Weather update

[Ajhutch]

Woohoo! Just got the text, tomorrow is another snow day off school for me, I imagine most of south birmingham will be the same. Just need a good hard freeze overnight and the forecast to make a slight downturn and this could turn into a free week's holiday.

I took a day off work the day after the super bowl a few years ago. As I sat up watching the game about 18 inches of snow fell outside. I emailed my boss to ask if I could cancel my holiday on the basis I'd have had a snow day anyway. His response: 'sometimes luck is a lady, other times she is a tramp'


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[Cwrw666]

What's so special about schools that they close when everything else carries on regardless? Not having a pop at you btw - I know it's out of your hands! But they didn't close when I was a kid in the 'proper' winters of the 70s. And even if it was like Greenland during a cold snap out there, I'd still be expected at work at 6am tomorrow.

All the schools close round here at the first hint of snow because all the kids are bused in down very minor roads that never get salted so they're impassable for the buses. If it snows during the day the kids are immediately sent home before it starts laying too bad.
The question is - how many kids are you prepared to lose if they have to walk home 2 miles in a blizzard?
Last time it snowed here my kids were still at school (3 miles away) - I managed to get the landrover through the drifts that were already forming but got stuck half a mile from home on the way back. We walked in but I don't think I could have made it if it had been much further...

 

[Dexter101]

I work for an online education company and we are getting students calling up asking if their lessons are cancelled because of the snow... :rofl:

Don't really blame schools for closing, one student slipping up and you have a law suit on your hands. Plus its easier to manage a flat closure rather than seeing how many staff can make it in and how many students... Could end up with 1000 kids being looked after by the caretaker!

 

[nigelnorris]

All the schools close round here at the first hint of snow because all the kids are bused in down very minor roads that never get salted so they're impassable for the buses. If it snows during the day the kids are immediately sent home before it starts laying too bad.
The question is - how many kids are you prepared to lose if they have to walk home 2 miles in a blizzard?
Last time it snowed here my kids were still at school (3 miles away) - I managed to get the landrover through the drifts that were already forming but got stuck half a mile from home on the way back. We walked in but I don't think I could have made it if it had been much further...

But two or three miles really isn't so much of a chore. Takes what, about 45 minutes to walk? What difference does it make if it's snowing, they're not going to get lost between school and home are they? [I'm talking about secondary school of course.].Wet feet and blue fingers, it's just character building surely?

 

[Clint]

....and ******** drivers....

 

[nigelnorris]

....and ******** drivers....

Yes but at beginning and end of the school day outside most school most of the drivers are doing the school run anyway, if they stayed at home and children walked the traffic wouldn't seem so bad. It's a catch 22 all year round, folks are driving their kids to and from school because they're frightened to let them out of sight during the rush hour.

Mind you like Cwrw666 my school is a country school where the kids are bussed in so no choice for anyone, it's all about whether the bus company thinks the roads are safe.

 

[Dexter101]

But two or three miles really isn't so much of a chore. Takes what, about 45 minutes to walk? What difference does it make if it's snowing, they're not going to get lost between school and home are they? [I'm talking about secondary school of course.].Wet feet and blue fingers, it's just character building surely?

Not sure about your area but I had to walk 400m from the gym to my work this morning and almost fell over 5 or 6 times. the footpaths aren't getting any kind of salt on them at all. slipping over into a moving car would put a bit of a downer on Christmas...

 

[nigelnorris]

Not sure about your area but I had to walk 400m from the gym to my work this morning and almost fell over 5 or 6 times. the footpaths aren't getting any kind of salt on them at all. slipping over into a moving car would put a bit of a downer on Christmas...

I'd sympathise with your point of view if it were the case that once home they stayed indoors, but I can tell you exactly about what you need to know about my area. There's a big steep slope where parents and children alike are hurling themselves off the top on crappy home made sledges, deathtraps the lot of them. Everyone's falling over, left, right, and centre, but it's ok now.

 

[Dexter101]

I'd sympathise with your point of view if it were the case that once home they stayed indoors, but I can tell you exactly about what you need to know about my area. There's a big steep slope where parents and children alike are hurling themselves off the top on crappy home made sledges, deathtraps the lot of them. Everyone's falling over, left, right, and centre, but it's ok now.

Good point on that one. Although somehow to me it does seem different. If I broke my leg sledging it wouldn't seem as bad as if I did it walking to work...

Its a bit like driving in conditions like this. My wife is a nurse and would be expected to get in to work. However if I didnt think it was safe for her to drive I wouldn't let her on the basis that she would be risking her car getting damaged just to get to work. Whereas I would happily try and drive myself somewhere if I felt I could for something I needed. Its a matter of happy to take the cost if its my own fault but if its because of work it would somehow be worse....

 

[Cwrw666]

But two or three miles really isn't so much of a chore. Takes what, about 45 minutes to walk? What difference does it make if it's snowing, they're not going to get lost between school and home are they? [I'm talking about secondary school of course.].Wet feet and blue fingers, it's just character building surely?

I'm guessing you're a towny.

 

[Clint]

It's a world of difference getting round slushy urban areas to driving down untreated narrow lanes in your average family car. The main routes round here are virtually clear now due to lots of gritting. Side roads are very slippery..I drove my Mrs to work the past 2 days as my car is old but hers is new . I'm good like that...she knows this but plays it down by saying I'm a fat useless pig....

 

[Cwrw666]

I've got a video on youtube of the time I was talking about.
https://youtu.be/kTvdxhNGrEg





[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTvdxhNGrEg&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

 

[Clint]

...you're not going far in that lot! Let alone sending the kids out to school. At a push I'd send the Mrs to the offy if my supplies ran out ...

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Love land rovers typical meeting someone coming the other way in the narrow lane.

