when is snowfall not snowfall???

[marmac]

Originally Posted by ranger17

"when is snowfall not snowfall"?? here in the south.

Having lived my entire life in WI, we just moved here this past Feb. We left an area that had over 100" of snow each of the past 2 winters ( normal was 48+/- ) so have a pretty good idea on what snow is. Come down here, and the "threat" of an inch of snow that "may happen" closes schools and causes grocery stores to get hit for essentials. I understand lack of plows, but the south has plenty of northern transplants ( with their suv's of course ); seems everyone forgets how to drive the minute they hit the Carolinas.
Pretty funny, watching the weather, see the schools close...... and the next day ends up being hi 40's and sunny. Oh well, for memory's sake I kept one shovel; so if we ever get hit hard and that 1" snowfall buries cars in their drives, i can make some extra coin plowing them out!

People don't know how to drive in snow in Minnesota any better than in the south.

Heck, 1-2 inches of snow during rush hour in Minneapolis will bring freeways to a standstill and be the focus of the 6:00 news cuz so many cars are in the ditches,accidents galore, and the drive home time being tripled because of the careless drivers.

[ranger17]

Originally Posted by marmac

People don't know how to drive in snow in Minnesota any better than in the south.

Heck, 1-2 inches of snow during rush hour in Minneapolis will bring freeways to a standstill and be the focus of the 6:00 news cuz so many cars are in the ditches,accidents galore, and the drive home time being tripled because of the careless drivers.

understood. We'd pass cars in the ditch all the time in WI, usually suv's that had flown past us in the storms to begin with. Almost seemed like the light snowfall caused more issues as drivers refused to slow down. I used to run routes from WI into the twin cities, and I fully know what you mean by the jams it can cause there.
Get a good dumping though, and seems near everyone would be more careful. Guess my point was school in the north was open with 8" of snow or 30 below wind chills, and like I said the threat of the white stuff closes them down a day early. Just a bit comical for a northerner to watch the weather down here...

[marmac]

8 inches of snow will close most schools near me.

In rural areas,we are brave but not stupid.

We are not going to send school busses out picking up kids on unplowed roads til they are plowed if that much snow falls.

Safety issue !

[ranger17]

Originally Posted by marmac

8 inches of snow will close most schools near me.

In rural areas,we are brave but not stupid.

We are not going to send school busses out picking up kids on unplowed roads til they are plowed if that much snow falls.

Safety issue !

NO disagreements on that one. In the rural areas I went to, school would be closed because it would take forever for plows to hit the secondary/farm roads. But in Madison, it was rare to ever close the schools. Even in the burb we lived in for 20 yrs, there were occasional closings, but more often then not they were just 2 hour delays. Id say the worst is having the kids sit at stops when the wind chill is well below zero. I think most closed when it was near 40 below, but there was a couple that stayed open when it was in the 30 below range.
But I agree, I'd rather have a kid make up a day later in the year and not worry about safety issues. Some days I was surprised they did close, others I questioned why not. It didn't always seem to be based on total accumulation, but rather wind, snow intensity, and if it fell overnite when plows could attack it before daybreak

[marmac]

I served 2 terms on our school board.

The Supt makes the decision.

Our school board assured the Supt if he erred on the side of caution, we would never second guess him.

Back in the early 70's, there was a different Supt who really drew the wrath of parents.

It was snowing in the morning and then started getting heavier about 11:00.
all area schools started closing and sent the kids home on bus.

This idiot kept saying it wasn't that bad and waited til about 2;30
By then the drivers had to arrive at school on snowmobile. None of the busses made it out of the city limits as it was a full scale blizzard by then.

Busses came back and kids had to stay in school for 2 days ( no classes)

He got raked over the coals by angry parents and angry bus drivers ( and rightly so ! )

[MrMarbles]

Originally Posted by marmac

I
Busses came back and kids had to stay in school for 2 days ( no classes)

The kids probably liked it. One hell of a sleepover!

[marmac]

We were a K-12 school.

Hearing and seeing the little ones crying at night spoiled everybody's " fun".

[Cosmicstargoat]

Originally Posted by Panks

GRRRRRRR I can't find any snow depth maps! I've looked and looked....National Weather Service has the most difficult site to navigate. Its like following a mouse through a maze, an hour later you're totally lost and no closer to what you were looking for. Hmmm..maybe the DMV set up their website

I just wanted to see a map of annual or monthly snow depth all over the US..or even state by state...anything.

This site is great for snowfall numbers but not snow depth.
NCDC: U.S. Snow Monitoring


Anyone else knows where to look?

Western U.S. Climate Historical Summaries

Climate information for United States - Climate Zone