I think it depends on the school district. When I lived in a rural district, it was about 15 miles from the high school to the edge of the district and not much of it was on roads that would see a plow first. We'd see occasional snow days. After I moved into town (and a different school district), snow days were more rare.

On the other hand, I'm trying to wrap my head around closing schools for cold weather. Especially when the low is 5 above zero.

On the other hand, I'm trying to wrap my head around closing schools for cold weather.

Are you an 8 year old with a crappy coat waiting a bus to arrive? We had way more closings for cold than snow because it's really a lot more dangerous for kids.

The buses are generally not heated, either, and in a lot of places kids have to walk a good distance from their stop to home.

That said, we didn't even have a delayed opening here today, which surprised me.

A friend of mine works at a residential school for the deaf in Georgia, and that school is having buses bring the kids between the dorms and the class buildings and the cafeteria, rather than having them walk like they usually do, because most of the kids don't have jackets and hats and gloves and stuff suitable for the weather they're having.

Are you a 8 year old with a crappy coat waiting a bus to arrive?

I waited for a bus from K-8. The last 2 years, I caught the bus at 7:00. To be fair, I don't remember any coat being crappy, and with a mother whose hobby was knitting, face masks and the like weren't really a problem.

I just don't remember school shutting down for cold weather when I was growing up. Maybe it did happen and I've forgotten, but I don't remember it ever happening.

Equipment failure, mostly. A lot of people here are telecommuting today simply because their cars wouldn't start. If you aren't in a place that normally has to deal with such temps, you don't have the resources handy (also see NM's big freeze a couple years ago. It was so cold the water at a gas plant started to freeze and the gas pressure to the lower half of the state and into Texas dropped. And that affected the power grid because some of those plants are gas fired and….it was miserable and caused a lot of structural damage.)

There are schools here that have to close when the temp is too hot because they don't have functioning a/c. Same diff.

I have 115 lbs of workbench in my house! Now I just have to find time and a place to put it together.

I just don't remember school shutting down for cold weather when I was growing up. Maybe it did happen and I've forgotten, but I don't remember it ever happening.

I think that most of the closings for cold weather are in places where the weather is a whole lot colder than the usual coldest it gets in those places, and so most of the kids don't have proper coats and stuff. That's different than just regular winter cold in places that are prepared for it.

I've just discovered that one of my living room windows needs re-hanging - there is a tiny gap at the top which I can't close. (I can push the top window all the way up, but the gap comes back once I close the lower one.) That would explain why my bedroom is so warm and the rest of the apartment is so cold.

You know what sounds good? Strawberry waffles and hot chocolate with whipped cream.

Yes, I think I know what my lunch will be.

I never had snow days growing up but I remember having days where school was released early due to heat. I attended a few schools that didn't have air conditioned classrooms and when the temp was about 100 by something like 10:30 in the morning we'd get let out early.