Bring kids to bus stop this week, -26.this is the real temp. Happened twice this week and for 10 days it has not got above 4 for daytime high. Most days didn’t get above -5 for a high. After Monday it will start to warm up, finally.
We have had a foot of snow on the ground for three weeks as powder, that is rare. The pond ice is thicker than my drill bit of 8 inches, and we look to get at least 18 inches of snow this week from two storms. A real winter for once!
Maybe this is the way to get the koi out of the big pond, as cool as they are, they muck stuff up.
I'm in north Texas. Pretty sure the pond will freeze solid tonight and tomorrow. Will the channel and blue catfish die?
nah, all the fish will survive just fine, with the exception (maybe) of Threadfin Shad and a few CNBG. We get ice on the ponds/lakes for months at a time and the cats survive. A week or so is nothing to them.
The pond won't freeze solid, here with weeks of below freezing temps there is only 6" ice on the pond. Still a lot of liquid water beneath the surface.
While it's important how cold it gets, the most important factor to killing fish is how fast it gets there. When southern ponds were in the low 50's midweek last week, and drop to 35 in a few days, especially shallow ponds, expect coppernose bluegills and Florida bass to die. Even today, here at LL,2, the Swimming Pond still isn't frozen. We've been below freezing now since Wednesday, and that pond is still 80% open. It's 11 degrees and snowing here, on the way to single digits. Not supposed to be above freezing again until Thursday. For us, that's a long time.
I expect threadfin shad to die in all lakes as far south as San Antonio...even the biggest public lakes except power plant lakes. In private waters, I expect to see some of the biggest Florida bass die due to how cold it is getting...how fast. I expect to see coppernose bluegills die as well. When they get really cold, fast, they'll sink to the bottom, lay on their sides and slow down so much they quit breathing. Then, they die.
I also expect to see gizzard shad die in lakes where they are overcrowded, in shallow, muddy areas. All the rest of the fish should hunker down and be fine. Catfish will be okay, F1 bass, native bluegills, and native species will be fine. As soon as this event passes, I'd go take a look at your ponds and see what you can see.
We're right next to Lake Texoma, 90,000 acre lake with substantial depths. Threadfins will all die in that lake as well. Agencies need to be prepared to restock them next spring, if they can find them.
For our environment, this is about as harsh as it can get.
Teach a man to grow fish... He can teach to catch fish...
Thanks esshup. That's reassuring. I'll be busy full time keeping the birds and rescue pigs as warm as possible. 11 degrees now with low tomorrow of -1 degree F.
We're right next to Lake Texoma, 90,000 acre lake with substantial depths. Threadfins will all die in that lake as well. Agencies need to be prepared to restock them next spring, if they can find them.
For our environment, this is about as harsh as it can get.
Dang, I didn't think you could extirpate the threadfins on a BOW the size of Lake Texoma at that latitude!
A state agency (such as Texas entities) that has operations far to the south should still be able to get threadfins to restock in the spring. I am worried about the states where the species kill events extend past their southern borders. That may result in restocking situations that cannot easily be rectified.
A local lake has Gizzards in it. It's eutrophic, but has a max depth of 29', average of about 12'. Very few if any Gizzards die over the winter, at least there are very few that are floating in the Spring.
There will be a demand for shad and lmb along with cnbg soon. I am thinking some of our local suppliers will be making trips to Florida soon for these fish prior to the spawn.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Big pond officially froze over this morning. The closest part with the snow dust froze the night before last. Another 5" is forecasted for tonight, so the whole pond should be covered in snow tomorrow morning.
-2 when I woke up this morning, and right now it's a balmy 21 degrees.
Lovinliving said his heat pump had an error code this morning and wasn't working. Too cold outside to suck heat from it he said. AND he doesn't have an electric grid backup heat strip.....
I think plumbers will be super busy for the next month or so all over the south central USA.
The diesel shops around here are loaded with work right now. They said it would be two or three days before they could get mine inside to work on it.
I've owned this truck for 12 years and never had any cold weather trouble with it until now.
We have a Mitsubishi mini-split heat pump in Mrs. Augie's sun rooom. I shut it off three days ago. Main furnace is outdoor wood boiler with propane backup, so we're not in danger of freezing inside the house.
Can some of you guys from Texas explain to me why your power companies have to shut off power during this cold spell? I heard some windmills froze but it has to be more than that. I know schools and some businesses in North Dakota had their power turned off to help with the rolling blackouts in Texas. Do you guys rely on renewable energy too much and that’s what is causing this?
Can some of you guys from Texas explain to me why your power companies have to shut off power during this cold spell? I heard some windmills froze but it has to be more than that. I know schools and some businesses in North Dakota had their power turned off to help with the rolling blackouts in Texas. Do you guys rely on renewable energy too much and that’s what is causing this?
Unfortunately, Texas decided to go big time renewables with wind turbines in the western part of the state. Wind supplies 23 percent of electricity now, displacing reliable coal and nuclear generation. Of course, freezing rain, snow, and cold hammered both windmills and solar. To be fair, some gas turbines also shut down due to cold.
I blame climate change paranoia, frankly. Renewables have a long history of being expensive & unreliable, both in Europe and California. CO2 models predicted temps to keep on warming, especially in winter, so nobody thought much of what could happen if they didn't. Just my two cents.
There will be a demand for shad and lmb along with cnbg soon. I am thinking some of our local suppliers will be making trips to Florida soon for these fish prior to the spawn.
Tracy, speaking only for myself, I'd prefer BG and F1 or Northern LMB now. They can survive heat AND cold, unlike CNBG & Fla LMB. Might prefer GSH to TFS, too. If we are entering a cooling climate phase, GSH will overwinter.
I agree with Frank when it comes to wind turbines and solar power not being reliable when compared to our texas coal/natural gas-powered energy plants. Rolling outages occur all the time when using the politically correct means of energy. Our coal-fired plants were changed over or supplemented with a Natural gas combination 20+ years back and met with all the regulations. Plans are to shut down a couple of more of those types of plants in the next year or two. But after this disaster, there will be a few heads roll. And now we are going to hear more about climate change "roll eyes". This same type of weather i went through about 40 yrs ago so for me it is just cyclical and always has been. Look at who came up with climate change, it's the same guy that said he invented the internet, Once again follow the money.
Frank, I have been leaning toward golden shiners over Thread fins since my die-off last year. The problem is they have not made it either. But they did feed my lmb for a short time
Last edited by TGW1; 02/17/2106:42 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Can some of you guys from Texas explain to me why your power companies have to shut off power during this cold spell? I heard some windmills froze but it has to be more than that. I know schools and some businesses in North Dakota had their power turned off to help with the rolling blackouts in Texas. Do you guys rely on renewable energy too much and that’s what is causing this?
Many Fossil power plants underwent a conversion in their boilers to burn Natural Gas instead of Coal.
During extreme weather period such as now, the supply of Natural Gas is prioritized first to the home owner, and then second, or even third, to the power plants. If then don't have Natural Gas, then they can't create electricity.
It's also important for John & Jane Q. Public to understand that for whatever 'renewable' energy source (wind, solar) exists to provide power under a contract to a city/state, there has to be a 100% fossil back up for when there is no wind or sun. Otherwise, no city or state would ink a contract for power 'sometimes.' Well, maybe California....
edit: I see TGW and anthropic covered the Natural Gas/Coal issue.
Last edited by Sunil; 02/17/2108:14 AM.
Excerpt from Robert Crais' "The Monkey's Raincoat:" "She took another microscopic bite of her sandwich, then pushed it away. Maybe she absorbed nutrients from her surroundings."