View Full Version : Schools already closed tomorrow!
Later today it is supposed to get colder (5˚ now with 17 mph winds). Tomorrow the high temp is to be -14˚ F) ... wind chill up to 50 below. I do not remember EVER wind chills that low. Maybe -40˚.
Should be an interesting Packer game today. Actual temps will be around -5˚. It will be dark with gusts of wind. I cannot imagine going to that!!!!
The dog did not even want to go out today. We had to push him out to do his duty. Sigh, I HATE WINTER!!! If my MIL was not in assisted living here.... we would be gone! DH is an only child, unfortunately.
Gardenarian
1-5-14, 2:36pm
Oh, memories of walking to school in Minnetonka! So painful.
iris lilies
1-5-14, 4:45pm
I am taking care of my neighbor's dogs and one of them decided to be an *sshole on Friday night. He would not come in the house (his own house) Friday night, all day Saturday, or last night, Saturday night. It got down to 25 degrees F last night. I was at my wits end because I've got to get him into the house before the hellish cold starts later today. Fortunately, today at noon he decided that he was cold and hungry and he came in.
For the rest of the time she's gone, I'll be taking him outside on a leash. Brat. Then last night my own dogs did something so disgusting that it made me vomit. I regularly clean up excretions, but this act was--oh the horrors. If only the weather had been condusive I would have kicked the Frenchies outdoors to get them out of my hair. I had to throw a towel over the whole mess and ignore it for an hour until my stomach settled.
I'm in Florida, but our dog is still at home in the cold. We have a neighbor girl taking care of him, but he won't go into the house. It was never a worry in the past, he is a Newfoundland and likes the cold. But he is almost 12 now and doesn't move around as good as he use to. Hopefully he will be fine. He's on borrowed time as it is.
Ugh, IL!!!
Here the schools have been declared closed since Friday - the governor made his first statewide executive order calling off school since the mid 90s. Very unusual.
Gardenarian, I either didn't know or had forgotten that you are a Minnesnowtan. I am trying to imagine any children EVER walking to school in Minnetonka now . . . or pretty much anywhere . . . doesn't happen too much!!
Fortunately, this weather will only last for a couple of days. When I dig out my old snowmobile suit which is so wonderfully warm and can be pulled over my regular clothes, I know that the weather is really cold.
Sigh - your weather is headed my way - please don't send it!!!! I'm dreading Monday - Wednesday here. Monday night we are supposed to hit below 0 and it we will be lucky to get above 10 throughout Tuesday. I am sooooo afraid of pipes freezing! Already my car won't start and I need to catch a ride to work tomorrow. I REALLY need to win the lottery so that I don't have to leave the house and can get a wood stove, etc. etc. etc. (and whine, whine and, yes... wine! LOL)
iris lilies
1-5-14, 8:56pm
DH has been visiting his family in Northern Iowa. I was feeling a little stressed running back and forth between our house and neighbor's house and dog care and lots of snow, then at 6:30 I heard a key in the lock. DH was home! I had no idea he was coming home today, I figured he would wait until Tuesday or Wednesday. I am so happy I did not know that he was on the road today, I would have been dead from stress. He claims that he didn't know St louis was full of a snowstorm and he said that the roads were perfect until he hit western edge of st louis metro area. Oh but then he got stuck on our block and it took 40 minutes to move, so it was hardly uneventful.
People I know online have reported their companies will be closed tomorrow due to the cold. These are all office jobs. Frankly, I think this is somewhat excessive.
Gardenarian
1-6-14, 12:37am
Kelli -
I moved to Minnetonka from Cupertino when I was 9. In mid-winter. We stayed for about 3.5 years.
We walked about 2 miles to school each way (and that was cutting through fields.) I don't recall it ever being cancelled, not even with a windchill of -40.
These were the days when girls were not allowed to wear pants in school, so we had to put on snow pants under our dresses and take them off at school, in the girls' cloakroom. It was unbelievable to this California girl!
I hear Minnetonka has changed a lot since the 60s - it was very rural at the time, but for the little Honeywell development we lived in. And we had a reliable 6 foot snow pack (no thaw) all winter. I don't know if they still drive a car out onto the lake and take bets on when it will break through? Lots of kids spent the weekends ice-fishing. I was sensibly indoors with a book!
I loved the lakes, ponds, wildlife, canoeing - but never got used to those winters. It's a nice place to visit.
I am in Indy. 30,000 plus without power, roads impassable, condition red by Mayor, National Guard out providing rescue, -50 wind chill factor. Temps will not be above 0. I65 closed from Lafayette to Gary.
This is not a day for trying to get to work. South of us had freezing rain which might be even worse for traveling.
Nebraska here, -16* and -42* with wind chill. Cold, but neither figure is even close to a record. Schools are closed though. Asked my mom and she said they never closed for cold when we were growing up and yes, it did get this cold and even colder then, too. Times change, probably not all bad, but we all made it somehow...
