Severe Weather Threat - Jan 11-12th, 2024

[Chris3024]

You know you can home school, right?

It is starting to sound like you use the school system as a type of daycare for your kids, instead of the learning environment that it is supposed to be.

 

[Nathan F]

I'm more concerned about northern areas of the Deep South getting in on this. That's my two cents on it at this time. Trying to figure out this upcoming threat plus next week's winter palooza has my head spinning in different directions.

Look at the GFS and HRRR on this.

 

[Nathan F]

It is starting to sound like you use the school system as a type of daycare for your kids, instead of the learning environment that it is supposed to be.

I mean, storms cancel school so....

 

[pritchlaw]

It is starting to sound like you use the school system as a type of daycare for your kids, instead of the learning environment that it is supposed to be.

No, I send them there to get an education and don't like the schools closing 10 times a year for a weather event that was over-hyped and never was a threat, like today. So instead of learning like other kids, they are all at home and their teachers are at Buffalo Wild Wings yucking it up about how stupid the school closure was. Got any other hot takes there?

 

[TH2002]

I'm sure school officials do things differently in different parts of the country, but in all my school years from elementary till I graduated HS in 2021 I can't recall a single time class was cancelled due to high winds. Especially since the yearly Santa Ana winds we get regularly gust to minimal hurricane force around here, and stronger in isolated cases. It took gusts of 167 mph (literally) for officials to finally shut down schools in the LA area back in December of 2011.

 

[Chris3024]

No, I send them there to get an education and don't like the schools closing 10 times a year for a weather event that was over-hyped and never was a threat, like today. So instead of learning like other kids, they are all at home and their teachers are at Buffalo Wild Wings yucking it up about how stupid the school closure was. Got any other hot takes there?

You do realize kids can learn while not being at school

 

[Nathan F]

I'm sure school officials do things differently in different parts of the country, but in all my school years from elementary till I graduated HS in 2021 I can't recall a single time class was cancelled due to high winds. Especially since the yearly Santa Ana winds we get regularly gust to minimal hurricane force around here, and stronger in isolated cases. It took gusts of 167 mph (literally) for officials to finally shut down schools in the LA area back in December of 2011.

That's crazy!

 

[warneagle]

I can't say anything really, the federal government closed all of the museums on the Mall sent all of us home a few months ago because of a tornado watch that ended up being a blue sky bust. I had a good laugh with a coworker from Alabama about that one.

 

[pritchlaw]

We can have this same discussion Monday and Tuesday when schools close bc of the possibility of winter precip which, if it happens at all, will prove to not have been bad enough to close schools again. The hype for that event will begin in a few hours after the final tiny possibility of a tree falling somewhere from this level 2/3 severe threat is extinguished.

 

[Blountwolf]

The issue for school administrators is timing the call. If the models are showing a severe outbreak or high winds the day before when the calls are made, they pull the trigger and cancel. If they could cancel the morning of the event, there would be a lot fewer false alarms. This looked like a threat when the call was made, but didn't soon thereafter. But if they make the call the day of, that's little to no lead time for parents to make arrangements.

With all that said - I don't believe the guidelines on wind speeds for buses are reasonable - it takes a broadside wind of greater than severe levels to overturn a bus. 30-35mph sustained with higher gusts is handled just fine by buses all across the midwest regularly without issue.

 

[Chris3024]

Like I’m not trying to be argumentative. My takes are coming from my own experience as a parent of a child who suffers from PTSD and anxiety due to the 2019 hail storm here in Cullman.

 

[pritchlaw]

You do realize kids can learn while not being at school

You do realize that when you enroll in public school and pay taxes for it, etc., you assume they are going to be educated at the school and you don't have an educational curriculum set up for them to be in class at the house? You are making some real lame attempts here.

 

[Chris3024]

The issue for school administrators is timing the call. If the models are showing a severe outbreak or high winds the day before when the calls are made, they pull the trigger and cancel. If they could cancel the morning of the event, there would be a lot fewer false alarms. This looked like a threat when the call was made, but didn't soon thereafter. But if they make the call the day of, that's little to no lead time for parents to make arrangements.

With all that said - I don't believe the guidelines on wind speeds for buses are reasonable - it takes a broadside wind of greater than severe levels to overturn a bus. 30-35mph sustained with higher gusts is handled just fine by buses all across the midwest regularly without issue.

I think it has to do with more than just the wind speeds, the conditions of the road network also might play a factor. Like here in Cullman County, many of the county roads are not in that great of shape to begin with.

 

[Former Member]

It is starting to sound like you use the school system as a type of daycare for your kids, instead of the learning environment that it is supposed to be.

Yeah, buddy. A guy who graduated from Cumberland Law School probably doesn't see the value in education and only wants to pawn his children off on some burned-out school teacher all day and doesn't care about their future.

 

[Chris3024]

You do realize that when you enroll in public school and pay taxes for it, etc., you assume they are going to be educated at the school and you don't have an educational curriculum set up for them to be in class at the house? You are making some real lame attempts here.

Who said it had to be stuff that they would learn in school. Heck, I probably learned just as much stuff in my grandpa’s garage as I did in school.

 

[Clancy]

Maaan, this thread needs a time out or something until some people can converse like adults.

 

[warneagle]

The issue for school administrators is timing the call. If the models are showing a severe outbreak or high winds the day before when the calls are made, they pull the trigger and cancel. If they could cancel the morning of the event, there would be a lot fewer false alarms. This looked like a threat when the call was made, but didn't soon thereafter. But if they make the call the day of, that's little to no lead time for parents to make arrangements.

With all that said - I don't believe the guidelines on wind speeds for buses are reasonable - it takes a broadside wind of greater than severe levels to overturn a bus. 30-35mph sustained with higher gusts is handled just fine by buses all across the midwest regularly without issue.

Yeah, it's a tough position to be in when the forecasters are raising the alarm like they did two days in advance. All indications were that this had the potential to be a significant event; the school boards aren't in the weather forecasting business, so they've got to take the forecasters at their word and make decisions based on that. I don't think it's fair to criticize them for not being able to foresee the Day 3 forecast busting.

 

[TH2002]

This thread has certainly gone... interesting places

 

[pritchlaw]

The county roads are not in such bad shape in Cullman that the buses can't handle them if the wind is blowing 30 mph. That's the type of approach that I am railing on. Magnifying and exaggerating every possible threat into something it isn't.

 

[Chris3024]

The county roads are not in such bad shape in Cullman that the buses can't handle them if the wind is blowing 30 mph. That's the type of approach that I am railing on. Magnifying and exaggerating every possible threat into something it isn't.

But that is the beauty of hindsight. When the call was made early yesterday afternoon, the forecasts were painting a different picture than what came to be.