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They seem to cancel school in NC whenever flurries are in the forecast.  I'm a native southerner, but have lived all over, so I won't argue that we handle winter storms well (or at all).  But there are a few things y'all who live further north or west should remember: 1) southern towns have very little snow removal equipment, so roads get cleared slowly if at all, 2) often that 1" of snow was accompanied by freezing rain as the day warmed up, and 3) many folks here don't know how to drive in snow because they have never done it.  Winter driving isn't something you're born knowing about--it takes a little practice. (Plus, you can't practice if you're too scared to try.  Many southerners have been told all their lives that you aren't supposed to drive in snow.)

I once flew into Thunder Bay Ontario in a De Havilland Dash 8 in a raging blizzard. At the Tilden (National in Canada) rental car counter they handed me a brush for the car. I proceeded to the parking lot and brushed about two feet of snow off the car. 

The forecast was for another foot of snow. When I got to the front desk of the hotel I asked if anything would be open tomorrow. The clerk looked at me and responded, “Why not?”

The rest of the week was sunny and clear with highs of -15 F. One night I finished work in my hotel room about 10pm. I decided to walk across the hotel parking lot to Tim Horton’s (Canadian version of  Dunkin Donuts) for a snack. I couldn’t walk it. With the windchill it was -44. I found out that night -44 is where F and C cross. In the moment my expression added a couple more letters to F and C. 

I drove to the other side of the parking lot. I left the car running for an hour while I had a tea and read the paper. When I came back outside the car was still cold. 

Last edited by RJM

Tomorrow morning, our wind chill will be -27 degrees and maybe -30.  We have not closed as of this time but I expect to close.  We will close with 3 inches of snow when that happens.  The problem that my district faces is that we bus students from a radius of approximately 14 miles.  Our back roads don't get cleared sometimes.  It is simply too dangerous.  With the wind chills so cold, you have to understand that the problem is that some of the parents will dump a 10 year old off at a bus stop in that temperature with a sweater on.  Stupid can not be fixed but those same parents will sue the school district if their child gets frostbite or worse.  

CoachB25 - our area is similar.  It is a small rural county with one HS, one MS and three Elementary schools.   The HS and MS are in the center of the county and probably has a similar radius.   There is also a lot of back roads to cover to get these students home or picked up.  Add in the fact that VDOT usually only assigns 6-8 plows to plow and/or salt.   On a good day they barely keep the main 4 lanes highways open.   Forget about the secondary roads.

I've been watching a lot of news stories about how everyone's wrecking in these storms in the north as well.  If you can't walk on ice, you probably shouldn't drive on it.  Dry snow pack is a lot different than ice.  Defending the south a bit because why should massive amounts of tax money go towards equipment for maybe 1-2 events a year.  Couple that with a lot of rural roads and that's why you see closures.  First bus that crashes/kid hurt due to ice because a school system didn't call it early enough, prepare for lawsuits.  Blame the lawyers.  

joes87 posted:

Y'all are wimps.  Windchill forecasts for Chicagoland are in the -40 to -60 range tomorrow and Thursday.  Colder here then Alaska, Antartica and Siberia for the next couple of days.

Saw the national forecast for tomorrow calls for 70+ in LA, Phoenix and Miami but -15 in Chicago.  That's a 85+ degree swing across a 3 hour flight...  130 degrees w/ wind chill.  I think I would be considering that flight. 

Image result for frozen chicago

Here in NW Ohio, low tonight of -12...HIGH tomorrow forecast to be -5 with 30+ mph winds. Schools will all be closed tomorrow and likely Thursday....heck a lot of them were today, but the northern part of our area had wind and snow yesterday.   Mid/Upper 40's by Sunday and 52 on Monday....so we've got something to look forward to  

cabbagedad posted:
joes87 posted:

Y'all are wimps.  Windchill forecasts for Chicagoland are in the -40 to -60 range tomorrow and Thursday.  Colder here then Alaska, Antartica and Siberia for the next couple of days.

Saw the national forecast for tomorrow calls for 70+ in LA, Phoenix and Miami but -15 in Chicago.  That's a 85+ degree swing across a 3 hour flight...  130 degrees w/ wind chill.  I think I would be considering that flight. 

