Schools already closing
January 31st, 2007They’re absolutely paranoid about snow here in the South. It’s 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday night, and I just heard that the public schools here are closing tomorrow because of snow.
And how much has it snowed thus far?
Nary a flurry, folks. Nary a flurry.
I just looked outside, and there’s not a single flake of snow on the ground, with none coming down. But because they’re FORECASTING snow for tonight and tomorrow, people are already going berserk over it.
Amazing.
A friend of mine lives at Edwards Air force base says they got berserk over RAIN! HAHAHA I think they get 12 inches a year in 2 days.
Meow
Oh, now Tim! It has snowed for quite a while here in town tonight. Numerous teeny, tiny flakes could be seen drifting down a few hours ago, and if you searched hard (with some lighting) at one point tonight you could see a few flakes on the asphalt!
Seriously, it is amazing. I just saw that schools are closed. It used not to be this way. I wonder if this is due to the increase lawsuits, etc.
Remember, Southern public schools are run by devout Baptists. If they weren’t devout, the schools would be open and they’d actually show up for church on Sunday.
I use to live in New York where it REALLY snows. I think is so funny how crazy people get when snow is in the forecast. At the store yesterday people were stocking up on food!!! I work at the CP Center, which is on the school system schedule, so I don’t even work today!
Right now, it’s a nice 72 degrees with a high of 80 coming this afternoon.
Hey Ray, want to come down sometime for a conference in the haven of a South Florida winter?
Oh yeah, and Tim, where’s my link?
I’d be glad to Klay!
Oh Tim please tell me you’re not one of those snickering yankees that love to tell sneer and tell everyone about “real snow.” In defense of us Southerners, what causes problems here is ice more than snow. I’ve lived in the Midwest and New England, so I know snow and I know this is nothing (we have like 2 inches here). But its ice that causes accidents (think schoolbuses on residential streets) and power outages. And cities in the South, for obvious reasons, do not have the equipment to handle roadways that cities in other areas do. Drivers are also less experienced and don’t necessarily have weather tires and stuff.
Color me a snickering yankee. It’s been snowing off and on all week here in Minneapolis, and the temperature this morning is a balmy -1. It’s supposed to get down to -25 over the weekend. Good ice fishing weather. The schools are all open, however.
All we got was a heavy dusting.
Oh, and Alex — I don’t have any problems with schools closing when the roads are legitimately hazardous, either with snow or ice. But I do think it’s silly to cancel school on only the threat of bad weather.
We have learned in Oklahoma to make no school decisions based on what the weathermen say. They are frequently wrong, but never in doubt.
The churches haven’t learned. They’ll make the decision to cancel on Friday night, based on a forecast that likely will not come to pass.
Here is the other crazy thing. In January, we had a lot of ice over the weekend, and the schools were closed the entire week following, even though there had not been any further precip. Now the schools have used up all their alloted snow days, and with three to four inches of snow overnight, they all had school–they don’t want to give up any more of their summer days.
Well I have to join Peter R. Being a lifelong Chicagoan, I do kind of snicker at this type of thing. It take at least 8 inches to close a school up here.
Alex has it right. Part of the problem here too is that the early run for the buses is in the dead of night, increasing the hazard. However, the schools usually do at least wait for the morning to make cancellation decisions.
Last night on the way to church I passed our snowplow.
I grew up here in Jackson. When I was a kid they almost NEVER closed the schools. I remember back in the early 70s we had an ice storm. Schools didn’t close but only 3 kids showed up to my class that day. Needless to say, they cancelled school and we all went home.
This reminds me of when I was younger. A similar thing happened and schools and many businesses closed due to the forecasting of sleet and snow. Not only did it do practically nothing the next day, but by the afternoon we were outside in near 50 degree weather playing baseball!
Chicago also uses millions of tons of salt and deicer also! Its usually about 1 inch of salt before the snow even starts.
Looks like it’s the same thing tonight. It’s 8:30, and the public schools have already closed for tomorrow. If you look really hard, you can see a tiny bit of snow on the ground — and none at all on the roads.
I heard an ‘expert’ on the earlier news discussing what people need to know about driving in winter weather. He made two points.
In order to drive well inwinter weather you need to:
1. know if you have antilock brakes
2. Learn how to drive in winter weather
Wow! That was informative!