# Out in sunny California, it was too cold for school, so they cancelled it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529 "2001-01-17T16:28:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/1 "2001-01-17T16:28:05Z")
It got down in the 20s, and they didn’t have enough e-lek-TRIS-sity to run the furnace, so they cancelled school. Hee. [POWER SHORTAGE SHUTS SOME CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS](http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,SAV-0101170201,FF.html) > [@](#): > > By Vincent J. Schodolski > Tribune Staff Writer > January 17, 2001 > LOS ANGELES – For the first time since the state’s energy crisis began, electricity shortages on Tuesday forced school closures after California authorities declared a Stage 3 power alert, the highest category. Officials said it marked the first time electricity had been ordered curtailed in Southern California since World War II. > > All six high schools in the Antelope Valley, in the upper elevations of the Mojave Desert north of Los Angeles, dismissed about 18,000 students just before noon, according to Linda Solcich, a spokeswoman for the district. Morning and evening temperatures in the area have been dropping to about 20 degrees. > > She said the district had contracted for an inexpensive electric supply with Edison and had agreed that in the case of a Stage 3 alert, it would discontinue the use of power or face a large increase in what they paid. > > “We pay just 8 cents a kilowatt hour,” she said. “But if we don’t shut down when told to, the price goes up to $9.30 an hour. The surcharges would be enormous.” Any Northern Tier Dopers out there, wanna join me in snickering rudely at the candy-ass Californians? Put on a _sweater,_ people, for heaven’s sake. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Turpentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Turpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/2 "2001-01-17T16:34:25Z")
Oh please- The TWENTIES? I’m only 23, but I’m old enough to do the curmudgeon thing, because when I lived in Illinois I used to walk to school EVERY DAY, even when it was twenty below. What a bunch of wussies. Then again, it IS relative. My friend who grew up in Fairbanks, AK would have laughed his ass off- He recounts tales of pushing his car out of ditch when it was 30 below. He tells us stories about freak cold snaps, the lowest he ever experienced was 70 below on prom night, when all the promers left their cars running for the duration of the event. And then the story about peeing out the window and watching it freeze. They never cancel school in Fairbanks, Alaska due to snow or cold. ---
**Author:** ![tiny\_ham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a183cd/32.png) [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/3 "2001-01-17T16:35:59Z")
[old woman mode] Now look, when I was a college student, I remember the Winter of '93 in Bowling Green, Ohio. By god, that wind brought the temperature down to 38 BELOW ZERO. Did we have classes cancelled? Hell no. Our college president told us ‘TO BUNDLE UP AND WALK QUICKLY’. And by god, we did it. My ear STILL hurts from that winter, but I’m a better person for it. Suck it up, you orange-eatin-sun-tan-havin-galleria-goin-electricity-suckin Californian’s. We’re laughin’ at ya here in the mid west. [/old woman mode] jarbaby ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/4 "2001-01-17T16:39:45Z")
Bear in mind that a great many buildings in California aren’t insulated… when my wife and I were living in Albany (next to Berkeley), she asked me what kind of insulation we had, and I said, air. The house also had jalousie windows in the kitchen and dining room (basically, glass venetian blinds for windows; you see them on older mobile homes). If the wind blew hard enough, we could have papers blow off the table with the windows closed. One year we had a 4-day cold snap in the Bay area, and PG&E said that people burned as much gas in those four days as they normally burned in a month. 20 degrees in California is really freaking cold, and they just aren’t prepared to deal with it. ---
**Author:** ![kuwatto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@kuwatto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kuwatto)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/5 "2001-01-17T17:02:02Z")
I grew up in Wyoming. Not once in the entire time I went to public school did they close school because of snow, but usually once or twice a year because of the cold. It would have to get down to at least -10 degrees for them to close school. Not very cold compared to Minnesota or Alaska but it is very windy in Wyoming and that -10 very easily becomes -60 or worse. ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/6 "2001-01-17T17:15:06Z")
