No Shit: Frozen Toilet Tanks Are Exploding In Minnesota

Ok, you get it by now.. it’s chilly out. In Chicago, it’s colder than Antarctica & Alaska as temps get below -20 degrees (with wind chills making it feel more like -50s) & places across the midwest are even colder. Snow squalls have been causing major car pileups on the highways, firemen are getting covered in layers of frost as they hose down fires, and now we’ve got exploding toilets.

I’m not a big science, home construction, or logic lady so I have to wonder if this is real, & if so, how the hell it happened in the first place. I know that pipes can freeze, but in a house with the heat on how could a whole tank do that? And I know ice expands & that’s what shattered the tank, but if people are living there how did they not notice anything weird?… like bodily functions not flushing. I have to assume this was an empty house with the heat off? (If I’m wrong please toiletsplain in the comments.)

Outside of tanks, we also have bowl water icing up in Saskatchewan:

And an issue I’d never heard of until now. I knew they had to de-ice plane wings sometimes but this was new to me:

As was the term “frost quakes”:

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This is all making me feel lucky to be in Atlanta this week where it’s hoodie weather, the sun is shining, and the toilets are not exploding.

Shout out to any first responder out there helping people through it, & anyone working outside. I’m sure you’re at the point now where if one more person tells you to “stay warm out there! ha ha!” you’re going to explode as well. God speed.

Oh, and one more thing, love that Eddie from he Chicago office is going around offering people warm-up rides in his car, even for smokers.