I grew up in the midwest in the late 70’s - early 80’s, and snowstorms weren’t uncommon. It was uncommon for school to be cancelled because of snow. I remember going to school with 8 inches (or more) of snow on the ground.
Now, I live in central Virginia. Snow tends to freak people out here. Last night on the news, they were forecasting about 4 inches of snow today. And sure enough, even before they forecast was over, they announced that all of the school in the area would be closed today.
I’m sure some of it has to do with liability issues, but it seems strange that they would go to such extremes as to cancel school just at the mention of snow. I can think of a few examples in the past where there was snow in the forecast, and all of the schools cancelled classes, and then the snow missed us.
What is your experience when it comes to snow and school cancellations? Did you school cancel if snow was in the forecast, or did they wait until it actually snowed?
They always waited until there was actual snow. I remember once being sent home right at the height of a storm. It was so thoughtful that they put all of the kiddies on buses right when the storm was at its worst.
But we were tough western New Yorkers. We could deal.
I talked to a friend in Seattle the day after their big storm. She was shocked that they got a whole 3 inches. It paralyzed that city. When I told her that a few years ago we got 30 inches in less than 24 hours, she couldn’t believe it. It sucked, but we survived.
It’s all in what your city is prepared for. If Virginia cancelled school, Virginia can’t handle what’s coming.
I recently found the webpage where our local news service announces delays and cancellations. We got three inches of fresh snow on top of old, unmelted ice overnight. There are no delays or closings for the area.
This is the midwest, though. We’re used to it and have the infrastructure to deal with it. Does Virginia, like Seattle, not really have salt trucks and snowplows?
Many southern states don’t, and people around are often so unused to snow they don’t really handle it well. They might get only one snow a year, and sometimes not even that.
Looks over your post carefully…
Wait, does Seattle, a city known for storms and barely a stone’s throw from the Great White North, really not have snow equipment?
I don’t think they have a lot of snow plows in this city. I live on a fairly major street and it took them three days to plow it when we had a storm last year. They just go crazy here. A few weeks ago, they started putting tons of sand on the various bridges with no rain or snow in the forecast. Crazy, I say.
School superintendents here in the winter are up at 4 a.m. consulting with the weather service. They have to make a call whether to delay or cancel school by 6 a.m. Kids turn on the news and watch the school delays/cancellations scroll by and sometimes a delay turns into a cancellation, yay! My old high school later had a principal who NEVER cancelled because of bad weather, and after a tsunami of outrage (over being one of 3 schools out of over 50 that stayed open) - he heard the music and danced. Same with another school whose principal was from Alaska and considered 3 feet of snow in 24 hours a mere sparkling dusting on the toes. Idiot.
It’s not due to “liability issues,” it’s due to the fact that if the snow is scheduled to hit mid morning, it’s a huge pain (and dangerous) to send everyone home early once the storm hits. Better to cancel once in awhile. I would think that forecasts might be getting more accurate too, (although no one has this impression) so if they say it’s going to snow, that’s a more reliable prediction than it might have been 20 years ago.
It is true that some cities, like Seattle, are not prepared to deal with snow. Little equipment (although they have some of course), drivers don’t generally have snow tires, lots of hills, and we seem to get a lot of ice.
I live in NC and this preemptive school closing annoys me to no end. At least once or twice in the past few years school has been cancelled for a storm that never materialized. The forecasting for this area downright sucks when it comes to the line between ice and rain, so why they would ever cancel the day before is beyond me.
Growing up in upstate NY that never happened. You found out in the morning if you had school or not and at least once the bus was turned around on the way to school.
What Virginia, and other areas near DC has, is a massive amount of traffic. I live 20 miles from work, it takes 30 minutes if I leave early enough. Otherwise it can easily take an hour. Throw in show and it can take hours. I’ve had times where it takes 2-3 hours to go that far. A couple of years ago it took some people 10+ hours to get home.
I think it’s kind of odd too, but seeing that kind of stuff I can understand why they would do it.
