At what early morning tempature should they cancel school in the Twin Cities area? (2014, how much)

[QuietBlue]

Do school buses in MN use winterized diesel fuel? If not, that's going to be an issue too if the buses aren't kept in a heated garage.

[golfgal]

When our kids were in elementary school they had outdoor recess unless it was -10 or colder. Zero is not cold..however the -40--60 windchills we have had these days that were canceled were the right decision. I feel sorry for the school officials that have to make this call. They are darned if the do, darned if they don't. People were whining that they didn't make the call soon enough to find daycare or whatever--then if the called too soon and it didn't get quite as cold, well, then we are mad because they didn't need to call school. How about parents have a back up plan in place before they have to worry about it?

-40 is too cold for kids to be outside waiting for the bus that may or may not be on time for any number of reasons...

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by QuietBlue

Do school buses in MN use winterized diesel fuel? If not, that's going to be an issue too if the buses aren't kept in a heated garage.

Of course they do, however at -20 and sitting outside all night doesn't really make a difference what kind of fuel you use...

[MNTroy]

Originally Posted by Thedosius

Just out of curiosity, why do these school closings bother you so much?

I often wonder the same thing. I love when people pine about the days of yesteryear when they would walk to school, 3 miles uphill in -50 degree below weather with snowdrifts reaching 4 feet high! People were tougher in those days!!!


Perhaps people were tougher in those days. I do not know. I do know that are society is more litigious. Back in the day, it was your own darn fault if you did not dress properly. Today, it would be the school's fault because they did not close the schools.

Finally, I believe another reason parents get upset about school closing is many consider schools "free" daycare, so when school is not in session they have to either take time off work or pay for daycare out of their own pocket. I do not see this as a valid excuse because schools are not babysitters, they are designed to help educate.

[Kamsack]

As a weather forecaster, I think the role of when schools close for cold is a rather grey area. Yes most any temp below zero can be dangerous....you could say any temp below 20 can be... but obviously as other have stated you have to look at the climatology of the region you live and determine what is "unusual". That would depend on the area of the state of course. I know one or two school districts in southern Manitoba (Steinbach Manitoba) have set rules on temp and wind chill to close, but most school districts whether in ND or MN dont and leave it up to the superintendent, which I think is a good thing. Each school district knows its own characteristics, rural vs urban for example in regards to busing.

In the Grand Forks ND-East Grand Forks MN school districts, we have no standard rule... but in general in the past it seems when you have -30F or colder temps in the morning AND a wind chill of below -50F then we have started late or cancelled before. Up here in our region....-20s for lows and wind chills in the -40s are pretty common, such as this morning when it was in the mid -20s with wind chills in the -40s, so we all went to school on time with some districts 2 hours late. I am talking about northwestern MN , which to me is Moorhead-DL-Crookston-Roseau-Hallock area. I dont know how buses are stored, etc up here....I know we have our bus garage which I assume is heated and buses plugged in. We have the radiator blankets on them too.

So for NW MN....-30F and colder for lows and wind chills of -50F are rarer and could be used a benchmark. This is the general rule used for that school district in Manitoba.

Farther south in the cities obviously what is considered "unusually cold" is different with warmer readings. One might say -20F temp and wind chills -35F and below are more unusual for the metro and base it off of that.

No easy answers for sure.

[I'm Retired Now]

If the temp was five degrees warmer and the poor kids standing at the bus stop did not wear a warm jacket or hat, and that warmer weather allowed the schools to keep schools open, would that really have protected the kids from frostbite?

[Glenfield]

Originally Posted by MNTroy

I often wonder the same thing. I love when people pine about the days of yesteryear when they would walk to school, 3 miles uphill in -50 degree below weather with snowdrifts reaching 4 feet high! People were tougher in those days!!!


Perhaps people were tougher in those days. I do not know. I do know that are society is more litigious. Back in the day, it was your own darn fault if you did not dress properly. Today, it would be the school's fault because they did not close the schools.

Finally, I believe another reason parents get upset about school closing is many consider schools "free" daycare, so when school is not in session they have to either take time off work or pay for daycare out of their own pocket. I do not see this as a valid excuse because schools are not babysitters, they are designed to help educate.

We have a winner! And if a parent sued the school district, it would now be particularly difficult to defend a decision to keep a school open at any temp below the temp when the governor closed the schools state wide. The strategy would be to brand the decision to open schools at a certain temp reckless and imprudent in light of the governor's decision to close schools statewide when it was warmer. I doubt that he realized it at the time, but he basically set a floor on the temp when school could be held.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by Drewcifer

I believe it happened statewide twice in the '90s. Once in 1994 the morning after the Twin Cities had a wind chill of -48, and once in 1996 the morning after it was -60 in Embarrass (I think it got down to -31 in the Twin Cities that night).

Historic Wind Chill Temperatures in Minnesota

I was in a northern suburb and it was almost -40 F. I vividly remember pumping gas. It hurt a little to breath deep. I could not imagine -60.

[golfgal]

Keep in mind that they revised the wind chill scale since that -60 so the -40's we saw were about the same as that -60....

[Teddy52]

Originally Posted by golfgal

When our kids were in elementary school they had outdoor recess unless it was -10 or colder. Zero is not cold..however the -40--60 windchills we have had these days that were canceled were the right decision. I feel sorry for the school officials that have to make this call. They are darned if the do, darned if they don't. People were whining that they didn't make the call soon enough to find daycare or whatever--then if the called too soon and it didn't get quite as cold, well, then we are mad because they didn't need to call school. How about parents have a back up plan in place before they have to worry about it?

-40 is too cold for kids to be outside waiting for the bus that may or may not be on time for any number of reasons...

I agree 100% with your post. I served 2 terms on the school board in a central MN school district.
The Supt made the decision and the school board assured him we would always back his decision especially if he ruled on the side of caution.

The Supt lived about a mile out of town and had a long driveway. He said many times he would drive his SUV to the end of his driveway and step out for a few minutes to check the effect of the cold/wind and also check for blowing snow ( visibility)