Why do we handle weather so differently around the US?

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dougalcampbell@reddit

Who is shutting down at 40°? Here in north Georgia, we are *preparing* for severe weather, because between Saturday morning and Sunday, we could possibly have an accumulation of a half-inch or more of ice (not snow). It could be enough to snap large branches off of trees, take down power lines, and create ice on bridges and shadowed parts of roads. If the temps stay sub-freezing for long enough, ice can form on all road surfaces. They do have salting equipment, but we really only have the resources to do that in major roadways (interstates, major artery highways, primary streets in and around downtown ATL. Out where I live — southeast Cherokee county, amongst horse farms, cow pastures, and the occasional country club — if the roads ice up, I won’t be able to get out of my neighborhood, let alone to a store, school, or office.

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Sabertooth767@reddit

This doesn't happen every year. I've never seen negative temps in my life, but I'm about to.

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10k_Uzi@reddit

It’s not fun lol. But we’d definitely still go to school.

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Possibly_Naked_Now@reddit

The same reason as snow and ice. Preparation. These places aren't prepped for "extreme" weather.

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zydeco100@reddit

Structures aren't insulated for cold weather as well. They don't have heating systems like we do in the north, maybe some electric heat pumps here and there but they don't work well when the power grid is failing.

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Yggdrasil-@reddit

To add more context, it just isn't financially viable for warmer states to stay fully prepared for snow and ice. Why maintain a full fleet of snowplows and salt trucks when your city only sees snow once or twice per decade? Cold, snowy, icy weather is simply more common up north, so states maintain the infrastructure not to grind to a halt every time we get a bad storm. Comparatively mild winter weather in warmer states causes a total shutdown because those states don't have the same resources to manage it.

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vingtsun_guy@reddit

Are you calling the incoming storm, which has been identified by weather scientists as "a potentially historic winter storm," as something that happens "every year"?

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Uffda01@reddit

The biggest reason we (I'm in Minnesota) can survive this is because we don't jump right into it....we have warm summers, then basically a gradual cool down from Oct to December....we don't go from 78 and sunny to -20 overnight - we take time to get there. The folks that adapt to it best, ease into it and spend time outdoors especially in the fall - to start getting used to the colder temps. Work still needs to be done, chores, animals fed etc.. Southerners will never understand how 20F feels amazing after a week of -20F, because they never got used to 20F in the first place.

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earmares@reddit (OP)

Yes, I know exactly what you mean about 20° feeling amazing after a week of -20°! It's like a heat wave.

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hellogoawaynow@reddit

Texas will call a snow day/ice day well in advance because we used to love those days. Monday will probably have school closures even though it’ll be sunny but cold. We can’t enjoy those bonus days off anymore because we’re all traumatized from snowpocalypse a few years ago when we didn’t have power and water for a week, so, naturally the grocery stores have been completely picked over already and the ice doesn’t even start until tomorrow evening. We’ve started filling containers with clean water just in case and regretting not getting the generator we talk about every time we get a few days of winter. Cancun Cruz is already in Laguna Beach, so you know it’s gonna be bad. Hopefully HEB will come to the rescue, unlike the state or federal government, like always. A literal grocery store takes better care of Texans than Texas does.

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AndreaTwerk@reddit

Besides plows, winter tires make a big difference. They are obviously not the norm in southern areas but even in northern cities most people don't have them. If you're on summer tires you need the road essentially completely clear of snow/ice/slush to drive safely. Even with all the plows and salt trucks in more rural northern areas its still very normal for roads to be left with some slush after a storm because most people's cars can handle it. On side roads the snow is just packed down and sanded.

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External-Presence204@reddit

Who shuts down at 40°?

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historyhill@reddit

Some places in the South might if there's a lot of kids waiting outside for school buses in a region where a lot of people don't have good winter coats. That's usually what causes 2-hour delays (and rare cancellations) here but definitely not for 40°. It would have to be exceedingly windy for a 40° day to cause that here

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Jdevers77@reddit

I’ve lived in the south my entire life and at no point in either my school career or my kids school so far has school been closed because of cold. That includes many times in single digits and a couple times in below 0 (it just doesn’t happen that often). Even in Florida people have winter coats, trust me they pull them out when it drops below 50F haha.

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historyhill@reddit

Fair enough! We just closed (well, switched to virtual learning, RIP to actual snow days) for cold weather here a couple days back but it was in the teens and windy so it was to protect kids standing at bus stops.

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QuarterNote44@reddit

Nah. The South doesn't shut down for cold. Only ice and snow. People there are not good at driving in it. Or they don't understand that you *cant* drive on ice for the most part.

