"How Much Snow it Takes to Cancel School" map (US)

[KungFuPanda]

Have we played with this yet? I grew up in an area that cancelled at about 12" and moved to an 'any snow' place.

 

http://m.imgur.com/gallery/CiuVwRq

[DianeW88]

24 inches plus for where I live.  School has been cancelled here twice in 15 years, and that was for 28 plus inches.

[GSOchristie]

I have always lived in a place where it is "any snow" except when I was in college.  I went to school in Boone, NC, and it took a lot of snow for anything to be cancelled.  

[Dandelion]

The map says I live in 24" country, but school gets canceled for a lot less than that around here. 

[TracyP]

I'm in a 24" area. The second comment there sums up my experience: As a Minnesotan, I've never had a "too much snow" day. We just have "too f-ing cold" days.

[ondreeuh]

I grew up in a place that canceled school due to any snow, but that was because it almost never got below 30, so the snow was wet and would freeze into layers of ice. The city is also quite hilly, and since no one has snow tires and the city doesn't sand or salt the roads, it's just too dangerous to drive when it's snowy.

 

Now I live in AK, and we don't close for snow. They do close for ice, though. It's usually cold enough that the snow is grainy and it doesn't go into a freeze-thaw cycle, plus the city plows, grades, and sands, PLUS people use snow tires, PLUS it's flat here. It's a whole different situation. The kids have outdoor recess down to -20 F, but not if it's raining at 32. If you were curious if there is a sound worse than nails on a chalkboard, it would be the sound of someone walking on the concrete grocery store floors while wearing ice cleats over their boots.

[Cinder]

None. School was cancelled here in GA early in Jan for no snow, but extreme cold temps.

 

Ok, we got 2" in our area the other day and schools are still closed, even the local colleges. I'm glad because my street (on a bit of a hill) is still icy and I wasn't too keen on ds1 driving himself to school with icy roads. I imagine the streets will melt off today, though, as it's supposed to be in the low 40's and sunny.

 

ETA: I hadn't checked the chart before I posted. GA is in the "any snow" category. Duh.

[Dandelion]

I'm in a 24" area. The second comment there sums up my experience: As a Minnesotan, I've never had a "too much snow" day. We just have "too f-ing cold" days.

 

That's true here too.  We take the snow in stride. School is more likely to get canceled for extreme cold.  DD is attending PS this year, and school has been canceled a few times already.  Not for snow (it was below 8" each time), but for near-zero/below zero temps.  

[KungFuPanda]

24 inches plus for where I live.  School has been cancelled here twice in 15 years, and that was for 28 plus inches.

Yeah, but it's a dry cold. :-D

[KungFuPanda]

Dp

[G5052]

I am in a "nearly any" area now.  Occasionally they won't close for a dusting, but otherwise they're closed.

 

Where I grew up they only closed if it was two or three feet in a few hours and impassible roads.  If they had time to knock it down some and felt like they could keep up, the schools were open.  Snow on the roads or a snowstorm in progress wasn't necessarily a concern.

 

[Indian summer]

I'm not on the map (Canadian). I'm close to Maine though. Here school gets cancelled for 15-20cm which I think is only 6". And sometimes school is cancelled for a pending storm that never happens. But it isn't always about the amount of snow, if visibility is reduced because of blowing snow, school gets cancelled and RCMP warns people to stay off the roads if at all possible.

[Word Nerd]

I grew up in and currently live in an area where it has to snow at least 6 inches to cancel school; that seems like a fair estimate, but usually we have to get more snow than that. I'm not sure how accurate that map is, as in my experience the amount of snow is only one factor for superintendents to consider when making that call. We've also had school canceled a couple of times with trace amounts of snow or no snow at all because the wind chill was too low. The wind blows so much here that 6 inches of snow can create some pretty serious drifting. When I was a kid, our school district hired a new superintendent from Texas. He canceled school when we had a couple of inches during the first snow of the season—the only school district in the state to do so. That only happened once, as many people told him that if he kept canceling school for such a small amount of snow we'd probably run out of snow days before Christmas break!

[Murmer]

That map made me laugh...I am technically in the 24 inch category and get cancelled before that...mostly we get cancelled for ice or since we are 100% bussed school if the back roads aren't plowed no school regardless of the amount of snow...but I use to teach in Utah...they NEVER cancelled school!  Ever no matter how nasty the roads are (and they don't seem to believe in salt)...I was teaching one day when at dismissal time it was white out conditions and they still sent kids home...other school more north in that district had kids spending the night like the kid in Atlanta...nope school still doesn't get cancelled.

