Overreacting to Weather

[badgersprite]

Australia, and we always heard it was 40 degrees celsius or "unbearably hot" that would get school cancelled, but that might be a myth. At one of my highschools, which was down in a valley, it rained so hard that the school essentially flooded. Water was coming into the buildings through the lights. And we still kept going.

 

[Shraggler]

1. Seattle, WA

2. Well, the past couple of years we've had some freak snow/cold snaps. In an area of the world similar to Ireland or Wales in terms of climate, the temperature dropped to 16ºF/-9ºC at the end of this past November for three days. It took a good two hours to get home from work, after I contacted someone with 4WD to come pick me up. The roads were covered by about a half inch to an inch of ice within about 4-5 hours. Temperatures went from 38ºF/3ºC to 24ºF/-4ºC in about that time. Since this is so rare (and our city planners think a couple days a decade of salting the roads will cause irreparable damage to the eco-system like the dumbasses they are) the roads weren't salted or sanded before-hand. The temperatures stayed below freezing for about a week. I guarantee you, all of the schools within a 20-40 mile radius of Seattle were closed. The two major north-bound/south-bound highways (I-405 & I-5) were just a 40-mile ice rink. There are tons of videos on YouTube from this recent bout of ice/snow that pretty much tells you why everything was closed: people cannot drive - especially up and down hills, of which Seattle has many.

In 2008 we had another rare snowstorm that no one expected to be so strong. I think we got around 8-10 inches at sea level in about a day. Then the temperature dropped below freezing so the snow that was able to melt during the day froze and it snowed again. This occurred a few times in a row so we had about 3-5 inches of ice under the snow on the streets. Once again, city planning failed and schools/work said fuck it. I did not have a car at the time and saw a multitude of buses skiing along the road. I was in one that jack-knifed along a main arterial in the city. That was fun. In the end, there were about four buses on my block alone that were essentially abandoned.

Snow freaks this area out a lot since the geography creates a temperate zone. Since we don't have a big-ass mountain range in the way of the prevailing winds, we just get a lot of drizzle and clouds. Having an ocean warming things up doesn't help either. Despite the fact we're well above north than most of you fuckers, most of the air we get comes from Hawaii (South Pacific) and we don't get the wonderful, cold arctic air from Canada.

That's always bothered me. We're way closer to Arctic North than say, Pittsburgh, PA, but we've had a higher maximum temperature and have been no where near close to the lowest temperature.

1. Spokane WA

2. Nothing ever closes do to weather. Okay, one time shit in town didn't bother opening and some of the schools closed. But that's only because we got nearly 20 inches in less then 24 hours... and that was just the first day of about three or four.

Yeah, you're on the other side of the mountains. The eastern side of the state gets massive amounts of snow and conversely massive amounts of sun. It's a totally different climate.

By the way, watch out for those fucking crazies still on the loose trying to bomb your city.

 

[El Poncho]

1.) Scotland.

2.) On a sunny day everyone is overcome with ecstasy, gets naked and runs about with their factor 1million suncream on.

Tis a rare occasion.

 

[101flyboy]

Living in Richmond, VA, USA, I'd say it takes in the 4 inch range to close schools. I remember we had 6 inches of snow and were out of school for a week, when I was in Middle school. Outside of the Northeast and Midwest, most states in the US still don't really have any structured rundown on what to do when there is a snowstorm. It catches people by surprise and leaves these states basically un-operable. I do know that many people won't send their kids to go to school, closed or not, if it's more than like 2 inches.

 

[black_omega2]

I live in Minnesota and we haven't had a snowday or anything for 5 years now. It has to be pretty bad though, either like 40f below or so much snow our excellent plow teams (these guys have been awesome this year) can't clear the roads for the buses.
My school district is always the last one to ever close down in most of the state.

 

[SovietSecrets]

1. I live in California.
2. School has never been cancelled because of the weather so far for me. I mean there have been really bad storms where the entire campus just turned into a puddle and classes still went on. Though your choice if you want to show up or not.

 

[spectrenihlus]

Would earthquakes be considered weather?