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Chemical-Employer146@reddit

My school had delays and shut downs due to cold weather. Can’t have kids out at 5 am walking and waiting for the bus when it’s 20°. We also understand that ice is extremely dangerous to drive on so the rule with winter weather was you only go out if you need to and you drive slow with lots of space for stopping. We know how to react when driving in snow, at least all the country people I grew up with did.

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EC_dwtn@reddit

I'm from the south. I've seen delays for single digit temps, but never for anything in the 30s, much less 40+.

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External-Presence204@reddit

What usually causes two hour delays is lingering ice when the day is going to be warm. I think we’d be hard-pressed to find a school district that shuts down at 40°. Very.

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earmares@reddit (OP)

There was a post a bit ago on this sub that Texas was thinking about shutting down next week within those temps.

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NotMyAltAccountToday@reddit

That's because the ice won't start melting until Tuesday so I am expecting there to be closures Monday and Tuesday

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BirthofRevolution@reddit

Because a giant ice storm is supposed to hit and last time that happened texas shut down for weeks and many people died?

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External-Presence204@reddit

I’m in Texas. That’s not going to happen based on 40° temperatures, even in the Valley.

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judgingA-holes@reddit

I'm also curious about this. I live in the Georgia, and yes we have delayed opening or closed schools before because of weather, but not because it's 40.

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LimeMargarita@reddit

No one. I can see how it would look like a state shuts down school at the hint of winter weather. When I lived in Texas, school start time would get pushed back if there was ice on the rural bus routes. It might be fine in town, so the reaction gets a reputation of being really over the top. Maybe it is. Like OP said, Texas doesn't have the infrastructure to handle winter, and drivers have no experience driving in those conditions.

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External-Presence204@reddit

Another problem here is that even when it snows, it often gets above freezing in the sun just enough to melt some and then refreeze at dark, creating hockey rinks.

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FormerlyDK@reddit

Never heard of that around here… southeastern NY.

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FireFoxTrashPanda@reddit

Georgia /s

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gsxr@reddit

cost to benefit ratio. If Wyoming buys a snow plow it's going to get the benefit of that 200k machine for 6 months of the year, at least. Texas might get the benefits for every other year for a couple days.

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earmares@reddit (OP)

Again, I am not talking about snow plows.

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gsxr@reddit

It's the same answer. Replace snow plows with winter coats, proper winter tires or HVAC that can handle sub freezing weather.

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rileyoneill@reddit

I am from Riverside, CA. It largely shuts down at temperatures below 40 degrees. Those temps only happen the coldest time of the year and usually at night. Early morning commuters will wake up to those temps. Things will still be open, but people become reluctant to leave their homes. We have only had the freak occurrence where the daytime high was in the 30s a few times in my life. It will just be incredibly slow for business. People will put off whatever they need to do until it warms up. Its like when its over 110. That happens multiple times per decade. Outdoor stuff will absolutely be canceled, work crews will scale down or stop.

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

> but this happens every year But it doesn't.

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earmares@reddit (OP)

It does in Texas, and other areas of the South.

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1235813213455_1@reddit

The predicted snowfall totals on wky are a top 5 all time event. No it does not happen every year.

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10k_Uzi@reddit

Tbh being from a state with snow, they say that every year.

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SportTheFoole@reddit

Are you sure? I’ve lived in Georgia for most of my life and we’ve never had schools shut down just because it’s 40 degrees. There has been times when schools had shut down in anticipation of a weather event and then the event doesn’t materialize. Typically there are one or two snow days (maybe even 3 or 4) built in to the school schedule, so even if the kids get an extra day off it doesn’t affect their education.

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SportTheFoole@reddit

Are you sure? I’ve lived in Georgia for most of my life and we’ve never had schools shut down just because it’s 40 degrees. There has been times when schools had shut down in anticipation of a weather event and then the event doesn’t materialize. Typically there are one or two snow days (maybe even 3 or 4) built in to the school schedule, so even if the kids get an extra day off it doesn’t affect their education.

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Minzplaying@reddit

Not really. Once every 8-10 years is more like it.

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inbigtreble30@reddit

Happening one day per year is very different from 3 months per year though. It's not worth overhauling the entire infrastructure for one or two days.

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smoke_sum_wade@reddit

right my kids school said they will not cancel unless it feels -35

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Mental_Freedom_1648@reddit

I'm assuming shutting down at 40 is an exaggeration for effect. In the north, everyone has winter gear and they know how to handle the cold. If other people only have light jackets, and it's 20 degrees out, and they're usually cold at 50 degrees, they're going to have a rough time.

