It was soooooo cold...

**Tobus** · 7th January 10, 11:39 AM

Is it school board policies, safety issues, budgets? that are bringing this on?

Most likely it's school policies that are driven by a fear of liability or lawsuits.

**Sammac** · 7th January 10, 06:15 PM

We got about 6" today, about 3" more tonight. School's were still open today, don't know about tomorrow. No problems driving, 4x4's are nice in the winter! Suppose to get a little cold tomorrow night, about 8 or 9(-13 C). Time to touch up the wax on my ski's.

**Jerry** · 10th January 10, 06:17 AM

Originally Posted by Tobus

Most likely it's school policies that are driven by a fear of liability or lawsuits.

That is it in a nutshell. Just check out all of the lawyer adds on TV. They sometimes seem to be inventing things that they can file lawsuits over. Just imagine some old fart school bus driver skidding into a ditch in the snow and causing "minor" injuries to a bunch of elementary school kids. There would be people lining up to sue the school system for not closing. In my day, school didn't close unless we had around 6" and it was still falling. But then, we didn't have school buses. Many of us walked to school(neighborhood schools). The city bus system did run a few buses in the mornings and afternoons as designated school buses. . There also were not as many lawyers around then. Finally, kids were much safer walking the streets too.

**Pleater** · 10th January 10, 07:31 AM

In one of the earlier incidents of the freeze here in the UK, a coach slid off the road and two passengers died.

There have been many accidents of a trivial nature, but quite a few have caused deaths and injuries.

Now they are finding bodies in the snow.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**beloitpiper** · 10th January 10, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by Jerry

That is it in a nutshell. Just check out all of the lawyer adds on TV. They sometimes seem to be inventing things that they can file lawsuits over. Just imagine some old fart school bus driver skidding into a ditch in the snow and causing "minor" injuries to a bunch of elementary school kids. There would be people lining up to sue the school system for not closing. In my day, school didn't close unless we had around 6" and it was still falling. But then, we didn't have school buses. Many of us walked to school(neighborhood schools). The city bus system did run a few buses in the mornings and afternoons as designated school buses. . There also were not as many lawyers around then. Finally, kids were much safer walking the streets too.

There weren't as many lawyers? I think there were just as many per capita as there are now. Also, cities are bigger, not everybody can walk to school. And when I went to elementary school there were a lot of farmers. Those kids needed the bus because they lived 5, 10 miles away. Of course when the snow came down they wouldn't be able to clear all the roads that far out in time for school, so snow days were a big safety issue.

**JamieKerr** · 10th January 10, 09:02 PM

I always laugh when I hear people complain of a few inches of snow. Last weekend we had 18 inches of snow over night. By the following morning the snow up on the hill I live on was over the hood of my truck. A friend of mine has a small cabin back of the woods near me. We made a complete living room set in his front lawn out of snow. A recliner, wraparound couch, a table, and a fridge! Far better than snow angels

**Rob Wright** · 10th January 10, 09:17 PM

Friday we finally got the Arctic blast that was forecast. Temps have been reaching 25F for highs and dropping to 0 or below at night. Had about three inches of snow, roads were plowed, a bit slick but nothing bad. Someone with 4x4 SUV thought they could drive as fast as they wanted on the roads and ending up sliding of the road and smashing into the tree's on the side of the mountain.

What was unusual was that the basin had the same amount of snow as the house (house is at 7100 ft above sea level, the basin is roughly 4400 feet above sea level). The city where I am student teaching has no snow removal equipment and the roads were extremely slick. No, delay, which was stupid because there were several accidents where people couldn't stop and slid through intersections or ending up flipping their vehicles. A one hour delay would of allowed the roads to warm and clear.

Rob

**KiltedCodeWarrior** · 7th January 10, 07:02 PM

We are getting soft. Living back in FL now, I love seeing how people cope with lows (32 for us overnight) that are higher than the highs in most parts of the country at this time of year. Woke up this morning and there was actually frost on the ground and the cars! I am surprised that they didn't cancel school because the kids didn't have heavy jackets. Thawed by 9:00AM of course and we made it up to almost 60 today. Was quite nice this afternoon.

**EagleJCS** · 7th January 10, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by KiltedCodeWarrior

we made it up to almost 60 today. Was quite nice this afternoon.

I'm in the same area as Forrester. It's gonna be in the single digits overnight tomorrow and Saturday. Thank goodness my camping trip was postponed!

**beloitpiper** · 7th January 10, 08:40 PM

So far we've had about 9 inches so far, and they say a foot by tomorrow morning. And, as luck would have it, it'll be about 14°F (-10°C) at 8:00am tomorrow as I go to work...