 

[AmayaOnnaOtaku]

Maryland: in my part is takes about 3-6 inches to cancel. The issue is whether there is ice in the mix. Now, towards DC they see a snowflake and they shit themselves

 

[quiet_samurai]

1. Seattle, WA

2. Well, the past couple of years we've had some freak snow/cold snaps. In an area of the world similar to Ireland or Wales in terms of climate, the temperature dropped to 16ºF/-9ºC at the end of this past November for three days. It took a good two hours to get home from work, after I contacted someone with 4WD to come pick me up. The roads were covered by about a half inch to an inch of ice within about 4-5 hours. Temperatures went from 38ºF/3ºC to 24ºF/-4ºC in about that time. Since this is so rare (and our city planners think a couple days a decade of salting the roads will cause irreparable damage to the eco-system like the dumbasses they are) the roads weren't salted or sanded before-hand. The temperatures stayed below freezing for about a week. I guarantee you, all of the schools within a 20-40 mile radius of Seattle were closed. The two major north-bound/south-bound highways (I-405 & I-5) were just a 40-mile ice rink. There are tons of videos on YouTube from this recent bout of ice/snow that pretty much tells you why everything was closed: people cannot drive - especially up and down hills, of which Seattle has many.

In 2008 we had another rare snowstorm that no one expected to be so strong. I think we got around 8-10 inches at sea level in about a day. Then the temperature dropped below freezing so the snow that was able to melt during the day froze and it snowed again. This occurred a few times in a row so we had about 3-5 inches of ice under the snow on the streets. Once again, city planning failed and schools/work said fuck it. I did not have a car at the time and saw a multitude of buses skiing along the road. I was in one that jack-knifed along a main arterial in the city. That was fun. In the end, there were about four buses on my block alone that were essentially abandoned.

Snow freaks this area out a lot since the geography creates a temperate zone. Since we don't have a big-ass mountain range in the way of the prevailing winds, we just get a lot of drizzle and clouds. Having an ocean warming things up doesn't help either. Despite the fact we're well above north than most of you fuckers, most of the air we get comes from Hawaii (South Pacific) and we don't get the wonderful, cold arctic air from Canada.

That's always bothered me. We're way closer to Arctic North than say, Pittsburgh, PA, but we've had a higher maximum temperature and have been no where near close to the lowest temperature.

1. Spokane WA

2. Nothing ever closes do to weather. Okay, one time shit in town didn't bother opening and some of the schools closed. But that's only because we got nearly 20 inches in less then 24 hours... and that was just the first day of about three or four.

Yeah, you're on the other side of the mountains. The eastern side of the state gets massive amounts of snow and conversely massive amounts of sun. It's a totally different climate.

By the way, watch out for those fucking crazies still on the loose trying to bomb your city.

Word.

I'm convinced that it was probably one of the many, manay white supremiscist groups in and around here and Northern Idaho. Seriously, there are tons of them.

And I like Seattle, I'm actually thinking of moving there in the next year or so. I was there on New Years... it was great.

 

[FamoFunk]

1) London

2) A snowflake

Seriously though, I don't want to generalise for the whole of the UK but where I am at the slightest bit of snowfall can disrupt many many things.

This. Except I live in Cardiff not London.

It's pretty pathetic how we handle the snow, I know it's not a regular here but, eh :\

 

[nuba km]

1) London

2) A snowflake

Seriously though, I don't want to generalise for the whole of the UK but where I am at the slightest bit of snowfall can disrupt many many things.

yea I hate it I used to live in Germany and there would normally be 20-30cm of snow and nothing was cancelled here 5cm of school for nearly a week.

 

[Mr. Meslier]

I attend a college in Oklahoma too, and one of my classes was supposed to visit the OU Norman campus to check out their chemistry research facility, since most of our chemistry undergraduates end up going there for graduate work.

The field trip was cancelled ( bawww ) but classes on our campus were not.

I would have liked the extra day off, but honestly it wasn't enough to really cancel classes. All the ice had melted by 10 am anyways.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

I am in germany. I never ever have seen schools getting closed for snow, and if you are 16 and older, you wont get out of school for heat either. exceptions if the roof collapsed under the snow over night.

But the people still are overreacting with the weather. every december we got a "Winter of the Century" "Chaos-Winter" or whatever the papers are calling it then.

 

[tahrey]

1) London

2) A snowflake

Seriously though, I don't want to generalise for the whole of the UK but where I am at the slightest bit of snowfall can disrupt many many things.

Hahaha, THIS. Everyone freaks out. Or at least, the news tells us they do... and it's largely nonsense. There's higher risk, yes, but if you manage that risk - slow down, be gentler on the throttle ... pick your route up the path with more care and tread decisively rather than using a normal walking gait ... wrap up properly ... take grippy mats with you ... etc, you'll be OK.