This is one time I am glad to live in Texas. We are having a deep freeze for us (around 20 tonight) so I had to cover up my mandarin and olive trees. I hope they make it. Our cats and dog don't even want to go outside so no worries there.
I hear Minnetonka has changed a lot since the 60s - it was very rural at the time, but for the little Honeywell development we lived in. And we had reliable a 6 foot snow pack (no thaw) all winter. I don't know if they still drive a car out onto the lake and take bets on when it will break through?
Minnetonka now is fully developed. Aside from some marshland that's too expensive yet to develop, there's not a farm or forest fragment left. Lots of shopping and nice apartments and newer houses.
If the lake you're referring to is Lake Minnetonka, people do still drive out there in the dead of winter. But that can be tricky. Last year a somewhat-inebriated dad took a shortcut home through one of the bays and his truck broke through thin ice. His youngest daughter did not make it out alive. :(
They've gotten better at enforcing when the ice is safe enough for vehicles, fish houses, or even just individuals sitting on pails or sleds. All fish houses have to be off the ice no later than mid-March each year. There are now stiff fines for polluting the waters with sunken vehicles, so they are recovered. And with new pickups going for $30-40,000 or more, people tend not to leave them out anymore.
But the average snowfall in the Twin Cities area is still around five feet. So we're not far behind what you were used to seeing.
iris lilies
1-6-14, 11:26am
I'm in Florida, but our dog is still at home in the cold. We have a neighbor girl taking care of him, but he won't go into the house. It was never a worry in the past, he is a Newfoundland and likes the cold. But he is almost 12 now and doesn't move around as good as he use to. Hopefully he will be fine. He's on borrowed time as it is.
I hope that your old Newfie is in by now. But those dogs love the snow and cold. DH's family in Northern Iowa had a St. Bernard. She refused to sleep in the dog house and instead slept on top of the dog house. On mornings after a snow they would see a snow covered lump on top of the dog house.
fidgiegirl
1-6-14, 11:34am
Minnetonka is super developed now, like Steve said. I am trying to even imagine it as rural. Lots of ice driving still, too. We had a contest in my hometown when I was little like you said - park a junker on a little teeny lake, almost could be called a pond, and trying to guess when the car would break through the ice. What I never knew was did all those cars just sit at the bottom of that lake when they fell through, or did they recover them? They stopped the contest a long time ago, though.
She refused to sleep in the dog house and instead slept on top of the dog house. Snoopy?
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdJTppKB0oA9ynFDZAI3JcT2I3HWFHs D-8DWFuJ9ba3sBfMsLk1Q (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=qzmsSyvAPx8SrM&tbnid=s1qbwQI_OwUQoM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanpop.com%2Fclubs%2Fsnoopy%2 Fimages%2F33124418%2Ftitle%2Fsnoopy-wallpaper-wallpaper&ei=LdzKUq7lBKbD2AWgnIDABw&bvm=bv.58187178,d.b2I&psig=AFQjCNHBZISCtIodCyKFJ5MSeEARXH42uQ&ust=1389112729688905)
People I know online have reported their companies will be closed tomorrow due to the cold. These are all office jobs. Frankly, I think this is somewhat excessive.
Better closed than having dead employees trying to get and from work. The weather here is life-threatening. minus 21 degrees now... ACTUAL TEMPERATURE... wind chills between 40 and 55 BELOW.
iris lilies
1-6-14, 1:33pm
Snoopy?
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTdJTppKB0oA9ynFDZAI3JcT2I3HWFHs D-8DWFuJ9ba3sBfMsLk1Q (http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=qzmsSyvAPx8SrM&tbnid=s1qbwQI_OwUQoM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fanpop.com%2Fclubs%2Fsnoopy%2 Fimages%2F33124418%2Ftitle%2Fsnoopy-wallpaper-wallpaper&ei=LdzKUq7lBKbD2AWgnIDABw&bvm=bv.58187178,d.b2I&psig=AFQjCNHBZISCtIodCyKFJ5MSeEARXH42uQ&ust=1389112729688905)
yep only like this:
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTOqkhF4Ee2gzXXqOJfftMSTNLxHOVra xFWAOp6BEMHE9h0Wz1_Xw
Miss Cellane
1-6-14, 1:44pm
My sister taught in Milwaukee for many years. She says that sometimes they closed school due to the wind chill--it was just too cold for the kids to stand outside waiting for the school buses. Also, sometimes it was too cold for the buses to start.
Part of me says suck it up and don't be a wimp. And part of me says, what is so important that venturing out in extreme cold/wind/snow/ice/freezing rain is worth it? Here in the Northeast, we get a lot of snow. The snow itself isn't bad. It's what we force ourselves to do when it's snowing that is--we can't miss work or school or shopping or whatever. If everyone could stay home during extreme weather, there'd be fewer people on the road, so fewer accidents. Fewer people on the road means that road crews can clear the snow and ice faster and easier.
