.

they beat everyone else, what’s the catch?

[DavisStraight]

8 hours ago, tamarack said:

That's true for "chronic" back puffs.  However, certain wx can cause them even with the proper height.  At our first house in Fort Kent, a small (18'x20') 2-story with 12/12 roof, we had a Jotul 602 - their smallest stove at the time - hooked to the center chimney.  It furnished for temps down to about -20F, below which we fired up the leaky* old $20 parlor stove in the basement.  The Jotul's thimble was about 25' below the chimney's top and back puffs were uncommon but always came from the same conditions, a windy CF following a mild day.  I think the 70' tall balsam poplars just NW from the house would create turbulence, downdrafts in their lee that were strong enough to reverse the smoke for a second or 2.

* I referred to it as being as tight as a lobster trap.

Wind can cause wreak all kinds of havoc with a wood stove. It all depends on the direction and your setup and no two are usually alike.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

1 hour ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Anyone here use Plymouth Rock assurance for auto insurance?

Our policy with Geico just sky rocketed for no reason and I’m shopping quotes.

they beat everyone else, what’s the catch?

Signed up for a policy starting tomorrow. Much better price than Geico for comparable coverage.

 

[Layman]

13 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Signed up for a policy starting tomorrow. Much better price than Geico for comparable coverage.

 

Interesting to know that Plymouth Rock is less than Geico.  We use Geico for personal policies and Liberty Mutual for commercial.  Both increased significantly this year.  Personal was the addition of a new driver and kind of made sense.  Commercial policy sent a "warning" notice saying "FYI, your policy is going to increase by more than 25% at renewal".  It did too - by about 45%. 

From what I've seen after investigating why my policies were going up so much, there are apparently three major reasons why insurance companies are hiking rates:  1) Inflation - costs of repairs are up significantly, 2) EV's - more on the road getting damaged or needing battery replacements which are extremely expensive, 3) Large pool of uninsured drivers claimed to be due to significant immigration.

Whether any of that is true or not, I'm not 100% sure, but on the surface it makes sense.  

[alex]

15 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Anyone here use Plymouth Rock assurance for auto insurance?

Our policy with Geico just sky rocketed for no reason and I’m shopping quotes.

they beat everyone else, what’s the catch?

I had the same experience with Geico. Started with a great rate, then a year later it exploded for no reason 

[radarman]

FWIW my wife hit a deer and totaled her car a couple years ago and Plymouth Rock was fine.  No issues, cut a check for the full value promptly, and gave her a good price.  Granted the situation was pretty cut and dry, what with the fur still embedded in the vehicle and whatnot.   Maybe more murkier situations of who's at fault are where the differences between companies show up?

[monadnocks]

My experience with Amica has been terrific for years. I'd definitely look at their options. They're probably not the cheapest but they definitely do well on the customer service / details to claims. I recently had an auto claim - someone backed into the side of my car in a parking lot and Amica handled it well.

 

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

2 hours ago, Layman said:

Interesting to know that Plymouth Rock is less than Geico.  We use Geico for personal policies and Liberty Mutual for commercial.  Both increased significantly this year.  Personal was the addition of a new driver and kind of made sense.  Commercial policy sent a "warning" notice saying "FYI, your policy is going to increase by more than 25% at renewal".  It did too - by about 45%. 

From what I've seen after investigating why my policies were going up so much, there are apparently three major reasons why insurance companies are hiking rates:  1) Inflation - costs of repairs are up significantly, 2) EV's - more on the road getting damaged or needing battery replacements which are extremely expensive, 3) Large pool of uninsured drivers claimed to be due to significant immigration.

Whether any of that is true or not, I'm not 100% sure, but on the surface it makes sense.  

 

1 hour ago, alex said:

I had the same experience with Geico. Started with a great rate, then a year later it exploded for no reason 

My wife and I have both been with Geico since we started driving 14 years ago. We’ve both never gotten a ticket or had an at fault accident.

It was kind of a slap in the face honestly, considering we also have our home insurance through them.

Plymouth Rock may partially be lower because I’m a new customer, but whatever. I’ll see where it’s at next year. I’m saving about $500 for the year going through them as opposed to Geico.

[Lava Rock]

how about them pinecones this year, they're everywhere

[Chrisrotary12]

23 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

how about them pinecones this year, they're everywhere

Just did final leaf blow of year. The F’ng number of pine cones was intense. 

[JKEisMan]

Just experiencing amazing winter storm in Vienna, Austria. Over 30cm of snow (1 foot+) over the past day and even more in the west of Austria and Bavaria (1.5 foot+). Great for the Christmas spirit at the Christmas markets around town. I’m not sure of any corrrelation, but growing up I remember talking to relatives in Austria about snowstorms and then getting hit with snow 2-3 weeks later in Connecticut. Probably some wishful thinking and biased memories, but here’s hoping I bring some of this back to the states for later in December! Forecast is for more snow here later this week…

[CoastalWx]

On 11/30/2023 at 5:56 PM, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Anyone here use Plymouth Rock assurance for auto insurance?

Our policy with Geico just sky rocketed for no reason and I’m shopping quotes.

they beat everyone else, what’s the catch?

Just saw a comment about Geico on FB. Dude got his rates jacked up 55%!

[NorEastermass128]

38 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Just saw a comment about Geico on FB. Dude got his rates jacked up 55%!

That’s nothing. Last year Safety went from around just under $1100 for the year to over $2100. No claims, perfect 99 rating or whatever that metric is. My broker found me a different company and I ultimately paid $990 for the year (with better coverages!)

[DavisStraight]

8 minutes ago, NorEastermass128 said:

That’s nothing. Last year Safety went from around just under $1100 for the year to over $2100. No claims, perfect 99 rating or whatever that metric is. My broker found me a different company and I ultimately paid $990 for the year (with better coverages!)

Same thing happened to us, our agent found us a cheaper provider, don't remember the numbers but it was quite a bit, not sure what's going on with these insurance companies raising their rates so much.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

Just saw a comment about Geico on FB. Dude got his rates jacked up 55%!

 

29 minutes ago, NorEastermass128 said:

That’s nothing. Last year Safety went from around just under $1100 for the year to over $2100. No claims, perfect 99 rating or whatever that metric is. My broker found me a different company and I ultimately paid $990 for the year (with better coverages!)

It was insane. I shopped them and we ended up going with Plymouth Rock. It is going to save us about 500-700$ from Geico.

My guess is we’ll be shopping next year too, as it seems best rates are for new customers.

So far I like plymouth rock. Easy to sign up online. App is good to use and it was easy to access the cards to keep in the car.

[mreaves]

@weatherwizapparently in Ukraine spiders are considered good luck omens and some people use them to decorate their Christmas trees. I think this would look good in your place. 
 

[weatherwiz]

On 12/4/2023 at 11:18 PM, mreaves said:

@weatherwizapparently in Ukraine spiders are considered good luck omens and some people use them to decorate their Christmas trees. I think this would look good in your place. 
 

That tree would be set on fire immediately

[weatherwiz]

Going on a week and a half with COVID. Symptoms certainly aren't to the level they were last week but holy crap I am absolutely exhausted right now. That has to be related. I got no less sleep than usual but over the past hour I just got hit like a brick with exhaustion