[Kathryn]

I grew up in a place that canceled school due to any snow, but that was because it almost never got below 30, so the snow was wet and would freeze into layers of ice. The city is also quite hilly, and since no one has snow tires and the city doesn't sand or salt the roads, it's just too dangerous to drive when it's snowy.

.

This. Except I still live here. It's not that there's some snow that's the problem. It's that every time we get it, it's between 30-34 degrees so it turns to ice on the roads. Then it thaws during the day and refreezes at night for days. And we don't have a fleet of sand and salt trucks and snow plows, people don't have snow tires or chains, and they're not used to driving in those conditions.

[I talk to the trees]

In July, we moved from a "24+ inches" zone to an "any snow" zone! I do love VA!! :hurray:

[Hoot]

The map says 3+ inches for us, but I find that to be relative to the time of the season. Toward the beginning of the season they'll cancel for just the THREAT of a couple of inches. The further we get into the season the less likely they are to close. Toward the beginning of this season we were closed for an inch. I woke up yesterday to an inch but no one was closed.

[In The Great White North]

I'm in the 24" category but have never seen it cancelled for snow.  Even when they call it a "snow day", the criteria is really icy roads, so they're more likely to cancel for an inch or two, when the temps are right than for a foot or two of snow.

 

The only time they cancelled for "too cold" was because the buses wouldn't start.  Since then, they've used a different oil and haven't cancelled school.

[dbmamaz]

where i am now says 1 inch and where I grew up says 3 inches, but I think it took more than 3 inches most of the time when i was a kid?  

[Hunter's Moon]

Where I live says 12''. But ice/slush and how much snow is falling per hour are also taken into consideration. 

[happi duck]

I've lived in 24, 12 and 1 inch areas.

 

In ten years teaching snow days were never due to snow but dangerous temps.

[gardenmom5]

I honestly don't like these types of things - because people frequently fail to understand how the difference in terrain (hill vs flat) can affect how much snow can be dealt with.  how the climate of the area (humid vs dry) affects if it's really snow - or ice trying to pretend it's snow.

 

eta: yes, I'll admit I get sick and tired of listening to Midwestern transplants making sanctimonious pronouncements about how we are so wimpy.  they usually learn the hard way.  (4wd's with chains can end up in ditches too.  there's also youtube video of cars with chains on sliding down queen anne hill. very icy.)  my girls got a chuckle out of an overheard conversation between two new Englanders on one of their flights between seattle and NY.  the transplant was warning the visitor to take seattle snow warnings seriously.  (because snow in seattle is NOT the same as snow in NY.)

[Lara in Colo]

The map says I live in 24" country, but school gets canceled for a lot less than that around here. 

 

Here it really depends on the forecast.  If there is going to be lots of snow and blowing snow when the children are walking or driving, then they will close for lesser snow amounts.

 

[Butter]

Any snow.  We closed last week for ice.  That was the first time our district had closed for bad weather in almost three years because snow/ice just doesn't happen that often here.  Many of the roads were closed.  So many roads are elevated for pretty long distances that ice or snow in any amount seriously can shut down the city.

 

It says 1" for where I grew up.  Not true.  Sometimes they closed for the threat of snow and sometimes were open with 6".

[Ann.without.an.e]

I remember once, when I was in elementary school, there was an 80% chance of snow in the morning and they called school off - it didn't snow a drop  :lol:

[Dandelion]

If schools around here closed for "the threat of snow", kids would have most of November-March off.

[gardenmom5]

I remember once, when I was in elementary school, there was an 80% chance of snow in the morning and they called school off - it didn't snow a drop  :lol:

 

we had that happen a few years back. (I think it was 2008)  they cancelled school, and nada. however, the snow hit that night. (with no school for the rest of the week.  there were still remnant piles of snow a month later.) I think there was around five inches from that front.  it turned into a storm for the books as we had 21" at my house over the course of several storms that lasted a week.  there was even a layer of ice.  I've never had more than a foot of snow before at my house of 30 years.  (and that was considered a lot.)

