We were supposed to get up to 15” in southeastern Michigan. It looks like we’ll end up with 8-10”. It’s been a slow snowfall, so roads aren’t terrible. It was my D to watch GD & D told me she’d take the day off if I’d rather not drive over. I’ve been through this song & dance before … I told her we’d play it by ear. No snow when I went over this morning, and it didn’t start to pile up until around 1. She made me leave at 3 so that I wouldn’t hit traffic. It was slushy but not awful … not much traffic, though, which was nice.
We probably have 3-4 inches of heavy snow right now. The idiot across the street had his truck in the circle (we live on a cul de sac), and the plow guy kept passing by our street, waiting to see if he moved it. It’s finally in his driveway … sure hope that the plow guy comes back!!
We hope to keep our power. It would be just our luck to lose it. We are finally getting a standby generator in 3 weeks. Can’t wait!
Just finally changed to snow in the last hour here in NW Ohio. Trouble is there is accumulation of water EVERYWHERE which will freeze tonight and then get covered with inches of snow- our patio literally will be thick enough to be a skating rink
10-20” of snow forecasted for us along the Colorado Front Range. We’ve gotten 12+ inches so far. S and I are fully hibernating while H works from home. There is plenty of wine on hand and the slow cooked bison chili should be ready in a couple of hours. Might play hooky tomorrow and go skiing. I love snow days.
@Nrdsb4 I‘m not sure if it is possible to get to the house if there was an extended power outage. In that case, if the water main was shut off, it would at least mitigate the amount of water damage if a water pipe would burst.
For cold weather, power on, turn up the heat in the empty house and drip the faucet. In a power outage, turn off the water main. If your pipes do burst at least water won’t keep running.
Thanks for your advice. If power goes out, we will be sure to get over there and turn off water main. We are not expecting sub 20 degrees F tonight, but may happen Fri-Sun night.
I hate this. We just are not used to this. Not expecting the same degree of cold for as long as the Feb 2021 debacle, but that has made me rather anxious.
Northern Indiana. It’s been coming down hard and heavy all day–8-10" now, and winds have picked up all afternoon. Roads were treacherous all day. They shut down the county, moved to red travel status, and pulled the plows at 5 pm.
It’s to let up tonight and then the second wave will come tomorrow. They were predicting 16-20" total accumulation. Bitter cold Friday into Saturday.
Official snow fall at the airport? 2.7" Actual snow fall in our driveway? About 12". They haven’t called off school yet for tomorrow. Temp at bus stop time (and I do take the bus to school) is -10.
Yep, I think we should have a second snow/cold day.
A fair # of our schools closed last night for the week! They probably could have went today but as I say, school admin are not meteorologists - they made their decision based on predicted terrible weather to happen early today (which ended up developing late)
School admins also have the ability to close for snow with no consequences. Businesses close and they lose business. Schools close and they may get some parents who complain. But then they say its for the safety of the children and who will counter?
Someone at one of our local schools asked if there would be an online class day tomorrow rather than a snow day. All kids have chromebooks. But the announcement that school is canceled tomorrow wasn’t made until a few minutes after the kids left for the day (leaving their chromebooks at school). Again, no consequences.
our schools, especially Denver Public (I work at a charter school) are reluctant to close schools because then the kids may not eat. They eat breakfast and lunch at school and some of the schools that are in poorer neighborhoods even open on snow days to feed kids.
This storm was a lot worse than they expected when we left school on tues.
School administrators are not meteorologists. They make their decisions based on weather reports and conditions. This storm in particular has been all over the map - literally and figuratively - in terms of accuracy/non-accuracy.
Yes there are consequences. They can exhaust their calamity days and have to readjust the school schedule. The kids get mentally off track and they have to reengage. As @twoinanddone mentioned they have to weigh some kids having food or not having food. It puts teaching and learning behind for testing or just getting through needed material.
And right now some of the “closing” decisions are being made for a combo of reasons. Storm+COVID absences of staff and kids.
There are consequences. Our district builds in 3 snow days to the calendar. The state requires there be 180 days of instruction in the year. So, if more than 3 days are used, days must be taken back. They are usually tacked on to the end of the year, but in NJ, where school routinely goes until the latter half of June, teachers cannot be required to work beyond June 30th. When Sandy left us all without power for 11 days in 2012, our school district ended up taking back a number of previously scheduled days off (President’s Day, a certain number of days from spring break) and some districts even required school to be held on a couple of Saturdays to make up the time. So yes, it is misinformed to suggest that school administrators can just act on a whim with no consequence.
As an aside, based on the reactions in the parent FB page for our district, whatever decision our superintendent makes regarding snow delays or cancellations, 50% of the parents will complain.
It varies by state/district obviously. Though abasket is in Ohio like me. When my kids were in school (last graduated about 5 years ago), there was a limit of 5 snow days per school year. Otherwise the kids had to make up days. One year we had a very bad winter and they exceeded the number of snow days alotted. So kids were thinking make up days. Nay nay. Governor (or maybe the state legislature, can’t remember which) granted additional snow days. So no consequences.
And as a result of that year, they changed the formula so now its not days but hours. And my wife, who works for a local district, says they could miss about 20 days without having to make anything up. They have snow days. Cold days (with no snow/ice). Heat days in the fall.
And there is absolutely no way that the forecast changed yesterday between the 5 minutes before kids were dismissed at the district I mentioned and 3 minutes after dismissal. They knew they were calling school today and easily could have told the kids to grab their chromebooks so there could be online learning today. But by waiting the staff gets a day off (with pay).
When I said there were no consequences, I meant to the school admins, teachers and staff; not the kids (or their parents who have to scramble for childcare). Where I work, if we asked the staff if they think we should close when there is snow (which in NE Ohio is often during the winter) and they would still get paid and no consequences to them, they would say we should close.
And yes for some districts, food is an issue. On the flip side, some districts have a lot of kids who walk up to 2 miles to school (Ohio mandates busing for kids who live more than 2 miles from school but may/most districts bus the kids who live closer even though its not required). In some of the districts without busing for kids who live up to 2 miles away, there are parents without cars and without public transportation so the kids walk.
And in reality, there are states/districts that deal with cold/snow pretty much every day (Minnesota and Wisconsin come to mind) that closing for cold/snow isn’t workable. NE Ohio should be one of those places but its not. And its because no one pushes for it to happen. My kids are out now so it doesn’t impact me.
And stay home and read on a snow day? LOL They were always sledding days when my kids were little (and I was little too).
I never had a snow day as a young child. We lived in a suburb just outside of Detroit, and the only students who rode a bus were those in the special needs program. We walked home for lunch & then back to school, no matter the weather. Girls were not allowed to wear pants to (public) school until I was in 6th grade. I remember the snow pants under the dress, the bread bags over the socks/under the boots, the scarf covering everything but the eyes. To be honest, though, I don’t remember the cold. Ah, to be a kid in winter!
