You've gotta be kidding me

It's so funny how different areas handle (or don't handle) the snow!

Our schools are closed again today. I figured they would do a two hour delay but close completely.

Brandy, we are most likely going to Arizona after here, I hear they don't handle rain well either.. I'll go from complaining about the snow to complaining about the rain!! :laughing:

 

I wonder if schools were closed here today with the massive amount of snow we had, it was total chaos on the roads and the trains where a mess, it took me about 3,5 hours to get home today (normally takes 1 hour).
Growing up I never had any days off of school because of snow <_<

 

These stories blow my mind....we had not a flake in the air as of 8am when buses went by on Wednesday, but by 9am it was snowing as per the weather forecast. By 2pm they had closed all highways into and out of our town, so buses of course were shut down and kids were billeted in town. I had two at home sick and my oldest caught a ride home with our neighbor so she didn't have to be billeted.

Buses were down for Thursday but schools were open and we were back in normal schedules for today - less than 48hrs after we had 12" of snow dumped on us. Yes. TWELVE inches...

 

There's a reason Grand Junction is known as the banana belt. It hovers in the upper 30's and 40's all winter except for January when it actually gets cold enough for me to get my winter coat out. It's kind of nice though I think. It's because we live in a valley with steep sides and the wind gets funneled up from the desert. It's like living in a convection oven. Just wait until you see the panic that snow causes. You haven't seen anything yet!

Last year was insane though, it was close to 0 for about 3 months straight. I thought I was going to freeze to death. Brr! :10:

 

I couple of years ago it snowed about an inch here and it snarled up the highways to badly, no one could go anywhere. They did not expect it to snow at all, much less accumulate. However, the suddeness of the snow added to it falling just before school let out, made it super tricky. Many children never got home from school that day and come rush hour, some people were stuck for hours in their cars on the highways. It was the most insane 1 inch of snow I have ever seen. I've driven in 18 inches of snow, but that one inch gridlocked the entire area. Now, they cancel school miuch more quickly than they did before then. Parents were livid that their children could not get home. We have had 3 winter weather events this year, which literally NEVER happens around here. We have missed one full day of school and late one day of school. They no longer build now days into our calendar, so kids make up snow days on Saturdays or they cut days off of the holidays. They try not to add it to summer break, and they usually don't have to. We just don't get that much snow.I sure wish we did! Around here, a snow day is really a snow day! No one works, no one goes to school and it's gone in a day or 2. It's perfect if you ask me. It's always been this way in N.C. They have never been the state to make people go to work and school in the snow. I guess we are wimps and I am fine with that! I would hate to live somewhere that it actually snows often enough to take the fun out of it

 

It's not the snow, it's the ICE! I lived in MN for 5 years and we had ONE snow day at my work in that time period. It was no big deal -- the plow would come by at 6AM scraping it down to 2" and dropping a layer of traction grit behind it -- and we lived out in the sticks. It's different here, though. For one, the snow is usually preceded by sleet which leaves a layer of ice under the snow. The plow scrapes off the snow and leaves the ice. No grit, ever, and no salt for at least a day or two out here in the sticks. The ice stays until whenever it melts on its own or the trucks get around to it (usually they don't so it's an ongoing issue of being OK to drive in the sunny daylight and then the wet roads re-freezing at dusk). We had 6" of snow once over two days' time (and yes, a half inch or so of sleet/freezing rain before it started) and I was stuck for 3 days because the hilly road I live on was impassable. By me, experienced snow driver. I managed to get the car to the top of the driveway during a sunny break on day 2 and left it there in case of emergency but getting to a main road from here is extremely difficult when there is ice. One one end of our street, there is a steep slope that abruptly intersects a busy highway. You'd have to sit at the top and try to time your descent hoping that traffic would maintain their speed and nobody else would pull out from another side street because there is no way you could stop at the bottom of the hill. Go the other direction and you've got a similar slope heading into an 80-degree turn. Good luck with that.

 

Our school was cancelled last Monday and there was only about an inch of snow. The next 2 days we had a 2 hour delay (due to the temps). On Thursday, no delay. I dropped the girls off at school and could not believe they had school. I got to work and it continued to snow steady all day. I had to pick up the girls and it took me almost an hour to get to the school. I usually takes 20 minutes. The roads were so bad. They cancelled school the next day and they it did not snow anymore! The roads were completely clear in the morning!

I heard rumors that on Thursday the school board office phone recording was saying that the office was closed due to inclement weather!

 

Yes, exactly. I grew up in Northern Wisconsin. Snow is not necessarily the problem, although we are not as well equipped to deal with snow either, but snow here is wetter and often turns to ice. Or we have freezing rain. When your roads are narrow, hilly (nearly mountainous in areas closer to the Smokies), and windy, it becomes much more difficult to navigate. Some roads the salt trucks cannot even navigate! There is, for example, just no good way into our neighborhood. From any direction, you have to navigate uphill, around a major curve, and there is literally no shoulder, but a drop off on the side of the road down into a ravine. It's treacherous to say the least, which is why people just abandon their cars right alongside the road, in someone's yard, and/or even right in the road and walk home. It's really crazy! Even a slight amount of snow and/or freezing rain wreaks havoc.

 

Yep! They close schools here all the time for "snow"! They have even closed them due to heavy rains. It is ridiculous!! Although I don't really mind having a really good excuse to call into work...someone has to stay home with the kiddos!