Snow | Pad Patter 1/6/22

[jk703]

Morning everyone!

So, by me in NJ, we were supposed to have snow on Monday morning. They called a Snow Day at 5:30AM on 1/3/22. Um.... WE DIDN'T GET ANY SNOW!!!!

That really isn't my issue. I think there were a lot of other things going on, and it was a quick, easy, allowable option for the schools. But, life as it is right now, I think a lot called out, were getting tested, needed to go virtual, buses had short staff, and a plethora of other factors. My kids chilled, but I'm lucky they are older.

Tuesday on the other hand... was a mess. It was drizzly, wet, damp, and ICE everywhere. Ice Ice Baby.... Dun da da dun da dun dun. Over 250 accidents in my state alone. We did go back to school Tuesday with no issue. Go figure. Ice is scarier than snow to me.

So, tomorrow, we are now supposed to get snow again - forecast for me is 4-6". This is ok... but I'm not wondering about a Snow Day... I'm wondering if we will have a Delayed Opening, especially after Monday.

Any snow stories like this by you?

To Sum up NJ...

 

[michelepixels]

Snow has been THE News Of The Week here in Virginia. I think it was the same storm that gave you a "snow" day on Monday that dumped nearly a foot of snow on us. It has been awful for hundreds of thousands of people in the rural areas around me who were without electricity for over 24 hours (some still waiting for it to be restored). Lots of trees down, blocking roads, which hadn't been prepared with salt because we'd been having days of 60 degree weather just before the storm arrived. So many people were sure the snow wouldn't stick. And I'm sure you heard that the I95 was closed down for a long time. I heard it on the NPR news podcast.

I've been very fortunate though. No problems from the storm for me, and my winter break has been extended an entire week. I work in a school and yesterday they called off both today and tomorrow. The new storm is supposed to hit us tonight and while it's expected to be smaller, they still haven't recovered from the first one.

Here's a photo from Monday late morning while the snow was still falling and you can see a few snow pics on my layouts of the last few days in my gallery.

 

[jk703]

This one is relevant too...

Snow has been THE News Of The Week here in Virginia. I think it was the same storm that gave you a "snow" day on Monday that dumped nearly a foot of snow on us. It has been awful for hundreds of thousands of people in the rural areas around me who were without electricity for over 24 hours (some still waiting for it to be restored). Lots of trees down, blocking roads, which hadn't been prepared with salt because we'd been having days of 60 degree weather just before the storm arrived. So many people were sure the snow wouldn't stick. And I'm sure you heard that the I95 was closed down for a long time. I heard it on the NPR news podcast.

I've been very fortunate though. No problems from the storm for me, and my winter break has been extended an entire week. I work in a school and yesterday they called off both today and tomorrow. The new storm is supposed to hit us tonight and while it's expected to be smaller, they still haven't recovered from the first one.

Here's a photo from Monday late morning while the snow was still falling and you can see a few snow pics on my layouts of the last few days in my gallery.
View attachment 481646

Yes, you are right near where it all got stuck for hours on end, trees, snow, and everything! Those poor people, and some over night too! Ugh! A mess! We have family thataways, but north/west near Ashburn. It didn't affect them as much. It's so different in Va from NJ, and how preparations for snow are what options are used. My SIL was a little stunned when she moved from NJ to Va - they used sand versus salt on roads. Its so nuts lately with the weather - 60's during day and 20's at night. Then freezing rain and somewhere sunshine!

I'm glad you were fortunate! Your porch looks so pretty.....

 

[Memaw2Wm]

My father's former girlfriend lives in Fredericksburg, VA ... as of last night she still doesn't have power. She posted photos of the mess and said her neighborhood looks like a war zone.

I'm in Northern VA we got about 6" of wet, densely packed snow. I didn't lose power, but my Dad who lives less than 5 miles from me was without power for 6+ hours. Our roads are still messy, school is out again today.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

I haven't had to deal with school closures personally. 2 of the most memorable snow storms in my life happened in 1978 and 2005.

The blizzard of 1978 hit in late January (25th to 27th). I had just started a new job on a Monday and had trained for 8 days. I went to a UT basketball game on Wednesday night. My date left about 1 a.m. and it was raining. My apartment was one where the window was level with the ground. When my alarm went off between 6 and 6:30, I lifted the curtain (bed was under the window) and all I saw was snow! Needless to say I didn't work the rest of the week and my training was done as the lady I was replacing was moving (to Florida I believe but not sure when she actually got to go). Did I say I lived in Toledo at the time... a major city and it was pretty much shut down. My parents living 90 miles south of me were also snowbound. They did have a Toledo station on the cable system so watched that news to find out what was happening where I was. It was the next Tuesday before my car was dug out in the complex parking lot. The hospital where I worked (clerical in accounting office so non-essential) had people working 24 hours straight since people couldn't get in. The one good thing that came out of it was they set up a system where anyone with 4-wheel drive vehicles were on a list and would go pick up essential employees in cases like this in the future. This storm has been classified as the worst blizzard in Ohio's history. Toledo had 12 inches of snow with wind gusts up to 70 mph.

