1-11 Weather Thread

jsb

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This is Iowa 1/2 of inch of snow shouldn't be a big deal.

a half inch of snow on top of a layer of frozen rain. It is not science, the schools make the best possible decision that they can. The national weather service (not to be confused with your local TV station or the weather channel) was pretty direct in saying that they thought the morning commute could be very bad this morning and they aren't prone to over hyping things.
 
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kingcy

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a half inch of snow on top of a layer of frozen rain. It is not science, the schools make the best possible decision that they can. The national weather service (not to be confused with your local TV station or the weather channel) was pretty direct in saying that they thought the morning commute could be very bad this morning and they aren't prone to over hyping things.

The problem is they do miss, plenty. This missed on this one and we had schools calling it before anything fell out of the sky.
 

cycloner29

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Well... Ames is getting snow. I don't know if we get 8", but definitely we aren't getting shut out. Son finished up his semester tests at AHS yesterday morning and he doesn't have to go back until next Wednesday. Friday was supposed to be off, but now on due to the snow day today along with needing to get the rest of semester tests taken, they moved the scheduled day off on Friday, to next Tuesday. They get Monday off for MLK.
 

BigBake

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Our superintendent made a call like that back in the late 90's up in rural NW IA. Blizzard warnings galore and we didn't even have a late start. The roads were already crappy on the way to school and the blizzard hit around 10:00 but early out didn't happen until closer to noon. By that time you had buses and high school kids driving in a complete white out. It wasn't good and the guy took some serious heat for it. n I have no issues with the cautious approach.

Oh, I definitely agree in that situation. This is coming from a person who as a high schooler at a small school w a lot of kids from rural areas. I got stuck trying to get back to school (open campus and free study hour) and was found and assisted by the Superintendent who was out driving the roads and checking conditions to cancel remainder of school day.

I thought this snow had perfect timing to allow for a delay...a 2 or 3 hour delay. It was a quick moving system, hit at 7 am, let the snow fall, plows work the main streets, majority of morning rush hour is complete and start school.
 

BigBake

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a half inch of snow on top of a layer of frozen rain. It is not science, the schools make the best possible decision that they can. The national weather service (not to be confused with your local TV station or the weather channel) was pretty direct in saying that they thought the morning commute could be very bad this morning and they aren't prone to over hyping things.

And you just pretty clearly explained why it should have started as a 2 hour delay. That gives them time to actually see the actual results of the weather and make an appropriate decision, the whole point of going w delay first. My phone rang at 3am with the schools cancellation notice.
 

clone52

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The problem is they do miss, plenty. This missed on this one and we had schools calling it before anything fell out of the sky.

Are you a psychic? Do you know what the road conditions will be at 3pm when students would be leaving school? You can't really call it a miss until that time.

Also, I'd much rather have a miss on the safe side then missing by sending them to school and having someone get killed. Maybe you value life a little differently.
 

jsb

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The problem is they do miss, plenty. This missed on this one and we had schools calling it before anything fell out of the sky.

I guess I don’t think it is such a big deal. When was the last time ANY central Iowa school had a snow day? Pretty sure very few had one last year.
 
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jsb

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And you just pretty clearly explained why it should have started as a 2 hour delay. That gives them time to actually see the actual results of the weather and make an appropriate decision, the whole point of going w delay first. My phone rang at 3am with the schools cancellation notice.

And at 8 when they would have had to make the decision to cancel or stick with the delay, it was still not great out.

Plus, i would guess a lot of parents would rather know about s whole day then s two delay followed by a cancellation.
 
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wxman1

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What is the problem with a better safe than sorry approach to these kinds of things? You can always track a couple days one the end of the year when the weather will be fine. You can't undo any accidents or injuries that may happen if you push your luck and have school one a day that you shouldn't. It is one school day, no big deal.

Don't most schools already have snow days built in so they don't start adding days until the third or fourth one?

The problem comes with daycare of kids. Many people don't have anything set up for daycare during snow days. It is one thing for real bad snow days but when we get 1/2 inch of snow and they close it down that starts to become a problem.

I am sorry but maybe I am biased since my wife has a daycare but if you don't have a backup plan and at least one option for drop-in care that is a lack of planning on your part.

The problem is they do miss, plenty. This missed on this one and we had schools calling it before anything fell out of the sky.

It isn't like schools can cancel and boom it is done. I would imagine in most districts it takes at least an hour during the school day from decision to kids going home. Those bus drivers are not just sitting in the buses outside the school. Prior to school start they need to make the decision before the buses even go out so that means making the decision by 5:30 in most cases.

How did they miss? You can't watch the forecast three days ahead especially with winter weather like this and call that the final forecast. I would say thus far they have done a fairly good job at least from what I have seen. This is weather it is fluid it can and will change with little to no notice and there is sometimes no way of forecasting that. IT IS A SCIENCE!

Both of these seem fairly appropriate here.



 

BigBake

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To be clear, I'm not calling this a miss by any means. Forecasts were pretty solid and accurate on this one. And I'm only speaking in reference to metro schools.

I'll agree 100% that schools in rural areas made the right call.

* Edit - 11am and my residential street has already had one pass by the snow plow. Urbandale does a really great job imho of getting roads plowed in a timely manner.
 
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carvers4math

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We had a normal start time as nothing started here until 9:00 a.m. then we got ice and a car hit the guard rail on the highway up the hill from our house. Now it is snowing heavily and they are sending kids home two hours early. Seems like the roads would be better if they waited but frankly it seems they never should have gone in.

We are getting way more snow than forecast said. School does the best they can but predicting weather seems a crapshoot.
 

Bret44

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So we're going to seriously need to bump up our number of snow days for the calendar year. We have slippery roads quite often during the winter.

Schools have moved to hours now with built in time so that if they miss a couple days they won't need to make the up. Carnegie Hours are out the door. Seat time don't mean **** for learning.
 

SaraV

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Our superintendent made a call like that back in the late 90's up in rural NW IA. Blizzard warnings galore and we didn't even have a late start. The roads were already crappy on the way to school and the blizzard hit around 10:00 but early out didn't happen until closer to noon. By that time you had buses and high school kids driving in a complete white out. It wasn't good and the guy took some serious heat for it. n I have no issues with the cautious approach.

Was this Schleswig? A relative by marriage was telling me a similar story. School wasn't cancelled, received an early out instead. Bus got stuck, then the tractor coming to help them got stuck, etc. But this would have been probably late 80's/early 90's since she's a smidge older than me.
 

carvers4math

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What surprise me is the fact if you are using the fact that "it is Iowa" why the hell don't you realize by now that ice is 50 times worse than snow?

I’m worried about the power, with ice, followed by snow and wind. Rural areas the lines are mostly above ground.
 

BigBake

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What surprise me is the fact if you are using the fact that "it is Iowa" why the hell don't you realize by now that ice is 50 times worse than snow?

Exactly! The sidewalks will be considerably more dangerous tomorrow after being scooped and left with a nice ice sheet underneath.
 

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