Crust…for all three.
Living in the South, the kids have never had a snow day. We have occasionally gotten days off for tropical storms and hurricanes though those are a lot less fun than snow!
We’ve already received word that both D17 and D23’s schools are closed for tomorrow. Which is nice, because we can all relax and stay up late binge watching Netflix until the power goes out, lol. We have all above ground power lines, so outages are a non-trivial concern in winter. I did stock up on canned soup, etc. but boy, based on the state of the supermarket, some of my neighbors are expecting the zombie apocalypse. :))
@MotherOfDragons being from Atlanta, what do you think of Emory? My D applied there.
@BusyNapping Mine have never had a snow day. But we did have smoke/soot days when we have had very bad brush fires in the area. Personally, Id much rather have a snow day.
@STEM2017 – I think you may have missed your calling.
@thermom – am right there with you with the above ground power lines. While an inconvenience during say August, a real danger during icy cold. Fingers crossed that the power remains on. Snow will go away eventually, but I do not want to deal with burst pipes.
I’m also right there with you, @thermom and @CT1417. Our power has gone out for days in the past with these types of storms. When we had 3 feet of snow a few years ago our road wasn’t plowed for a couple of days. Fortunately with that storm we actually didn’t lose power. Between tropical storms and nor’easters we get hit a lot!
Stop and Shop was a zoo today, but we are stocked up on plenty of snacks and firewood. And wine, lots of wine. Lol
RE: Snow days in D.C. – I lived there for 25 years (also in the era of Marion Barry.) It takes very little to snarl traffic. I always attributed it to the larger than average percentage of the population (diplomats, political players) who were from other countries where there was no snow and therefore no need to learn how to drive in it.
@nocturne21 – Have you seen that graphic that displays the forecast as # of bottles of wine needed to survive the storm? It has been circulating before every large storm the past several years.
We have had power out for as long as six days, two different times. Downed utility poles were the issue and we had to wait until crews arrived from Canada! Hopefully we will be spared this time. Aggressive tree trimming has taken place, and a lot of trees have fallen, so fingers crossed nothing crashes–for any of us!
Congrats on all the recent acceptance and on @RightCoaster and @nw2this son’s DECA victory!
My son’s school already confirmed a snow day for tomorrow. My daughter’s school has not made the call yet. She has 14 friends over watching the Bachelor Finale with most of them spending the night so it will be very problametic if the snow is a bust and they have to go to school. I bought a ton of food so that I could feed them all dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and breakfast again. Looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.
Had power out 11 days after Sandy storm – major electric transformer taken out! Our neighbors hated us bc we had a great generator!! Hope it is ready to go tomorrow!!
@CT1417, yes I have seen that graphic on FB before every major storm. It still makes me chuckle. :>
We have lost 4 80-foot trees over the past few years due to storms. Hopefully none will topple over this time. I’ve been complaining about how bare and “ugly” many areas look (especially on the pkwy) due to the aggressive tree trimming. I’m very glad for all that tree trimming now!
@CA1543, what @payn4ward wrote. Also, the school buses here all have built-in automatic snow chains, which helps.
(You also have to remember that the whole idea of “clearing snow” by plowing the streets is…Well, they do plow, but it never actually clears the snow—we spend five or six months driving around on packed snow/ice anyway, so what’s another few inches?)
Also, I grew up in the DC area, and I always thought that closing everything down (and thus getting an extra holiday) for a half inch of snow wasn’t evidence of wimpiness or anything, but rather evidence of simply how smart Washingtonians are—we get an extra day free!
(Also, when snow falls in DC—also places like Atlanta and Dallas—the roads invariably get icy. Even people from cold-weather states learn quickly enough, snow in DC ain’t like snow back home.)
Like @dfbdfb said, If it snows a foot or more in snow country, they plow the roads. Even with an SUV with AWD, you can’t drive through a foot or more of snow. We can just deal with it via equipment. And as @dfbdfb also said, the school buses have automatic chains (new to our school buses). We have had delays and closures this year. Those atmospheric rivers have dumped 10s of FEET of snow (55 or something crazy like that) in some areas!
When I lived in East Tennessee, they closed the schools because of snow a few times. Mainly because they couldn’t plow the small country roads and then the school buses couldn’t maneuver to pick up kids. I was always amazed at how the milk and bread and eggs flew off the shelves when there was a threat of snow.
I grew up in Colorado but live in Wisconsin now. I have no proof, but I have always felt the difference as to why CO almost never has snow days and the upper Midwest does is that CO doesn’t get frigid temps and therefore the roads don’t get as icy. Like CO everyone in the upper Midwest has 4 wheel drive but while that helps with driving through several inches of snow, I don’t think it helps with ice. Also, if the windchill gets too low, the upper Midwest has “too cold to go to school days” irrespective of whether there’s snow. We’ve already missed so many days here that S’s school will be making up days in June.
All this talk of school buses always makes me laugh, we have no such thing here.
@thinmints @NerdMom88 @CA1543 In suburban MD and schools are closed tomorrow. It is snowing but no snow sticking on the streets yet. DC area is notorious for canceling school at the first snowflake, much to the dismay of my H who is from upstate NY. D has 5 friends over for a sleepover. It’s great to have our first snow day of the year!
Icy roads definitely make a difference.
I have a co-worker who stays home when it rains because the roads are too sketchy. Rain. SoCal makes some people a little soft.
@socalmom007 You don’t have school buses? I understand mid to wealthy parents driving kids to school. How do low income kids get to school?