In 2005, we had an ice storm that started in the evening of January 5th (a Wednesday). I could hear the cracking of tree limbs all throughout the evening. I shut down my computer (thankfully) and went to bed about 10. Just a couple hours later I was woken up because it was so quiet. I had no electricity. When daylight came on January 6th, everything outside was ice covered. Landline phones did still work for at least a little while and I did find out that I would not be working that day as my whole town was without power. The power outage lasted several days for me. A friend of mine got hold of a generator and the dogs and I went to stay with them at night. I finally got power back on Saturday late afternoon. Then on Sunday... we had snow. Between 2 to 5 inches on top of the ice that had not melted due to cold temps. Many people in the area were still without power. When temps started to warm up later that week, the flooding started in many areas. It was reported by the National Weather Service that the Lima Metropolitan area was the center of the storm. Yeah, that was where I was.

 

[bestcee]

My SIL was a little stunned when she moved from NJ to Va - they used sand versus salt on roads. I

There are places in MA where they use salt and others sand because of the wetlands. I found that fascinating. I was there for some of their big snowstorms and it was crazy. It took us 60 minutes to drive 2 miles home.

I think they use salt here. We moved during the biggest snow storm that anyone could remember here last year.

This year? Nothing so far. We had flakes on our way into church on Sunday but they didn't stick and stopped before we got out of church.

 

[jk703]

There are places in MA where they use salt and others sand because of the wetlands. I found that fascinating. I was there for some of their big snowstorms and it was crazy. It took us 60 minutes to drive 2 miles home.

I think they use salt here. We moved during the biggest snow storm that anyone could remember here last year.

This year? Nothing so far. We had flakes on our way into church on Sunday but they didn't stick and stopped before we got out of church.

So there is a method to the madness. She moved about 10 years ago too, so I'm not sure what they do now. She was also surprised how 2" of snow really shut down a lot of things down there, while in NJ (USUALLY) 2" is a shrug of the shoulders. I think we are getting a little soft for schools, but I get they don't want anyone hurt. But, Monday was hilarious!

 

[HavaDrPepper]

So there is a method to the madness. She moved about 10 years ago too, so I'm not sure what they do now. She was also surprised how 2" of snow really shut down a lot of things down there, while in NJ (USUALLY) 2" is a shrug of the shoulders. I think we are getting a little soft for schools, but I get they don't want anyone hurt. But, Monday was hilarious!

There really is a difference in the various regions of the country. You see it in how people drive as well. Those of us that have to drive in snow have no problem driving in 2". For someone from the south, it terrorizes them!

As for getting soft in the schools... I somewhat agree. People make fun of the "oldsters" that say they walked to school in snowy weather, but it was true. They did. Schools just didn't close as often 40 to 50 years ago (my experiences). There weren't as many early dismissals or delayed days either. The school system in my town has been known to cancel school for heavy fog. Granted we have what they call "country routes" the buses have to travel but we didn't have fog days "in the old days" and we had the same "country routes" back then.

 

[Karen]

We live right next to Lake Michigan and often have even more unpredictable weather because of "Lake Effect" snow. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't, but WHAM when it does. Lol. We had a little snow yesterday and super strong gusts of winds up to 50 mph, so I thought for sure my boys would have a snow day here. They close school for two snowflakes these days and also if the windchill gets too low. I guess it's good since some kids walk to school, but it does seem kinda ridiculous sometimes. We are under another Winter Storm Warning for tonight, so I betcha they won't have school tomorrow, especially on a Friday.

 

[jk703]

There really is a difference in the various regions of the country. You see it in how people drive as well. Those of us that have to drive in snow have no problem driving in 2". For someone from the south, it terrorizes them!

As for getting soft in the schools... I somewhat agree. People make fun of the "oldsters" that say they walked to school in snowy weather, but it was true. They did. Schools just didn't close as often 40 to 50 years ago (my experiences). There weren't as many early dismissals or delayed days either. The school system in my town has been known to cancel school for heavy fog. Granted we have what they call "country routes" the buses have to travel but we didn't have fog days "in the old days" and we had the same "country routes" back then.