Plowing, salting, sanding, and other road maintenance availability are a key concern. I grew up in the snow belt, and we’d often still have school when there was plenty of snow - plows were plentiful. The risk associated with driving buses on ice is a different concern.
I’m on the Mason-Dixon line now… and they’re just not equipped to handle it. Back in 2005 or 2006 (I think) a big blizzard hit the Maryland area. I thought it was fine to drive out of it, without realizing how inadequate the available resources are. It took a few more days to get back to NYC because the roads were impassible.
But hell, NYC can’t handle heat-waves (brownouts and such), so y’know, pick your spot and accept its shortcomings.
I am in Virginia too, and was stunned this morning when they announced school cancellations. It had not even started to snow, and the weatherman had just finished stating “This is **not **going to be a major snow event, or even a medium one. We are expected about 1-2 inches of ground cover”
Weird.
I do remember one time in high school (in RI) when the weatherpeople were hyping this big snowstorm we were going to get. Snow! Snow! Snow! was all they talked about for days. The day of the storm came, and as often happens when you’re right by the ocean, the temp shifted just a bit warmer than expected, and we got rain. They cancelled school anyway. :smack:
Most schools have days built into the schedule for ‘snow days’ and have no problem using them. It’s easier a lot of times to know school is canceled even if there’s only a threat of bad weather.
I live in St. Louis. We got something like an eighth of an inch of ice last night, if that, and my entire school district is closed. Luckily the kids go to a private daycare and preschool, so they were open, but they were still operating on a delayed schedule.
It drives me nuts to think, though, that when they’re old enough to be in public school that the moment someone says the word “ice” or “snow” the entire district will automatically shut down. Then again, half the district is in the boonies, so I guess it’s a liability and access issue for buses.
I remember one snowy day when I was ten. For three hours my sister and I were stuck in a traffic jam listening to the radio, praying that our school would be included in the list of closures.
It never was, and I missed the class Christmas play
I agree that it’s all about infrastructure. In Minnesota I don’t think I ever had a snow day, but in NC snow isn’t common enough to justify the expense of lots of plows and such, so we can’t make the secondary roads safe during snow. Also NC seems to tend toward icing as much as snow.
Could my kid have gotten safely to school today? Most likely. But you never know. Five years ago less than an inch of snow trapped people on the roads for as much as eight hours. I don’t mind officials erring on the side of caution when the results of snow can be so unpredictable.
Of course I’m not looking forward to the Saturday make-up day though.
In Ohio the governor just passed a law reducing “calamity days” from 5 to 3. If you use up your calamity days you have to start making them up.
Well, weather in Cleveland and the rest of the snow belt is much fucking different than the weather in Cincinnatti, and most of the schools up here have already used up their calamity days in the past two weeks.
We’ve got about 30" on the ground right now, which is fine - AFTER it snows and there’s a chance to clean up the roads. But we had a few days of constant snow, and early-morning snow and it was just too risky to get to school at those times.
I remember one glorious January where we’d had holidays on a Monday and Friday, and exams scheduled for the 3 days inbetween. It snowed like crazy on those 3 days and we got the ENTIRE week off, plus 3 days of exams the next week. It was legen…dary.
I grew up in Kentucky. They didn’t HAVE many plows. Bus drivers didn’t know how to drive the bus with even a dusting of snow (and even a dusting of snow can be slippery). Chances are good, any snow that lands will be gone in twelve hours - you might have to wait a little longer. And its only going to happen two or three times a year - might as well have snow days.
In Minnesota, the state would have to shut down for four months if we didn’t figure out how to drive on snow. We have a lot of plows - not quite enough to dig out completely from 20 inches on Saturday for all the schools to be open Monday - but the suburban schools - where we don’t have to move cars to plow streets so school buses can get through - were generally open by Monday morning.
I also wonder, if it is in fact true that school gets canceled earlier than “back in the day” if it has to do with a higher percentage of two-income households? A lot of parents will have to make plans around the kids being home before they leave for work.