Right now, we are having rain, after a couple of heavy snow falls and then bitterly cold temperatures (although not as cold as the middle of the country is right now.) The fog is unbelievable. At points this morning, I could not see across the street. I had an appointment to go and get my car inspected and, not realizing just how bad it was, I kept it. My car went into a slide on a huge patch of ice that was covered in rain water. Thankfully, it was a back road and mine was the only car on it, and there was a nice big snowbank on the side of the road to stop the slide. The fog was so thick that at times I could not see the lines on the road more than 100 feet ahead, nor could I see street signs or intersections until I was right on top of them. It was not a good day to be out driving.
In a spirit of mindfulness, sometime being forced to take a day off and sit and watch the weather can be a good thing.
Gardenarian
1-6-14, 1:47pm
Kelli and Steve -
It's hard to believe that Minnetonka is all built up! In my area there were about 8-10 blocks of houses, entirely surrounded by farms and woods and ponds. We had to drive to Wayzata to go to the movies.
I still think of Minnesota as the wide open spaces. In fact when I meditate, I often hold an image of endless wheat fields in my mind (as it appeared when we would drive up north to Leech Lake or Kabetogama.
I hope the border lakes are as pristine as they were! What an amazing place.
I think the BWCA area is probably much like you remember it or possibly even more wild, but it's a continual battle - most recently, it was over the location of cell towers within sight of the wilderness, and currently it is over some proposed mining projects.
Now I want to go look at Minnetonka on the timeline view in Google Earth. I've only ever known it to be a 'burb, but I am a few years younger than you.
...and our schools are closed again tomorrow due to severe (-50F) windchill.
Personally, I am glad the governor took a stand on Friday and closed schools. I think people should pay more heed to severe weather conditions in general. No need for kids to get frostbite at the bus stops. Also no need for people to go hiking in the low desert when it's 110F and end up needing helicopter rescue; no need to go out in a car under flash flood conditions; etc.
Simpler at Fifty
1-6-14, 4:50pm
Our schools are closed too. NE WI. One school is closed all week due to busted water pipes. This is about the only weather forecast the weather guys have been correct on since our first snow in November. I would hate to be the decision maker for schools. Your darned if you do and darned if you don't. Around here they will start 2 hours late which is worse for some parents than closing for the day.
I was a bit surprised there were no bare chests at the Packers game yesterday. We were trying to decide if the TV guys chose not show them or if people were smart enough not to do that. Around here it is was most likely the TV guys....
I hope that your old Newfie is in by now. But those dogs love the snow and cold. DH's family in Northern Iowa had a St. Bernard. She refused to sleep in the dog house and instead slept on top of the dog house. On mornings after a snow they would see a snow covered lump on top of the dog house.
Nothing I can do about it now, he's always slept outside, it's just he's getting old now and not in the best of shape. I'm not sure when I'm going home, I'm thinking I'm going to look at condos in Naples instead of going anywhere north of Orlando for a while.
fidgiegirl
1-6-14, 10:27pm
I agree about late starts. By the time the kids get there it is nearly time for lunch, they are ramped up and out of their routine and it's really almost not even worth it for the few hours of learning that might be accomplished after lunch.
I hope that your old Newfie is in by now. But those dogs love the snow and cold. DH's family in Northern Iowa had a St. Bernard. She refused to sleep in the dog house and instead slept on top of the dog house. On mornings after a snow they would see a snow covered lump on top of the dog house.
Came back for a few day's, I didn't want to, but the wife had plan's for the weekend. We are heading back to south Florida next week. The dog was fine, he was sitting in the back yard on the snow. He has trouble getting up, but that's been going on for a year.
Blackdog Lin
1-8-14, 8:35pm
I am so very very grateful to have the CHOICE as to whether to get out in the sub-zero windchills - and grateful to those that do it 'cause they are dedicated to the jobs that make it necessary. Being retired is awesome. :)
I remember several winters back in the 80's, brutal cold and heavy snow and ice storms, when I had to carry mail. Back in those days there were no excuses: that old "Neither rain nor snow nor....." adage still applied. I was out in -50 degree windchills and I ended up with some minor frostbite and I remember losing 3 different clerks, newer to the job, who just couldn't hack the having to go out in the bad conditions. Awful glad I was able to stick it out. :)
A big "shout out thank you" to all who are in public health/emergency care, safety, and service industries that you go out and do the job through all the sorts of horrible weather conditions.
Feeling very bad for all of you in the Midwest and east coast. Can't believe the temps I'm hearing on the news. But the photos are stunning to look at. I love and miss living somewhere with cold, icy, freezing weather almost every winter .... but just for a little while and then I get over it and go play out in the SoCal sunshine :-)!
Spartana, we are pretty stunned too. Now many are dealing with frozen and bursting pipes even some schools. However, the temps will be in the 40s in a couple of days.
Oh, then we will be dealing with flooding from melting snow on top of frozen ground and ice over drains. Sometimes I wish I was back in Alaska where things were built for the temps and everyone knew how to deal with this type of winter.
You would not believe the streets. Like driving on loose gravel with potholes. We are retired so just hunkered down. Going out only when necessary. Only have a tiny drive from garage to get to a very narrow path to street in alley.
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