School & Snow

Last week, the school was closed all week.
This wee, school was only open for 2 days.
2 Days in 2 weeks.
And the poor kids had already tripled the allotted day off due to weather.
Before this last round cancellations due to weather, they had extended school well into June.
If this keeps up, the poor kids MIGHT get a week off for summer vacation.
Snow isn't so much the problem although today it is snowing and blowing and drifting.
It's the rain before the arctic air blasts hit.
I looked out the window last night. It was raining and the wind was picking up.
About an hour and a half later, I looked out again.
The standing water had frozen so fast that the ripples in the standing water created by the wind froze that way. It was unique to see, but it's not a welcome sight.
They plowed the parking lot and snow blowed the sidewalks.
Couple hours later and you can't even tell it.
Light snow all day coming down almost horizontal.
Sure glad last weekend warmed up a bit for Mom's Funeral.

Woody's Workshop said:

Last week, the school was closed all week.
This wee, school was only open for 2 days.
2 Days in 2 weeks.
And the poor kids had already tripled the allotted day off due to weather.
Before this last round cancellations due to weather, they had extended school well into June.
If this keeps up, the poor kids MIGHT get a week off for summer vacation.
Snow isn't so much the problem although today it is snowing and blowing and drifting.
It's the rain before the arctic air blasts hit.
I looked out the window last night. It was raining and the wind was picking up.
About an hour and a half later, I looked out again.
The standing water had frozen so fast that the ripples in the standing water created by the wind froze that way. It was unique to see, but it's not a welcome sight.
They plowed the parking lot and snow blowed the sidewalks.
Couple hours later and you can't even tell it.
Light snow all day coming down almost horizontal.
Sure glad last weekend warmed up a bit for Mom's Funeral.

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I'm in Michigan too, My Nephew is pissed cause he graduated last year and never got a whole week off for snow. Today I slipped in my work parking lot and gracefully landed on a cushion (My butt). Last week was something else though.

We had a particularly bad winter when I was in HS, 95 I think. They extended our year almost two weeks, and added almost an hour to the morning and afternoon of each school day for about 2 months. Apparently the longer days spared us another 2 weeks, so a good trade.

One issue: the schools (here) are paid according to attendance. If you're in a rural area there may be a lot of kids who can't make it in from the boondocks. The school gets less pay. Financially, it's better to close the schools on days when attendance is certain to be low, and make it up on higher-attendance days. Crappy situation, but there it is. Plus, of course, the safety issue of kids being driven to school by parents who have NO F*****G idea how to drive in such conditions. Hey, Bubba, 4WD doesn't help when you're sliding on ice.

Best -- Terry
Got my license in 18" of snow. I know how to drive in snow. So usually I don't.

I live in a suburb of Indianapolis. Here's what we had:
Wednesday 1/30: Closed due to extreme cold. OK, at bus pickup time it was ~12 plus 20 mile winds for a severe wind chill, daytime high below zero.

Thursday 1/31: Closed due to extreme cold. Sure, the temp was about the same as "yesterday" but there was no wind. I'm not a fan of closing school just because it's cold.

It snowed in the evening Thursday, total about 4", ending around 2 am Friday. Temperatures were rising into the teens.

Friday 2/1: First, at 5 am we got a call that schools would be open 2 hours late due to snow. Fine. Then, after we had activated our "What do we do when school is late" parenting plan, we got a call at 7 am they were not opening at all due to slick road conditions. Well, duh. It snowed, and the plows were still out. . It should be illegal to change plans like this in the absence of a drastic unexpected change in the weather. For lots of parents, late school is no big deal because you can still drop the kids off at the "extended school enrichment" program at the normal time, then head to work. Cancelled school is an altogether different story. As it happens my kids are just old enough to be on their own, so for us hanging around to get them on the late bus (ADHD, can't assume they will get on bus on their own) is more disruption than cancelled school.

Thursday 2/7: Schools 2 hours late due to fog. Actually there was less fog out than earlier in the week because the ground had warmed up, but for some reason they decided to get a late start. I get that fog+dark is risky, but still it seemed an over reaction to the amount of fog out there.

Next week will be sunny; I'm preparing for schools to shut due to high UV index.

We've had 4 days out of school in Seattle over the last week and a half, due to a couple of snowstorms. 12"-15" may not sound like much compared to the Midwest, but we are a hilly city that doesn't get much snow. We only have 35 snowplows for a city of 750,000. This is what the side streets will look like until the rain melts it out.

boatgeek said:

We've had 4 days out of school in Seattle over the last week and a half, due to a couple of snowstorms. 12"-15" may not sound like much compared to the Midwest, but we are a hilly city that doesn't get much snow. We only have 35 snowplows for a city of 750,000. This is what the side streets will look like until the rain melts it out.

View attachment 374447

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From my perspective in a place where snow is more common, with all this cars parked in the street, a snowplow wouldn't venture down the middle of that even if it was available.

Damn I'm glad i have a garage.

In many cases school officials are making the call to close or delay school at 3 or 4 in the morning. They need to do it that early so bus drivers and maintenance people know what they need to do to get the school and busses ready or to shut it down for the day. So they make the call based on what they think will happen at 7 or 8 in the morning. Sometimes they get it wrong. And no matter what they decide some people will think that they are idiots.

Peartree said:

From my perspective in a place where snow is more common, with all this cars parked in the street, a snowplow wouldn't venture down the middle of that even if it was available.

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True dat. How do places with more snow and houses with no garages make snow removal work?

Zeus-cat said:

In many cases school officials are making the call to close or delay school at 3 or 4 in the morning. They need to do it that early so bus drivers and maintenance people know what they need to do to get the school and busses ready or to shut it down for the day. So they make the call based on what they think will happen at 7 or 8 in the morning. Sometimes they get it wrong. And no matter what they decide some people will think that they are idiots.

