Overreacting to Weather

[harv3034]

Ok, here's the deal. I am currently attending the University of Oklahoma (Norman Camupus). classes just started up 3 days ago, so everyone is still in vacation mode. Last year they got some pretty severe snow stormes and only yesterday, the head grounds keeper stated that they were "fully prepared to keep the roads and walks clear of snow" which would allow classes to go on as scheduled.

Here's the thing: It's currently 19 degrees, it snowed last night (between 1 & 2 inches), and there is barley any ice on the ground (seriously, there's probably more salt then ice on the roads).

But dispite the minimal amounts of ice and snow, dispite all that prep and posturing, and dispite all the precausions being properly implemented... THEY STILL CANCLED CLASSES FOR THE DAY!
It just seems rather like they are overreacting abit to me.

According to my room mate, in his home town of Springfield Illinois, it would usually take more then 6 inchs of snow/ice and a single didget or negative temperature to cancle schools.

My question to you, my fellow Escapists, is two fold.
1) Where do you live?
2) How bad does the weather have to be to close schools?

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

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.

 

[Evilsanta]

In Sweden our schools never get canceled. Hell, the snow can be 2 meter high and the wind blowing like hell and we are still required to go.

No such thing as to snowy or anything here.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Jeez. One to two inches and they freak. Things around here usually don't get hectic until we get over two or three feet.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

I live in Florida, and school only gets closed for severe storms (read: hurricanes and tornadoes). But if you really want to talk about overreacting to weather, be here when it starts to get "cold." People start donning parkas once the temperature dips below seventy degrees Fahrenheit. At seventy or higher, schools run the AC on full-blast.

I mean, come on, people. Seventy-two degrees won't kill you! It's nice weather!

 

[Trildor]

1) Santiago de Chile.

2) Either completely covered in water or completely covered in snow, the last time it happened was over three years ago.

 

[bulldogftw]

Holy shit! A snowflake

 

[FlashHero]

I'm closed today because there is just a risk of snow and ice...yes that's right not any yet but a risk.

 

[freakydan]

I'm in Southern Indiana, and school has been called off for the day because of an inch of snow, with a total of 3-5 inches expected by this evening.

I grew up in Maine, though, and you'd have to get somewhere between six inches and a full foot dumped on you after midnight, leaving the plows with no time to clear it off, before you could even HOPE to have school closed. It was even harder to get an early release. I used to joke around with my friends that it would take a confirmed sighting of the four horsemen of the apocalypse before they'd call off school early, and even then, it'd have to be within the city limits. If it was a couple towns over, we'd ride it out.

 

[Inner Pickle]

1. The UK

2. Whenever someone even thinks about snow.

Its nice to see our American cousins still have some British-ness within them.

 

[zen5887]

1. Queensland

2. Well, you know the rest..

 

[Bailoroc]

Currently El Paso.

Well, it's like this. Classes themselves will only get cancelled if there is a risk of ice (snow isn't enough because we rarely even get an inch, if that). However, because it almost never, ever snows, any amount of snow will drive people crazy since they're not used to it, so driving becomes dangerous anyways.

Of course, I'm in college, so it takes a lot more for those kind of classes to be cancelled.

I was in Kentucky recently and I think they're better prepared for keeping the roads clear because it snows frequently. Heck, it was actually bone-dry when I got there but right on Christmas Eve it started snowing like crazy. But the roads were still clear anyways.

 

[Bobzer77]

1) Ireland

2) 3-4 inches of snow, flooding isn't an excuse.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

1) Austin, Texas
2) The only school closure that has taken place in my time here was the result of automatic weapons fire. The climate in this part of the world is actually quite pleasant.

 

[Toriver]

I remember childhood in rural Minnesota, listening to the radio during nasty blizzards as all the schools delayed classes... except mine. It's much more common in Minnesota to delay the start of the school day an hour or two in a couple feet of snow than to cancel school altogether, but there was the very rare snow day or two. Less than a foot, though? Forget about it, there's no way you're starting school late for that.

Here in Japan they've canceled classes in a bad flu outbreak in my town last year to avoid it spreading, but neither rain, sleet, snow nor freaking typhoons will stop class from starting on time (and I have had to walk to school in a typhoon here... not fun.)

 

[baconsarnie]

My school has never closed due to 'inclement weather', on a day of bad snow it is the only one for miles that is still open (there are 7 secondary and many primary schools in the area). Given that it's on a hill it seems pretty stupid for it to be open, most people took the day off anyway. Anything more than a couple of inches of snow counts as a snow day

 

[Aulleas123]

Mid Atlantic/East Coast, in my experience it depends on the severity and the time of winter in which weather hits. For example, if it's the beginning of December and we get a slight snowfall, it's early enough in the season for people to freak out. However last winter, after the massive snow storms we got, by February we didn't even care unless it was more than a foot of snow.

For driving and traffic, it's actually not as bad when it snows as when it rains. People know that they should drive slower in the snow and some don't even go out at all. However, folks have a hard time understanding that they should slow down a little when it rains outside.

 

[Simple Bluff]

1) Ireland

2) Usually not much, but there was an exception this year, appereantly. We got quite a lot, but nothing was cancelled which was very strange.

Interesting sidenote: when I was young, the girl's school across the way had THE ENTIRE ROOF BLOWN OFF THE BUILDING, and they didn't cancel classes. My school had reports of *one* rat, and we missed a week.
Haw - haw.

 

[theSovietConnection]

It takes a fair bit of strictly snow on the ground for buses to be cancelled around here, usually a good half a meter at least. Impaired visibility is the big problem here, and usually it's legitimate. Southwestern Ontario, by the way.