 

by that Saturday, dh drove to the airport to pick up our dd who was flying in from NY.  it's freeway for us basically the whole way.  he wanted freeway status reports as it was currently snowing.  I was on the traffic cams the entire way.  there were only a couple other cars the entire distance of over 20 miles.  the plows weren't keeping up.  he had his chains on the entire time.  (he lived in serious snow country for over 10 years, he knows about snow.)   coming back the freeway had been plowed and things were much easier.

 

dd was routed through Minneapolis - which was closed, so she was stuck in detroit.  she finally went to the ticket counter and asked if there were any flights directly to seattle.  she got the last seat, and arrived earlier than originally scheduled.

[Violet Crown]

Everything around here closes (or should) for Weather Incompetence. Last week, when the city warned of temps in the twenties, the Dept of Transportation panicked and dumped de-icing ... stuff ... all over a major flyover, and cars were skidding out of control long before the temperature dropped below freezing. The PD was very annoyed.

 

This week, the two ISDs dithered about whether to cancel for the possibility of Monday morning ice, and so Big State University decided not to cancel classes. Dd had an 8 a.m. class, but it was too icy to bike and dh had to drive her in. Then when there were 300+ accidents between 8 and 9, several involving school buses, the city announced everyone should stay off the roads, and the ISDs and university canceled the rest of classes. So parents (including me) had to crowd back on the icy roads again and pick up their kids.

 

Dd told me students were falling all over the campus sidewalks. An Irish classmate the next day was mocking the paralyzation of the city for so-called "ice." But he admitted that he'd passed out from heat exhaustion on campus a few months earlier, having not yet learned to constantly hydrate; so I suppose it's all about what kind of intense weather you're used to.

[Upward Journey]

Skiing (through the schools) was cancelled today. The windchill atm is -18F. I was surprised, but VERY glad :)

[Ottakee]

We are on the line between the 12 and 24 inches.  The thing is, it isn't so much HOW much snow falls but what the winds are doing.  A dumping of 12 inches with no winds is easily cleared away and life goes on.  Even 6 inches (along with the several feet already on the ground) with 45-60mph winds makes for blizzard conditions and blowing and drifts up to 10 feet deep on the main roads.  That we close for.

[Pawz4me]

And for a little bit of balanced perspective --

 

Chicago schools close early due to heat (8/2013)

Ohio schools close early due to heat (9/2013)

Schools in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin, the Dakotas and Illinois close early due to heat (8/2013)

Sioux City schools close early due to heat (8/2013)

Denver area schools close early due to heat (8/2013)

 

I could post link after link, but I think y'all understand the point.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find one nifty little graphic that showed something like "relative heat/humidity that it takes to shut down schools early."

 

Southerners find the notion of closing schools early for heat to be rather bizarre.  What's wrong with those people?  Learn to deal with it!  Get some decent air conditioning in your schools already!  Who cares if it costs a zillion dollars and you only need it a few days a year (or a few days every three/four/five years)?  Bunch o' wimps.

 

(Posted mostly in jest.  But also to hopefully make a point.  We all generally adapt fairly well to what is normal weather for our area, and often struggle in abnormal weather.)

[wapiti]

It really is a multi-faceted decision, with cold and poor visibility due to wind playing pretty big roles.  FWIW, we are in a 24" area and they don't use salt here either-   just some sort of sandy grit (maybe the highway gets the special mag stuff?).  I actually really miss salt - never thought I'd say that - on our hilly street, there's a reason I drive a Suburban, after a few misadventures with the minivan sliding backwards down the hill (I'd back up and then gun it, LOL except that the garbage truck would be in the way or something).

 

I get the ice and hill problem with little cars, but I'm still shocked at the level of the traffic jam in the South the other day.  A friend of mine was stuck in that for 11 hrs and I felt bad as she is from a snowy northern location.  It must have been really annoying.

 

Latest forecast I saw calls for 10" here overnight.  I will be surprised if we end up with a snow day tomorrow.  Then somehow we need to drive 100 miles through that tomorrow afternoon for ds's ski lesson on Saturday... our destination is expecting 24-30".

 

Eta, sometimes I prefer more snow rather than less, as it seems that I get better traction.  But, there also may be a qualitative difference in snow - some snow is more slippery than other snow (I know I'm weird but I'm serious).  A couple days ago, it seemed akin to soap flakes, but it's not always like that.