Image result for frozen chicago

Flew from Detroit to Cancun several years ago in mid-January.   -12 when we left Detroit...and 85 when we landed in Cancun.    Left Cancun 4 days later it was 86 and -10 when we touched down in Detroit

cabbagedad posted:
joes87 posted:

Y'all are wimps.  Windchill forecasts for Chicagoland are in the -40 to -60 range tomorrow and Thursday.  Colder here then Alaska, Antartica and Siberia for the next couple of days.

Saw the national forecast for tomorrow calls for 70+ in LA, Phoenix and Miami but -15 in Chicago.  That's a 85+ degree swing across a 3 hour flight...  130 degrees w/ wind chill.  I think I would be considering that flight. 

Image result for frozen chicago

Most schools here have already announced they are closed on Weds and Thurs due to the cold.  Many business are now telling their employees to stay home.  The METRA (suburb to city) train system has changed their schedule and are encouraging folks to stay home.  Might be the coldest day ever in Chicago.  

joes87 posted:

Y'all are wimps.  Windchill forecasts for Chicagoland are in the -40 to -60 range tomorrow and Thursday.  Colder here then Alaska, Antartica and Siberia for the next couple of days.

I lived in such weather in upstate NY and Colorado.   That was enough for me.  I was tired of dressing up like an Eskimo.  

RJM posted:

I once flew into Thunder Bay Ontario in a De Havilland Dash 8 in a raging blizzard. At the Tilden (National in Canada) rental car counter they handed me a brush for the car. I proceeded to the parking lot and brushed about two feet of snow off the car. 

The forecast was for another foot of snow. When I got to the front desk of the hotel I asked if anything would be open tomorrow. The clerk looked at me and responded, “Why not?”

The rest of the week was sunny and clear with highs of -15 F. One night I finished work in my hotel room about 10pm. I decided to walk across the hotel parking lot to Tim Horton’s (Canadian version of  Dunkin Donuts) for a snack. I couldn’t walk it. With the windchill it was -44. I found out that night -44 is where F and C cross. In the moment my expression added a couple more letters to F and C. 

I drove to the other side of the parking lot. I left the car running for an hour while I had a tea and read the paper. When I came back outside the car was still cold. 

One of the coldest places I have ever been was when I spent a bit of time in Marathon, Ontario, on the northern shores of Superior. The chill from Superior makes it feel colder than places like Edmonton or Winnipeg, though they are no joke. It gets so cold that metal parts start to break, and machines just don't work anymore. Somehow, they take it all in stride, keep schools open, and buses running. My HS bus driver in New Sarepta, ALTA, Rudy, was a cheerful legend, and a guy that I remember 45 years later. He'd see a 3' drift across a road as an excuse to speed up. 

   We had multiple days where the temp would be around -40 before windchill was factored in.

 Oh, and windchill is bogus.

Last edited by 57special

As James Wilkins said, ice sheets on the road is very different that packed snow.  That's what happened to Atlanta 5 years ago.  I literally can't get any traction on the road.  I'm sure we would have been able to handle this better if we have more equipment to scrape the ice off the road and if we have the appropriate tires.  But it doesn't make sense to invest in a lot of these equipment if the ice will melt in a day or 2, and it only happens once every 5 to 10 years.  It turned out sunny today w/ no snow.  But we are in that transition line where it is hard to predict whether we will get snow, ice or just rain.  Repeating what happened 5 years ago with school buses full of children spending the night on the road is not worth it.

I've walked to class on the shores of Lake Michigan in the winter, and did the coldest winter in my adulthood in MN.

So having established my cold cred, I'm glad my son gets to stay inside the next couple days in St Paul, and that they preemptively canceled school here (I teach MS in GA), even though we never saw any actual snow.  I've had to drive in the snow (more ice, really, the way it generally happens here) twice when they didn't pull the trigger on school closings soon enough, and it's not worth the risk.  Every other person has a RWD SUV, none of them knows jack about driving in even rain, and there's not a straight, level road in a 50 mile radius.

This is what happens when you get an ice storm here, and no one prepares ahead of time (5 years ago, today, in fact). There's not enough salt in the world, much less the trucks to spread it.

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