“I’m only 23, but I’m old enough to do the curmudgeon thing, because when I lived in Illinois I used to walk to school EVERY DAY, even when it was twenty below.” Hmmm, you forgot something, the classrooms are at 20 too. Im sure your classrooms weren’t that cold…duh 🙂 Yes, folks, it gets in the 20s here & there isn’t enough electricity, well, there is, but they like to pretend there isn’t. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/7 "2001-01-17T17:38:43Z")
Yes, I too have walked to school in temperatures that froze my leather gloves stiff. But when I got to school the classrooms were warm. Even for the cold climate people, if it is 25 degrees are you willing to go sit in your front yard for six hours? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/8 "2001-01-17T18:29:53Z")
Canadian doper checking in - I originally opened this thread to have a good laugh at Californians, but I changed my mind. We’re about the same temperature as you today, sun-people, (around 0 C) but for us it’s another beautiful day in one of the mildest winters I remember. We’re used to cold here; we plan for it, we build for it, and we have nice thick winter skins. If this is new to you guys, you have my sympathy. Another reason I’m not laughing too hard is that Alberta gets most of it’s fresh produce from California. When you guys suffer, we suffer a couple of months later. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/9 "2001-01-17T18:36:11Z")
Yeah, I’m not going to laugh. They didn’t cancel school because of the cold, they cancelled it because of the electricity “shortage”. On the other hand, if any place out there _did_ cancel school today because of cold, please tell me so I may laugh. The high temperature here today was minus friggin’ 10 degrees Celsius, which is very cold for Oslo. Our only comfort is laughing at thin-blooded flatlanders. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![lno](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a8b319/32.png) [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/10 "2001-01-17T18:55:48Z")
Ok, first let me get some hysterical laughter out of my system. There. Oops, some more. Ok, I’m set. Candy-ass Californians. I leave my thermostat set at 60 degrees at home because that’s comfortable, and I leave the bedroom window open to let the fresh Minnesota air in. However, I shouldn’t judge. Once in high school (I think it was in 1993) the governor cancelled all classes across the state because it was cold. I mean COLD. The windchill was -93 F. Of course, I spent the day throwing cups of water outside and watching it freeze in the air and shatter on the ground … ---
**Author:** ![dublos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f08c70/32.png) [@dublos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dublos)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/11 "2001-01-17T19:07:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ethilrist \* > \*\*Bear in mind that a great many buildings in California aren’t insulated… when my wife and I were living in Albany (next to Berkeley), she asked me what kind of insulation we had, and I said, air. > \*\* Now this is something I really don’t understand. Is this true of new construction as well? I have always been under the impression that insulation will prevent cold from escaping during the summer, same as it would prevent warm from escaping during the winter. Or am I missing something thermodynamically here? -Doug ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/12 "2001-01-17T19:26:25Z")
And people wonder why I want_ **out** _ of California??? I _ **like** _ it cold! And wet! As it happens, I went to school in the Antelope Valley (Frank Zappa went to Antelope Valley High, our cross-town rivals, years and years before I attended Quartz Hill High). You can bet that the buildings are insulated. It gets plenty warm toward summer (over 100ºF) and I saw temperatures in the teens when I lived up there. The Antelope Valley is also situated on a slope that leads down to the famous dry lakes of Edwards AFB. That means wind coming off of the nearby mountains flows right down. (The mountains make a nifty venturi just east of Mojave. They’ve had 100+mph winds there.) So the reason the schools closed was not because it was cold. It was because of this manufactured “energy crisis”. But I’ll have to agree that Southern Californians can be candy-asses. I like my weather rough! OTOH: The people of the deserts, such as those in the A.V., face 110º or more on the hottest days of summer, teens or even single-digits in the winter, and winds all year 'round that often blow a steady 20 knots, gusting to 30, 40, 50 or more. A harsh environment. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Don](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e95f7d/32.png) [@Engineer\_Don](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Don)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/13 "2001-01-17T19:26:36Z")