 

Anyone else happy to have their smartphone's traffic map  :tongue_smilie:

[mommaduck]

I've lived in various places, every type listed on the map and one that isn't even listed on the map (if it snows in Guam, then the world is collapsing, literally).

 

 

 

 

 

[Pippen]

Often it's not the number of inches that brings about school cancellation here, but blowing snow.  We closed for 2-3 inches recently because it was blowing so bad on the country roads.

[Amira]

The county where I grew up is labeled 12+, but I agree with other posters that there would have to be other things going on too for schools to close for that amount of snow. There's also quite a bit of climate variation in that county. I also think they're more likely to close now than they were when I was a kid.

 

I never once had a snow day growing up and there were plenty of times when we got more than a foot of snow. The closest I got was one January about 20 years ago where it snowed 4 feet on a Saturday and was windy, but there wasn't a reason to close anything on Monday. So disappointing. :)

 

I've said it before here, but I think the places that close for any snow are smart.

 

And I agree with the pp that some snow is slippery than others. When I've lived in snowy paces without a car, I've noticed it's much easier to walk outside when it's colder. Barely-freezing temps make for slipperier conditions.

[Word Nerd]

 

 

(Posted mostly in jest.  But also to hopefully make a point.  We all generally adapt fairly well to what is normal weather for our area, and often struggle in abnormal weather.)

 

Ah, but many of the same places that get a lot of snow in the winter also have 100+ temps in the summer. Extreme weather is normal here. :)

[Excelsior! Academy]

We live in a close for any snow area, which we do.  However, to be fair we usually don't get snow, we get ice.  Lots of people live rurally or on minimally travelled suburban areas.  The icy roads are extremely dangerous. 

[Guest]

 

It really is a multi-faceted decision, with cold and poor visibility due to wind playing pretty big roles.

 

:iagree:  What I think people often forget (myself included) is that the people who make the call on whether or not to cancel or delay school are just that - people. They're not Oracles and they're not God. My SIL's father was, for a period of time, "the guy" who made the decision on inclement weather for our county schools. That really puts a face on it for me. I think it's hard to be "the guy," because you're being asked to make your best guess as to whether the majority of families and staff members in all the varied terrain of our county (which is quite varied) agree that the conditions are - or soon might be - difficult or dangerous enough to justify squirreling up the schedule. They're bound to guess poorly once in a while and when they do? FB goes crazy with parents complaining that school was cancelled for "nothing" OR that it should have been cancelled but wasn't. 

 

 

[OhanaBee]

Our schools close for *any* winter weather.  We're very rural and most of the back roads ice up pretty quickly.  In addition, our new high school is the "Warming Center" [and "Cooling Center in the summer] for the county.  So when it's bad - no school!  This has been an unusual winter in that it's been SO cold for our area!  I know our family back in Colorado snickers at us, but the older houses out here just aren't made for weeks of temps below or right around zero degrees.  Hence, the need for a warming center.  Typically our schools get out in mid-May.  The word just went out today that school will still be in session through Memorial Day.

[KungFuPanda]

Alrighty now. Some of you are taking this a bit personally. It's a trend map, not a judgement of any kind.

[Berta]

Any snow. But, they closed the other day because of the threat of snow. We didn't get a single snowflake until 7pm. Yesterday we got about 2 inches and everything was closed... even McDonalds.

[MyLittleWonders]

I've always lived in an "any snow" area according to the map. But for sake of perspective, drizzle here brings out "Storm Watch Central" on the local news and inevitably there are car accidents attributed to the damp roads. I don't think we'd know what to do if snow fell out of the sky based on how we act if simple drops of rain fall. :rolleyes:

[catz]

Skiing (through the schools) was cancelled today. The windchill atm is 18F. I was surprised, and VERY glad :)

18 degrees ABOVE zero!? That truly sounds delightful. I would have been out skiing. :D It's 12 above, feels like -5 right now and it this point I barely feel like I need a hat for that. It's been quite a winter.

 

We got 8 inches of snow today. Nothing was cancelled. Our local schools have only closed a couple times in the past 15 years until this year. And it's more due to extreme cold than snow. It more has to be dangerously icy for them to cancel for road conditions.

[KungFuPanda]

The cold makes us edgy. LOL

I'll give you that. The darkness alone is bad enough. The snow and ice is overkill.

