Dec 15 2008
Snow Day?
We officially have our first Winter Weather school closing of the year. I’m not sure why exactly as I sit here and glance out the window while typing. It’s cold. And it did sleet a bit last night, but I still boggle at what will close the schools in Southern Missouri. It is a great and wondrous mystery to our house. The first winter we were here I sent my kids out to catch the bus one morning. Cold? Yep. Icy? A little. They waited, and waited. I wondered if the clocks where wrong and if we had missed the bus. I turned on the TV to check. School was closed. I called them in, and they looked as confused as me.Let me explain.
Up until two years ago we lived in a small town in Upstate NY near Syracuse. Here is our friends at Wikipedia have to say about the Syracuse area and snow:
“Syracuse is known for its snowfall. Boasting 115.6 inches on average, the Syracuse metro area receives more snow on average than any other large city in the United States. Its record so far is 192.1 inches. The high snowfall is a result of the fact that the city receives both lake effect and nor’easter snow. Snow most often falls in small (about 1-3 inches), almost daily doses, over a period of several days. Larger snowfalls do occur occasionally, and even more so in the northern suburbs.
One notable blizzard was the Blizzard of 1993, during which 42.9 inches (109 cm) fell on the city within 48 hours, with 35.6 inches (90.4 cm) falling within the first 24 hours. Syracuse received more snow than any other city in the country during this storm, which shattered a total of eight local records, including the most snow in a single snowstorm.”
Average snowfall in the Southern Ozarks in MO? 10 inches.
Just a little difference you think?
People here have argued to me that the ice here is worse on the rural roads, and that is why they close. The buses can’t make it on those roads. We lived off on a lonely farm road with only 6 houses on it when we were in NY. The first tracks of the day at times where either my husbands leaving for work or the school buses because the plows hadn’t gotten to us yet. We have shoveled snow thigh deep (And I am 5’6”) to make a path to the road for the bus. Now don’t get me wrong, we have ice storms here that are bad. We had one last winter that had us without power for three days. And they closed school for a week, and I understood why. But I have to be honest most of the time I have no idea why they are closing when it seems a little rock salt is all they need.
When the Monsters get up today and I tell then there is no school they will immediately run for the window to look for the snow. And then look at me just a touch confused, and more than a little disappointed. It’s just not a quite a snow day without the snow after all. I will still make pancakes and hot chocolate today because that’s our cancelled school tradition, and rather than watching it fill up our yard, and blow and drift, we will reminisce about snow. The five year old will only just remeber it, a half remember half ask questions about snow. The seven and nine year old will talk about sledding down our back hill. The twelve year old will call her friend friend in NY and tell her she has both grass and no school and they will argue about who is luckier. And I will quietly mourn the loss of my Monday.