Reality check. I know for a fact that the schools mentioned are on an “interuptable” rate. The rate was designed for large industrial customers who would not have a big problem dropping electrical load. The utility advised the school district was advised against going on the rate but because there hadn’t been an interuption for a long time, they were ignored. The schools save money for a few years, and then dereg happens and they get hammered. It is their own short sightedness that caused this. Insulation. Really old buildings (such as the Missions) in California, and there really aren’t that many, don’t have insultation. By code (Title 24) all buildings have insulation around the conditioned areas. My parents own a 75 year old beach house on Catalina that doesn’t have much insulation. There are old shacks in the mountains without much insulation. Everywhere else we have insulation. It ain’t that cold out here, honest. Don’t pitty us for our weather (anyone see the Rose Parade?), pitty us for the stupid power deregulation mess. It will get worse soon. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Don](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e95f7d/32.png) [@Engineer\_Don](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Don)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/14 "2001-01-17T19:28:34Z")
and our inability to spell pity correctly. Sorry. Pitty? I suppose you could describe olives or peaches that way. ---
**Author:** ![sk8rixtx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/858c86/32.png) [@sk8rixtx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sk8rixtx)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/15 "2001-01-17T19:43:14Z")
20 degrees. Hehehehe. Visit CT sometime. I’d really hate to be in New Hampshire or Maine right now. ---
**Author:** ![starfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/87869e/32.png) [@starfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starfish)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/16 "2001-01-17T21:20:33Z")
The schools weren’t closed because of the cold. They were closed because the School District was told their electric rate was going up 16%. Rather than pay it, they decided to close the schools. Are they going to keep them closed until March? Note that in the OP, the schools closed just before noon. They would only be open a few more hours anyway. They deliberately closed to get free publicity and, no doubt, annoy the parents into approving a tax increase for the schools. As far as the cold goes, keep in mind that these kids were dressed for sitting in a heated school, not for 20F weather. Note that even the un-candy-ass LNO keeps the house at 60F. ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/17 "2001-01-17T21:26:31Z")
I’m 33. I’ve lived in northern Michigan my whole life. If my school closed down every time it was cold outside, I’d still be in the sixth grade. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/18 "2001-01-17T22:16:45Z")
the first time I opened this thread and was sitting here reading it, my power went out. That’s the third time in the last 6 days. They keep _threatening_ to have rolling blackouts, but I’m actually living with them, even though they say they haven’t had to resort to them yet. It’s really starting to piss me off. ---
**Author:** ![shimmery](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@shimmery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shimmery)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/19 "2001-01-17T22:36:37Z")
So here in New Jersey, our school heat doesn’t get turned on until October 15… sometimes the weather stays warm, sometimes all the classrooms can be in the 40’s (or pretty near). Also our heating system is a little temperamental, so some classes are always pretty chilly. Our elementary school didn’t have a/c, and it usually gets into the 80’s before school ends :(. Fortunately we have it up in the h.s. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2001, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529/20 "2001-01-17T22:47:24Z")
First, where I live in California, it routinely is about freezing in the mornings in winter when it’s clear the night before. All of us knew that, and all of us had parkas or thick jackets to keep us warm (i used to go to school in a t-shirt and jeans when it was freezing, because i didnt care). At my bus stop we’d have to wait 30 minutes or so before the bus came, so it’s not like all Californians would be caught unprepared for 20 degree temps (San Diegans however…). Second, my school buildings were built in the 60’s on army land, and are just concrete. It’s downright freezing in them if the heat comes on (most would stay in their jackets until the classes warmed up). Third, if any of you jackasses 🙂 had read the article, the shutdown is to save money, not because the kids are freezing (with the way Californian schools are, they would have kept the kids otherwise). And besides, since they closed the schools around noon, the freezing temps would have lasted only til midmorning anyway. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-in-sunny-california-it-was-too-cold-for-school-so-they-cancelled-it/50529.md?page=2)