[LucyStoner]

 

eta: yes, I'll admit I get sick and tired of listening to Midwestern transplants making sanctimonious pronouncements about how we are so wimpy.  they usually learn the hard way.  (4wd's with chains can end up in ditches too.  there's also youtube video of cars with chains on sliding down queen anne hill. very icy.)  my girls got a chuckle out of an overheard conversation between two new Englanders on one of their flights between seattle and NY.  the transplant was warning the visitor to take seattle snow warnings seriously.  (because snow in seattle is NOT the same as snow in NY.)

 

The second winter we were in Seattle my mom was let off work early in downtown because it was starting to snow.  She was like "oh, ok" and was totally mystified.  She was thinking "score!  I'll get home before the kids and get some stuff done.  These people are crazy but whatever, I'll take it!"  Famous last thoughts. We lived on the top of QA Hill by the Safeway in a basement apartment.  By the time the bus made it to the base of QA, no buses could get up the hill.  She ended up walking up the hill, totally not dressed appropriately for the cold weather because of course it wasn't that cold when the day started.  She got home several hours later than she normally would have and was just praying we were ok because she didn't know if my dad had made it home or not.  Despite having been mostly from Chicago and Denver, she never made any derisive remarks about Seattle freaking out over snow after walking up that side of the hill. 

[catz]

The thing about the Midwest is we have the equipment and the chemicals to keep the roads running. I don't think there is a difference in the actual snow. Early some years we get a snow and then get a deep freeze and the roads can be rutted and slippery all winter. If we have a good base of chemicals on the road for the early season snow, things tend to go better. There are plenty of cars in the ditch here. Someone died on an exit ramp on black ice in my neighborhood a couple days ago. There were hundreds of cars in the ditches today. I think people are TOO daring here. I do not turn into a shut in all winter, but if I can wait a few hours for the plows/salt trucks to get through, I absolutely do.

 

We drove through Oklahoma in a blizzard once and it was pretty nuts. There was just no "keeping up" and I can see what it doesn't make sense in that climate to have enough plows and stocked chemicals to get through a couple significant snows per year. ETA - I also think southern states are more likely to get the snow near freezing that turns into ice. We get that too, but typically early and late season.

[Farrar]

They didn't bother to give data to my not-a-state. I really hate when surveys and maps do that. We're here too! We're Americans too! Sigh.

[gardenmom5]

The second winter we were in Seattle my mom was let off work early in downtown because it was starting to snow.  She was like "oh, ok" and was totally mystified.  She was thinking "score!  I'll get home before the kids and get some stuff done.  These people are crazy but whatever, I'll take it!"  Famous last thoughts. We lived on the top of QA Hill by the Safeway in a basement apartment.  By the time the bus made it to the base of QA, no buses could get up the hill.  She ended up walking up the hill, totally not dressed appropriately for the cold weather because of course it wasn't that cold when the day started.  She got home several hours later than she normally would have and was just praying we were ok because she didn't know if my dad had made it home or not.  Despite having been mostly from Chicago and Denver, she never made any derisive remarks about Seattle freaking out over snow after walking up that side of the hill. 

 

:lol:   youtube has a great video (not sure of the link) that made the news, of cars sliding down the hill playing bumper cars.  it was solid ice.  even the responding fire truck started sliding.  My friend lived on a hill that was a "snow route".  they'd go out to watch the buses go in the ditch. 

 

I live on a short hill - I've seen 4wd's not be able to get up it.  (when it snows, we park at the top - as the arterial is at the top.)

  I don't think there is a difference in the actual snow. 

yes there is. among other things, moisture content of snow can vary.  (it's why skiiers like intermountain west snow so much. it's *dry* snow. elevation is only part of that feature.)  that is further affected by outside air temperature, ground temperature, humidity levels, upper atmospheric conditions that produced the snow, wind,  etc. all snow is not created equal.  just like atlanta, we usually have "wet" snow.  nothing will stop you sliding (except maybe ice-spikes). 

 

just like seattle has many names for different types of rain, alaska has many names for different types of snow.  (eta: eskimos have 27 different names for snow. -and it takes a special kind to build an igloo.)

[Caroline]

I think afterTuesday, ATL schools will close with a 1% chance of snow within 24 hours.

[freeindeed]

Any snow for my area. I live in south Alabama. We saw proof of that fact this week.