We got temps that dipped into 29 degrees by 1 AM. It stayed right there for another six hours until seven AM. Temps remained below freezing for another few hours until the sun rose high enough to reach into the canyon.
Cold weather is such a novelty to us, that I had to take photos.
We had a lot of rain fall in a 24 hour period. Then the sky cleared, the stars shone through like diamonds, and the night went deadly cold. The fresh water that had leaked into the car’s rubber gaskets froze into ice.
For the first time I ever recall, I had to defrost the car doors to open them… they were all frozen stuck. Not having ever had this happen to me I searched for solutions… and came up with using a propane torch…. I am sure a hair dry would have been safer… but the torch was easier to find. I just tried to make sure I didn’t really heat things like I’d usually do, but just warm them a bit to melt the ice gently without melting rubber.
It worked, in a couple of minutes the door opened. The locks would not work, all the mechanisms were stuck, but five minutes of idling defrosted the windshield of the thick coat of ice and made the car drivable.
The photos show one of our cats, Lizbeth sleeping in the cat condo on the porch. One shows the odd ice pattern in the windshield. One shows the torch melting the ice, and one shows ice in the cupped leaf of a robusta cactus.