Way back when, like 1800's , I think a lot of that had to do with how life was. They had less days of school, and less timing (like 9a to 2p) , and not all even went to school. More schoolhouses were smaller, and within 4-5 miles (walking!) Plus, education stopped for many in 8th grade. It got way better in attendance in the 1900's, and then more structure to the days per year, and hours per day. They also increased the amount of schools by thousands. Right now, what we do have in our favor (too much right now) is the ability to school from home. Not the best, but better than nothing.

Our school day Monday could have been virtual, but they opted not to... so that makes me think there were other factors besides our ghost storm. Last year, we had snow days as virtual days, and then they actually called a snow day a real one... and kids got to go out and play in the snow. It was actually nice in the middle of a tough covid virtual session.

 

[jk703]

We live right next to Lake Michigan and often have even more unpredictable weather because of "Lake Effect" snow. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't, but WHAM when it does. Lol. We had a little snow yesterday and super strong gusts of winds up to 50 mph, so I thought for sure my boys would have a snow day here. They close school for two snowflakes these days and also if the windchill gets too low. I guess it's good since some kids walk to school, but it does seem kinda ridiculous sometimes. We are under another Winter Storm Warning for tonight, so I betcha they won't have school tomorrow, especially on a Friday.

We haven't yet shut for Windchill.... but snow (even non-existent, lol) and ice are our major ones. I'm surious how they will handle tomorrow... and to see how the storm pans out. We get no snow, and a day off... we get 4 inches and a delayed opening.

 

[bestcee]

They close school for two snowflakes these days and also if the windchill gets too low. I guess it's good since some kids walk to school, but it does seem kinda ridiculous sometimes

Munchkin was unimpressed with me this morning since he still had to walk. It was 8 with the windchill! The school line backed up to our house, so it's not like we would've got there any faster if I drove him.

We used to have 'optional' days as I called them. Basically, school was open and if you could get there - great! If not, it wasn't counted against you. We had like 4 teachers who could walk or snowmobile/4 wheel to school and a few kids. So, they would watch movies and hang out all day. I liked that it didn't count against us and extend the year. And my parents didn't always make us go - especially when they found out we just watched movies.

 

[dawnmarch]

I live in Scottsdale so this isn't a problem. But we went to Canada for Christmas to visit my in-laws and rented a lovely house on a lake on Vancouver Island that was at the bottom of a very steep road. They had record cold and it snowed and snowed and snowed for 2 days. Which was delightful for Christmas but we were very worried about getting up the (unplowed) road to head home. At 5 am (and still snowing), we loaded everything into the rental car and did not have one single bit of problem getting out. Like yours, a lot of worrying over a non-event. Our other worries -- COVID and flight cancelations -- also failed to materialize so we considered ourselves very lucky!

 

[michelepixels]

I'm scared of driving in the snow because I lived the first 29 years of my life in southern California, then I spent the next 18 years of my life being exclusively a stay at home homeschooling mom, so I still didn't have to go out when it snowed. When snow fell, the worse thing that happened was maybe a homeschool event had to be rescheduled. The first time I had to drive in the snow, I think, was around 2016 when one of my kids' friends had come over, a snowstorm surprised us, and I waited too long before deciding to drive her home. My van slid a little while turning left into her neighborhood and I was like

I haven't paid attention to whether they use sand or salt around here and have no understanding of the difference with regards to snow prep.

Regarding schools taking more days off for snow nowadays could the increased caution be because more kids take busses now? I have no personal experience with snow as a student, but when I was a kid, all of my schools were within walking distance and we all did walk. There were no busses. Remember, I grew up in San Diego. But here in Virginia it seems like all students take a bus to school. The roads are still very rural in the Fredericksburg area, with no edges on which to walk, let alone sidewalks. I know for a fact that my county often cites the messed up rural roads after storms as the reason for closing school. So it makes sense to me.
Another thought I have on this is that with fewer snowstorms because of climate change maybe people and cities have less experience practicing dealing with them compared to long ago.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

Munchkin was unimpressed with me this morning since he still had to walk. It was 8 with the windchill! The school line backed up to our house, so it's not like we would've got there any faster if I drove him.

We used to have 'optional' days as I called them. Basically, school was open and if you could get there - great! If not, it wasn't counted against you. We had like 4 teachers who could walk or snowmobile/4 wheel to school and a few kids. So, they would watch movies and hang out all day. I liked that it didn't count against us and extend the year. And my parents didn't always make us go - especially when they found out we just watched movies.

