How Much Snow Does It Take To Cancel School?

Alexandr Trubetskoy used data points submitted by redditors to create this map showing how much snow will cause the local schools to close. There are some explanations and caveats you can read at the map page. You know that cities and counties that keep snowplows and salt on hand at all times are better at keeping schools open. I would add that the terrain makes a difference. School busses where I live must climb mountains and negotiate curvy roads, often with no guard rails. Heck, the county school system here will close for flooding, because quite a few rural bridges will be under water (the city system stays open). Maybe that's why school starts in early August in the South, since it's easier to build in estimated snow days on the school calendar that to pay for a fleet of snow plows that might not be used. -via Digg

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School calendars in Florida had hurricane make up days listed at the end of the year, just like snow make up days I've only heard about in other places...

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You're right: icy roads are no fun at all! Traction tires help, but man, when it's icy, the best thing is just not to be on the road.

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You're right: we often discount the danger of something that is so familiar.

Michael Lewis wrote about this in his audiobook The Coming Storm, which is all about the weather. I got it on a lark (when it was part of a free monthly download on Audible) and was actually quite pleasantly surprised at how good and informative it was.

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Hurricane Katrina was sad for the people we lost, but it was also interesting from a psychological standpoint. And the reason is, everyone reacted to the impending doom in a different way. Some people left the area a week ahead of the storm, completely believing the forecasters. But there was a large number of people who had the attitude "We haven't had a bad storm since Betsy (50 years ago). This is nothing new, we'll brave it."
I think it's just another great example of how nuanced we are as humans, even within the same household. All my siblings had a different gameplan - every neighborhood had a different plan.
To answer your question, most of the time "yes". For us, hurricane season is like christmas coming around every year. It comes in and goes out, like the tide.