Metro Schools closed tomorrow ...

[Robin Garr]

Let the ranting begin!

Mayor Greg Fischer
JCPS will not have school tomorrow, Dr. Hargens has announced.

On the positive side they didn't wait until 5 AM tomorrow morning to cancel. On the negative side, it's still 35° and raining. The better what they do there are certainly good to be many people who disagree with the decisions they make.

I can't see my way clear to pull the Minnesota card this time...Given that the Governor of that state canceled school for the entire State for the next day or two. (The caveat being that local Twin Cities temps will be hovering around minus 30 with wind chills of around 65 below zero).

I suppose given that most kids (and people in general) in and around Louisville probably don't own a -real- "winter coat" it probably is best to air on the side of caution. Wimping out at the forecast of an inch of snow is one thing, wind chills in excess of 20 below is an entirely new ball game unless your wardrobe is prepared for it.

This is as far north as I could ever live. I do not have a big heavy winter coat with a big furry hood. Sometimes we barely have a 1" of snow all winter and barely go below 32°.
Why should we have 100s of snow plows sitting around every winter for our normal winters.
Tired of the people from the north bashing us. When there is extreme snow and cold you too close your schools. You sound like a bunch of old people who grew up in the depression...walked 10 miles to school both ways and both ways up hill with no shoes and no food.

Speaking of cold....In 1996, while still living in Minnesota, we had one of these "polar" things spin down out of the arctic...For -days- they were predicting all time low temps for the state. On the night the record cold temps were predicted the official NWS weather observer in Tower MN had -dozens- of people camping out in his back yard so that some day they'd be able to brag to their grand kids that they had slept out on the coldest night in MN history. The temp that night hit minus 60 degrees (without factoring in the windchill). It is still the record low temp for the state.

It's a sad joke when your city shuts down because its 45 degrees with light rain on the CHANCE that it might get cold and freeze. If I panicked every time the weather terrorists on the news told me to, I would have died of stress years ago.

Will it rain? Yes. Will it get cold? Most likely. But how about we wait to declare the city in a state of emergency until there are real, existing (not imaginary) weather conditions to be concerned about. I'd rather they cancel things at 5AM in the morning when they are real rather than cancel 12 hours prior on a chance.

If the weather terrorists were right, we'd be sloshing through 2 inches of snow right now instead of light rain.

I don't believe them because they are motivated (or at least their networks are) by advertising dollars and use scare tactics to drive viewership to their stations. They prey upon the fearful and the elderly. Err on the side of caution all you want, but considering the amount of "severe" weather we actually get in this city, I'd much rather wait and see.

If you want to panic and get all freaked out, why not run those blasted salt trucks up and down the roads non-stop like you love to do when it's 55 degrees. Try some prevention instead of panic. Then, if there is a situation, we are ready AND we can do things like cancel stuff.


Sorry, Robin, you said open invitation to rant, and if you give me an opening...

Well, at this time it's still 36 degrees with no snow. (And I am hoping it stays that way.) but, a little over 2 hours west in St. Louis it's already dropped to 9 degrees. Looking like it will be zero here by 4 am. I'm still marveling that within 24 hours the temperature here will have varied from 56 degrees to 0.
Geez. Crazy stuff.

All-in-all, i think it was a pretty wise decision. Just call off school and make up the full day of instruction at a later date. I know some parents will complain that the make up days interfere with some long planned vacations, but I guess that is one of the many "cost" of procreating and far better than having your child injured, or worse.
What drive me a bit bonkers is the delayed openings. Those are instruction hours that are never made up and cheat the kids.
Someone raised the question of the waste of having 100's of plows, but for an answer I suggest a quick call to UPS HQ as I recall some dust-up a few years ago about them moving out of town if the city didn't shape up their snow removal. That's a lot of jobs and tax base at risk.

It's a sad joke when your city shuts down because its 45 degrees with light rain on the CHANCE that it might get cold and freeze. If I panicked every time the weather terrorists on the news told me to, I would have died of stress years ago.

Oh, look - it IS 0 degrees and frozen. Just like they said.

Preciptation (type and amount) is always a tough call for meteorologists because there's so much that can change quickly. But temperatures aren't that difficult, which is why local weathermen around the country have the "3 Degree Guarantee" and stuff like that.

In this case, school was closed because of the certainty that it would get really, really, life-threateningly cold today. And it did.

One of the things that no one really thinks about is that several of the buses in the JCPS fleet have air brakes that dont work all that great in these temperatures. All it takes is just a little moisture in the regulator or lines to render them inoperable. Getting them started might present an issue as well as they have been sitting idle for 2 weeks over the break. If anyone has ever tried starting a diesel engine in extreme cold will tell you, they don't exactly turn over like a gas engines....

One of the things that no one really thinks about is that several of the buses in the JCPS fleet have air brakes that dont work all that great in these temperatures. All it takes is just a little moisture in the regulator or lines to render them inoperable. Getting them started might present an issue as well as they have been sitting idle for 2 weeks over the break. If anyone has ever tried starting a diesel engine in extreme cold will tell you, they don't exactly turn over like a gas engines....

And then, kids standing at the bus stops waiting in -0 weather.

I was skeptical. I was dead wrong. My Garage Door was frozen followed closely by my fingers. These are the coldest temps Louisville has seen in 20 Years. I'm going to go ahead and say it was a wise decision to cancel various things because of the cold.

Anyone that says otherwise may go stand outside for 5 minutes.

My Garage Door was frozen....

Kyle-
Thanks for the heads-up on this. My door was also frozen and the electric opener was pretty much useless. Kind of a bear to pry open, but better to do it now rather than have to cope with it in an emergency situation.

Yeah, I don't buy it. Maybe closing the city because it's cold is a thing, but I've never seen the like.

I guess I'm the only person in the city that had a perfectly normal morning. No ice on my car nor driveway. Perfectly normal commute (a little smoother thanks to Chicken Little), no ice on roads (plenty of salt though, literally piles). Was it cold? Sure. I have a coat. Got to work safe and sound.

But while you folks are at it, I'm selling rocks that keep tigers away. Only $25 each. Guaranteed to work.

I guess I'm the only person in the city that had a perfectly normal morning.

Things were peachy here in the hinterlands this morning...a wee dusting of snow and a little nip in the air but nothing a fleece jacket and a windproof shell couldn't handle. Overall more or less another non-event.