Yeah, that happened a lot when Mom was teaching. She taught from 1952 to 1986 so saw a lot of changes throughout her years. There were many times students didn't come in because of weather. She always had things planned that were fun and they still learned but were not counted towards their grade. Never anything entirely new. She was elementary until 1966 when she switched to 7th grade math. The students who usually didn't make it in those days were those that lived in the country, many on actual working farms. Even though buses always ran, if they didn't make the bus, the parents were usually too busy to run the student to school so they just worked the farm those days.

It really was a different time but from my viewpoint, things were hard back then since we didn't have all the technology that is out there today. The point is that when something shut down in those days it was because it was really bad, not "just in case it gets bad". We still persevered and it didn't hurt any of us. It made us stronger. Just call me a "boomer"... I'm proud of it!

 

[Memaw2Wm]

I grew up in Northern VA ... back before the housing/population boom. We definitely did not have as many snow days back in the 1960's, BUT we didn't have the kind of traffic and nutso, impatient drivers like we do now. Our county still has some rural roads. Both my DD and sister drove school buses and the tales they could tell. My sister got stuck for HOURS on Route 7 when a snowstorm hit earlier than expected. Traffic gridlocked and there they sat. My DD had her bus slide down a long hill ... luckily she didn't hit anything on the way down or end up in the ditch.

So, I tend to be on the "better safe than sorry" side, plus FCPS normally has 13 snow days built into the school calendar. This year they are allowing five "real" no school snow days, then any add'l snow days will be virtual. So far we've used 4 of those "real" snow days this week.

 

[gonewiththewind]

Everything shuts down here if there is snow, as it's so infrequent.

We do have closures for tropical storms and hurricanes. Sometimes they get it right in estimating when the weather will arrive and sometimes they don't . . . so there are times when school is closed and nothing remarkable happens other than light rain and wind.

Usually they take into consideration the safety of driving a school bus in high winds or in flooded areas. If they think the buses can't travel safely, they will have closures. Our area has grown immensely, but there are still plenty of rural areas mixed on the outskirts of town.

 

[QuiltyMom]

My father's former girlfriend lives in Fredericksburg, VA ... as of last night she still doesn't have power. She posted photos of the mess and said her neighborhood looks like a war zone.

I'm in Northern VA we got about 6" of wet, densely packed snow. I didn't lose power, but my Dad who lives less than 5 miles from me was without power for 6+ hours. Our roads are still messy, school is out again today.

It was a crazy storm. I’m in NoVA also, near Arlington, and we had between 6-8”. Friends in Ashburn got 3”. Others in Falls Church got 4”. Alexandria got 8”. And poor Fredericksburg got slammed, as @michelepixels and your friend know all about. Now they’re calling for 2-4” more overnight. I’m ready for Summer!

 

[amien1]

We have a big storm right now too- woke up to 6" of NEW snow on the ground and has been snowing all day. It's not THAT big of deal, but it's supposed to warm up & then turn to freezing rain on top of all that snow this evening. The kids even got a rare snow day due to the rain coming! The crummy thing is that the mountains are getting DUMPED on and we were supposed to leave for a hockey tournament this morning- it's an outdoor rink up in the mountains (SO cool!) The problem is that there are only 2 teams out of the 12 that are not from western WA (us & the home team hosting the tourney) SO of course, ALL the mountain passes are closed until further notice- none of those teams can physically GET to the tourney town. They have pushed the morning games from tomorrow to tomorrow night for now. We're planning on leaving tomorrow am now- but who knows if it'll get cancelled completely.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

So, I tend to be on the "better safe than sorry" side, plus FCPS normally has 13 snow days built into the school calendar. This year they are allowing five "real" no school snow days, then any add'l snow days will be virtual. So far we've used 4 of those "real" snow days this week.

Ohio allows 5 snow days that don't have to be made up each year. Make up days were built into the calendar, usually giving up days on spring break or adding to the end of the school year. But with the virtual coming in during COVID, starting with the 6th snow day, it will be virtual school. My cleaning lady's DH is on the school board and he told her that a large number of the teachers were complaining about having to go virtual. They didn't like the fact that they'd have to come up with lesson plans for their virtual day when needed. I told her that if they were smart they would have stuff already planned that they could pull out when needed. Just like what my mom did when she had a sub. She always had some stuff that a sub could pull out and do with the students that reinforced what they had already learned, leaving new lessons for when she was there. These same teachers always complained when days were added on at the end of the school year because of more than 5 snow days. Can't win with them at all!