how snow or ice does it take for the schools to cancel in your area?

[pstokely]

?

[mlawson]

1. FORECAST of flurries!!! I am not kidding!

It's all it takes in Western NC, and we get enough s--- for them to get used to it. But they never do. So from Dec through mid March, workplaces all over here are thrown into chaos because at any time of the day, schools can be closed, and the parents have to go do something with the kids.

But when I was in grade school here in 1960, I remember my father driving me to school one morning, and it was solid ice; he was sliding all over the road. There was no talk of closing school then! This is all new silliness.

[Lefta Dissenter]

2. roads glare ice,

schools will often be delayed for a couple of hours to allow salt trucks to do their thing. Snow... well, it's gotta be a whole boatload of snow before schools are closed. I can't precisely define 'whole boatload.' We're out in the country, though - in Madison, the snow has to be above the roofline of the house before they'll close school, they're not bus-dependent! Get out your shovel, dig a tunnel and start walking! :)

[liberalmuse]

3. About 9 feet.

I've seen scads of snow fall here, but they've never closed the schools because of it.

[Momof1]

4. It depends on how much snow is in the forcast for that day

If we are suppose to get a Nor'Easter, and theres only 1/2 in. on the ground they will cancel school. But normally the school superintendent gets up at 4-5 am and looks outside, if there is nothing there school goes on. And once noon rolls around and there is a foot of snow, they evaluate it again. But normally it doesn't matter. The schools in this area are usually in session.

[dove2]

5. it depends upon the state

--not because of the amount of snow, but because of the way schools are financed. Some states pay schools based on attendence, so if the weather is bad and some kids don't show up, the school looses more money than if they closed school (which doesn't count against their attendence figures).

[mlawson]

6. Actually let me expand on this:

--- Forecast of flurries: private schools close immediately (esp Christian), then public in a few minutes.

--- Flurries begin: downtown galleries, boutiques, shops begin to close, regardless of amount of busines lost.

--- Grass, cartops covered, streets wet, temp above freezing: some restaurants close, cafes, universities cancel night classes.

--- Streets with slush: most stores, many cafes, some bars closed. University day classes cancelled.

--- Streets slushy, or wet; 2" snow on ground: many bars, most restaurants closed. Local TV implores people to not drive except in an emergency. Total PANIC at supermarkets.

--- 4-6". Streets snow covered. Only 7-11s are now open. Streets and freeways are clogged with wrecks. Most interstates closing. Power outages imminent.

--- 6-12" Most homes without power or heat. Radio stations, TV stations off the air. Traveling virtually impossible.

--- over 12". You are f----d....

[Momof1]

8. LOL Blizzard of 93 or 94. State of Emergency declared

it was illegal to drive on the roads...yes the schools were closed. But all the bars were open, and my factory job, called to make sure I was coming in...

[southerngirlwriter]

16. ROFLMAO

Are you from Alabama, too?

I worked in Kroger's for years. A *forecast* of snow, and we'd have the checklanes backed up to the rear of the store and be out of bread and milk in an hour, flat.

[Bertha Venation]

18. my first snowstorm in DC I bought diapers -- and I don't have a baby

;)

[SheilaT]

7. A lot of factors can be involved.

I'm in the Kansas City area, and some of the school districts close here because if they can't get the busses up and down the rather narrow streets, they can't have school. Sometimes they close when the wind chill is about -20. It's not often that cold here and people really are not geared up for it, unlike North Dakota or Minnesota where it's regularly that cold in the winter.

When I was growing up in northern New York State, my rural, central school rarely closed on account of snow. The standing joke was that so long as Principal Smith could get there, we'd have school that day. It wasn't a joke that Mr. Smith lived directly across the street from the school.

[DS1]

9. I dunno, but it's always 8 inches more than the surrounding schools!

:grr:

[northofdenali]

10. They don't cancel. Period.

The last time schools here were cancelled for snow or ice was 1970, when we got about 9 feet of snow in just over 2 days. The reason was visibility, not the snow itself.

Schools are open at 50 below.

The busses are equipped to handle the road conditions and radio always broadcasts any late busses - important for kids who may have to wait 10 to 15 minutes in very cold (more than 30 below) conditions.

'Course, we KNOW we live in a tough climate!

[elfin]

11. Used to be 5-6 feet

Now wimp out at about 3 inches.

[Bill McBlueState]

12. Toledo OH vs. Amherst MA

Funny... my undergrad school, U. Toledo, hasn't closed for snow since the 70's. And we got a lot of it sometimes!

But here in Massachusetts, UMass closes at least once a year, even if it's just a forecast. I thought they'd know how to handle snow better around here. :shrug:

Doesn't bother me so much, I guess.

[Piltdown13]

14. In Boston, school would also close at least once a year...

For just about every school except my university (Boston U). I guess they figured that since the whole campus stretched out over one of the first streets to be plowed, we could get there. Of course, on really bad days half the faculty wouldn't be there because so many of them lived outside of the city and couldn't get into town. I think we had two snow cancellations my entire four years -- once when a blizzard was forecast (and the storm actually missed us) and another time in April (!!) of 1997 -- we got about two feet the night of April 1, and it had been such a mild winter that they had already taken the plows off the trucks. It took about three days to dig the city out completely -- and I was stuck in my dorm until almost 5 that evening; the snow had drifted so high and heavy that we couldn't get the front door open!

[Kellanved]

13. hasn't happened ever

So I don't know.

[southerngirlwriter]

15. they cancel for a forecast, but I've also seen school

canceled at 7AM, then walked outside, and there wasn't enough snow to cover the grass in the yard. No joke!

[Bertha Venation]

17. Southern California: Three Raindrops = "STORM WATCH 2003!!"

I'm not kidding. I never really noticed this until I moved to Maryland -- working in Washington, DC.

Here in the Washington area, it generally seems to take 3 inches for school delays, about 6 inches for schools to close, and from 6-12 inches for the government to shut down. I don't know if there's a hard & fast rule, and I'm only coming up on my fourth winter here.

[Gman]

19. Generally, the first sign of ice...

in San Antonio, if its raining and the temp's dropping, they cancel everything.

Once we had 13" of snow. Fortunately it happened on a Saturday. The city was still shut down for 3 days. Sunday morning, no one was driving. Everyone was walking everywhere. Never seen anything like it before or since. Construction companies brought in their road graders to move snow off of the highways.