Liked this part -

 

[Cwrw666]

...you're not going far in that lot! Let alone sending the kids out to school. At a push I'd send the Mrs to the offy if my supplies ran out ...

That was me bringing the kids home from school. The lane was blocked afterwards with 5 foot drifts for about 3 weeks.

Mrs Cwrw was at work so she parked at the bottom of the hill when she got back, a mere 1Km walk up to our place. But it did mean she could get to work the next day.

 

[Gunge]

All the schools close round here at the first hint of snow because all the kids are bused in down very minor roads that never get salted so they're impassable for the buses. If it snows during the day the kids are immediately sent home before it starts laying too bad.
The question is - how many kids are you prepared to lose if they have to walk home 2 miles in a blizzard?
Last time it snowed here my kids were still at school (3 miles away) - I managed to get the landrover through the drifts that were already forming but got stuck half a mile from home on the way back. We walked in but I don't think I could have made it if it had been much further...

At secondary school in the late 70s there was a run of severe winters and even with snow literally feet-deep, I can't recall our school ever shutting, nor any injuries or fatalities as a result of having to walk ( 4 miles in my case ) to school and back. I guess kids are just pampered these days. We were poor as hell and my shoes leaked, coat no good, house damp and unheated etc. Didn't bother me cos I knew no different but it must have conferred some immunity to cold as I don't really feel it, now. Hell it was actually fun, instead of thinking how terrible it was and the world might be ending etc!

 

[Dexter101]

At secondary school in the late 70s there was a run of severe winters and even with snow literally feet-deep, I can't recall our school ever shutting, nor any injuries or fatalities as a result of having to walk ( 4 miles in my case ) to school and back. I guess kids are just pampered these days. We were poor as hell and my shoes leaked, coat no good, house damp and unheated etc. Didn't bother me cos I knew no different but it must have conferred some immunity to cold as I don't really feel it, now. Hell it was actually fun, instead of thinking how terrible it was and the world might be ending etc!

Don't think it is necessarily the kids fault, more the society we live in. Constant fear of court cases...

I know when I was at school 10 or so years ago, we would all be walking to school in snow and floods etc but if the school closed, the school closed.

Think its the same now, the kids aren't refusing to go to school, the schools are closing as its the easiest choice for them to make.

However I think if you asked me to walk 3 miles in the snow to get to work now, I would tell my boss to jog on!

 

[nigelnorris]

At secondary school in the late 70s there was a run of severe winters and even with snow literally feet-deep, I can't recall our school ever shutting, nor any injuries or fatalities as a result of having to walk ( 4 miles in my case ) to school and back. I guess kids are just pampered these days. We were poor as hell and my shoes leaked, coat no good, house damp and unheated etc. Didn't bother me cos I knew no different but it must have conferred some immunity to cold as I don't really feel it, now. Hell it was actually fun, instead of thinking how terrible it was and the world might be ending etc!

Like you I went to a 70s grammar school, and I'd swear we were out playing rugby and/or football in it. Today's schools a shower even in the summer renders the playing fields out of bounds and the kids in the gym playing softball or something.

Probably for the best mind you, today's kids never shower in school so 30-odd 15 year olds in a room after half an hour of football in the mud wouldn't be a pleasant experience. In case anyone is wondering, the reason they don't shower [I kid you not] is that they don't want to spoil hair and/or makeup, including the boys. So much product in there they don't want to waste it. And there ain't no way a 12 year old girl goes out in public without makeup on, not in this century.

 

[Dutto]

Lovely Thread this! Plenty to get your teeth into!

1. 4 x 4 Cars

a) They are 0 x 0 cars when the wheels are locked and you are sliding along the road having panicked and hit the brakes!

b) If you hammer them into a snowdrift they will ride up on the snow, the wheels will lose their grip and yet again you will be driving a 0 x 0 vehicle.

c) Snow chains are still needed on 4 x 4's.

d) They are excellent in snow and ice - but they still need to be driven properly. :thumb:

2. Dress for the Weather

I had reason to call out a Doctor to SWMBO. We lived in a place called Glenkindie in the Grampian Mountains of Scotland. The Indian Doctor who arrived needed time to get warm after just walking the 50 metres or so from his car to the house. He wasn't dressed for the weather and wasn't carrying anything in his car to keep out the cold if he got into trouble. There is no doubt that had his car broken down he would have stood a good chance of dying before he was rescued!

3. Have a Plan

Know what you need to do to stay alive if your car ever breaks down or if the power ever gets cut off to your home. Just because we are living in an over-populated country doesn't mean that safety is always within shouting distance.

Enjoy! :thumb:

 

[Gunge]

Like you I went to a 70s grammar school, and I'd swear we were out playing rugby and/or football in it. Today's schools a shower even in the summer renders the playing fields out of bounds and the kids in the gym playing softball or something.

Probably for the best mind you, today's kids never shower in school so 30-odd 15 year olds in a room after half an hour of football in the mud wouldn't be a pleasant experience. In case anyone is wondering, the reason they don't shower [I kid you not] is that they don't want to spoil hair and/or makeup, including the boys. So much product in there they don't want to waste it. And there ain't no way a 12 year old girl goes out in public without makeup on, not in this century.

I remember (think it was 1979), playing football in school sports when snow lay all around and it was well, well below zero. I hate football so it was a double-whammy of misery and woe. I spent an hour and a half or so being so cold I thought I would die. I vowed there and then that I would never do sports again, so every week at the appointed hour my mate and me would disappear into town, returning to school for the first lesson after lunch. We did that until leaving school a couple of years later - how our absence was never noted, I'll never know - we lived in fear of being rumbled at any moment (they still had the cane then, and other effective punishments), but it never happened.

I can well believe the bit about spoiling hair and make-up - a sign of how far things have degenerated these days... but maybe that's for another thread.