That's how it goes for the private citizen at least. However, my experience of it in the Midlands was that Those Wot Are In Charge have to make some worst-case accounting in order that they don't get the crap sued out of them if someone gets hurt, etc. Or at least there's not so much unrest and wasted time if someone leading a class can't make it, but all the students do.
(I work at a college btw)

They have to account for weather forecasting being imperfect; a limited amount of manpower, tools and salt-grit being available; conditions able to snap from "awww, isn't it pretty" to "omg this is horrible" quite easily, particularly if you're hovering around freezing and/or there's lots of salt lowering the freezing point to roughly the current air temperature (case in point: dec 22nd round here, where the roads went from snowy-but-passable, to slushy, to wet, to nearly-impassable black ice deathtraps in the space of a few hours); people having to drive or bike in, or take buses/trains/etc as well as walk; and the biggest one, PEOPLE BEING MORONS. It only takes one dickhead with a heavy foot and a passionate disregard for care, attention and tiresomely repeated advice to completely ruin the local area's road system by coming to grief on a slightly inclined intersection, and maybe taking someone else with them. One. Out of hundreds or thousands who may go through. You can't really account for that kind of stupidity, it's like lightning. You don't try to predict that - you invest in lightning rods and surge suppressors. In this case, you take the hit by just shutting down until the danger is past.
(case in point there: it started randomly snowing in february last year. I nipped offsite for some technical supplies before things got too bad. I almost immediately came across a small traffic jam where some herbert had run headlong into the side of a bus. It wasn't even that slippery...)

Man, I saw so much crappy driving when I was doing my christmas shopping, both in time I had booked off, at the weekend, and during the days we ended up being closed. Was nearly taken out a couple of times by some hard of thinking folks. The conditions themselves are not really why you're advised to "only travel if it's necessary" - if you're well equipped and know how to tackle the situation, you're not going to get stuck or slither into a lamp-post on your way to the mall. But Joe Thickwit who's just appeared out of fucking nowhere from that side-road (unable to stop, unable to get traction to accelerate, sliding merrily sideways, it matters not) would have managed it in a couple miles time - if you hadn't just T-boned him at all of 15~20mph.

I also had a look at the area round my workplace. I made it through OK ... because the roads were empty. The snow wasn't OTT, enough to make some snowmen with, and it had been gritted, but one main hill was still too steep to get up at all, and another needed a run-up. Went the back route, bit slow but made it without incident.


But... a little thought experiment... Had everyone who works and studies here - tutors, tech staff, accounting, HR, janitors, maintenance guys, and so on - tried to get in and out, not to mention all the local schoolkids, parents, teachers etc who use the same road... gridlock. The main route would jam as a bus got stuck. People would go down the otherwise passable side streets, make a meal of it, and block those as well. Someone falls over because they haven't put the right shoes on or have strayed from the swept, gritted bit of the path, and hurts themself quite badly. An ambulance is required but can't get through the chaos. The temperature briefly drops below anything seen on-site for 20 years, and the server & switchboard AC system, which was never designed to cope with such a massive different in inlet temperatures, craps out. Servers start falling over and shutting down, but not enough of them before the extra load from the fans trips a not-quite-up-to-spec fuseboard, which also takes out power to the rest of the site because the electrics are feeling the cold also. Phones are down, internet's down, lights are out (particularly in the windowless theatre and backstage studio), sliding doors are stuck shut and some of the security pass doors won't open. Faced with all the heat-shedding electricals going off, and many doors (and windows) opening because those who can get out are doing so, the not-fully-commissioned new heating system overloads and throws its safety cutout, which no-one can get to because it's behind a secure door, and can't be untripped anyway because the pilot light is sparked by an electrical feed.

The site's shut and everyone's going home - on foot because of the gridlock. Nothing useful has gotten done. Plus some staff are still stuck out in the chaos, a couple of whom have been ploughed into by other vehicles. One student has a compound fracture and is suffering badly from shock as she didn't receive medical attention, and the security guard who tried to pull her up has put his back out because he didn't notice the heavy rucksack full of textbooks.

This is what goes through the site manager's mind, you see... it's a gamble. In this case it paid off, because it could well have been that bad, the conditions were (for the British midlands anyway) terrible. But if the forecast had been a little out, if the weather had been slightly warmer... less snowfall overnight, or even wet rain, more cloud cover clearing to sunshine... he could have had egg on his face and looked like a total wuss.

But two days off just or just after before christmas, it's not exactly the biggest loss. It can be made up for.