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Seattle has been doing a pretty good job of calling it early. For the first couple of days of snow, they called a 2-hour late start the night before, and then called off school entirely at 5:30 the next morning. When the snow has been really bad, they just call it off the night before.

[edit] Also, Seattle's standards for plowing are pretty low. Their goal is to have major truck routes cleared entirely and one lane each direction of major arterials cleared 12 hours after the snow stops falling.

boatgeek said:

True dat. How do places with more snow and houses with no garages make snow removal work?

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It is pretty common for communities to ban parking on certain sides of the street on different days to allow for plows. Offenders may get towed or warned, or they might get plowed in or their car damaged by the plow blade and be responsible for themselves.

NateB said:

It is pretty common for communities to ban parking on certain sides of the street on different days to allow for plows. Offenders may get towed or warned, or they might get plowed in or their car damaged by the plow blade and be responsible for themselves.

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Where I live, it is fairly rare to find neighborhoods where there are no garages or at least no driveways. I am one of only three or four people on my entire street that park in front of the house (on the street) and then only because our driveway is really short and when I park our trailer in the drive, there isn't room for my truck. In this weather I try to park the trailer in the yard so I can keep out of the street. There are, as NateB noted, "Snow Ban" streets which are marked/signed that no parking is permitted when there is a snow event. Others in neighborhoods where street parking is more common, may be asked to move or get plowed in.

I'm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, and we had a pile of snow last night. They decided yesterday that the schools wouldn't open today. Good call. Kept a lot of people off the roads. The snow plow actually made it down my street before noon today, which rarely happens, so they must have had clear sailing for plowing most streets. We also decided early this morning that our shop wouldn't open. Really not much point if our customers were even close to the same boat as us for snow.

2 hours of snowblowing and shovelling to dig our two vehicles out, however. Hopefully the sidewalk plow doesn't make a mess of what has been cleaned up already.

We just got a major dumping of snow. ~30cm (12") pretty much all schools are shut today. Happens here, at least once a year. Good for students, bad for parents who now have to figure out what to do. Businesses don't always close, but there is an understanding that some parents will stay home. (for the record, I'm at work.. We actually have one worker here today with her two grand-daughters!)

Montreal's snow clearing budget is in the millions ($150.something I think this year..) and will get pretty much all the streets cleared (not plowed to the side, but removed!) within the week..

But one thing that really bugs me, is that most neighbourhoods now have a plowing service. ~$250 - 350 to plow your driveway for the year. (A great tractor with a big snow-thrower on the back!) Problem (and peeve) is that most users of eth service park in the street so that their drive can be cleared. So, guess what.. Plows have a hard time, and people have a hard time weaving in & out between badly parked cars!

(I'm also amazed at the amount of SUVs driving around these days, that get stuck in snow banks: "But I got 4-wheel drive.." Or drive so slow they're almost going backwards..)

dr wogz said:

...
But one thing that really bugs me, is that most neighbourhoods now have a plowing service. ~$250 - 350 to plow your driveway for the year. (A great tractor with a big snow-thrower on the back!) Problem (and peeve) is that most users of eth service park in the street so that their drive can be cleared. So, guess what.. Plows have a hard time, and people have a hard time weaving in & out between badly parked cars!

(I'm also amazed at the amount of SUVs driving around these days, that get stuck in snow banks: "But I got 4-wheel drive.." Or drive so slow they're almost going backwards..)

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One thing that really struck me when I visited Idaho in the winter was how many people had a side job as "guy with pickup and snowplow blade" clearing driveways, store parking lots, etc. I'm sure it's not enough to sustain a person through the year, but probably not a bad gig in the winter. It makes sense when you think about it, it's just not something that exists in Seattle because we don't have enough demand.

When it snows, we see lots of people with 4WD skidding all over the place. My favorite are the ones who leave it in 4WD (not AWD) and try to drive around corners.

boatgeek said:

One thing that really struck me when I visited Idaho in the winter was how many people had a side job as "guy with pickup and snowplow blade" clearing driveways, store parking lots, etc. I'm sure it's not enough to sustain a person through the year, but probably not a bad gig in the winter. It makes sense when you think about it, it's just not something that exists in Seattle because we don't have enough demand.

When it snows, we see lots of people with 4WD skidding all over the place. My favorite are the ones who leave it in 4WD (not AWD) and try to drive around corners.

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In Ohio, many of the guys plowing snow are driving the trucks that are hauling lawn mowers and other landscaping equipment around in the summertime.

Peartree said:

In Ohio, many of the guys plowing snow are driving the trucks that are hauling lawn mowers and other landscaping equipment around in the summertime.

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Ditto. they park their tractors in the summer, and break out the lawn mowers.. Some years I laugh, as we get barely any snow. Other times I laugh when it snows just about every day!

Sad though, a recent 'TV news' survey had almost 50% of the population paying for a service. I remember when it was a quick way for a some of us kids to make a few bucks!

My nieces/ nephews in mid-Michigan have burned through 12 snow days (the normal annual allotment is 6).

They were out yesterday and almost again today -- their district was one of three or four in a 100-mile radius that stayed open.

Supposedly if they miss another day, they'll have to add a week in June.

There's been some talk of nixing spring break, but that's barely a month off and a fair number of families have put down deposits on vacation trips, so that's not a popular idea.

Pushing classes back into June would mess up people's schedules, but there are four months to do some shuffling if necessary.

One thing the district is definitely going to do is work on the capability to conduct some classes on line or via live streaming. The percentage of families without internet is pretty minimal and getting smaller.