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Acrobatic-Key-127@reddit

I assume you mean The North because I live in the North WEST and I can tell you I do not have the gear to survive a North EAST winter. We’re actually tracking to get no snow at all (in my area) for the first time I can remember.

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Wolf_E_13@reddit

Who shuts down at 40+ degrees...I don't think I've ever seen that. Give me an example of everything closing at 40\*

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earmares@reddit (OP)

Everything, I can't. Schools do.

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tsukiii@reddit

Just admit that you’re exaggerating, lol. I’m in San Diego and we have some mornings that cold, nothing shuts down.

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Jdevers77@reddit

Give an example of a school closing because of a cool morning of 40F. That just doesn’t happen. My brother in law lives in Fort Lauderdale and while 40F is extremely rare down there, they didn’t cancel school because of it.

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Wolf_E_13@reddit

Give me examples of schools that have shut down when it's 40\* plus

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machagogo@reddit

because the weather is different around the US... Why would place that rarely ever gets snow have the same infrastructure for snow removal as somewhere that received 20 feet of it a year? Why would a place that never sees a hurricane (say Chicago) prep for one in the same fashion as Miami does?

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reichrunner@reddit

Should probably read the post before commenting.

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machagogo@reddit

I did. OP says they understand, then ignore that reality. The government and the people just aren't prepped for it the same things. It's really that simple. You can't just say I don't accept those reasons when that is the reality.

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reichrunner@reddit

They specifically pointed out snow. You responded with "because snow". The government doesnt have much to be prepared for cold weather like this. Individuals do with warm clothing, which I imagine is usually the actual reason. But responding with "because snow" when OP specifically said they weren't talking about snow, suggests that you responded to the title rather than the body of the post.

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machagogo@reddit

> Think people in Miami have a closet full of winter gear and supplies like you do?

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TsundereLoliDragon@reddit

I read it and it's still dumb.

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reichrunner@reddit

Sure, but when OP specifically says: >I'm not talking about snow and ice. I understand why Texas doesn't have snowplows, when they rarely need them. Its kind of dumb to follow up with: >Why would place that rarely ever gets snow have the same infrastructure for snow removal as somewhere that received 20 feet of it a year?

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yyythoo@reddit

They don’t shut down for 40 degree weather. They will shut down if there is ice on road or something like that. But not just because it’s 40 degrees. In live in Florida. And had to go to school when it was cold like that

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AbiWil1996@reddit

It doesn’t happen every year here. What my town is dealing with this weekend and into next week is not common at all. Schools don’t shut down at 40° here, but there have been times where yes, schools have canceled or delayed start if it’s below freezing. Buses can’t heat enough, some kids have no other option but to walk to schools, & some schools don’t have heat. Similar to how some states up north have canceled school before due to heat waves- schools may not have proper AC or any AC at all.

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BlasphemousRykard@reddit

I’m in North Carolina, and we had a situation like you describe (school shutting down in 40 degree weather). The reason this happens is two-fold: winter weather issues are so uncommon in the South that losing a day of school to keep everyone safe is a small price to pay; whereas when I lived in New England we’d lose a week or two of school every winter due to snow. Nobody has snow tires in the south, and even without snow we can get rain that freezes into ice and causes dangerous driving conditions. Locals don’t know how to drive on snow or ice because it doesn’t happen often, adding another layer of risk. They err on the side of caution because they can afford to be safer in a more tropical climate, whereas if Wyoming closed down any time the roads were cold or icy they’d be closed for half of the school year.

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NoContextCarl@reddit

I can't say there was ever a time I recall school closures for temperature alone...and I have kids of my own now. However, for snow...everywhere is different. Like you said, many places just aren't equipped or used to dealing with it...other places its just business as usual.

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np99sky@reddit

Structures and insulation are different as well. Construction materials for houses or schools are different in warmer, humid states. There is nothing in place to accommodate -25 wind chill. You might have block heaters on your bus or car in Wyoming. In warmer areas, a cold snap can kill the engine. Tire chains are a thing nationwide but the cost of storing tons of them for an extremely unlikely weather event in warmer states is a waste of money when schools and municipal governments are already broke. Even things like windshield wiper wash are certified at -40 in Wyoming but likely to freeze in other states. Similarly, roads and maintenance can also be unprepared. Municipal governments are unlikely to invest in planning for 1-5 days a year of extreme weather. It can be significantly more unsafe for someone in urban Texas, Atlanta, or California. Pipes are built much closer to the ground and can freeze or explode. Drivers have no idea what to do when not familiar. Since schools often don't shut down for weather in warmer places at all, they can more easily afford to take a snow day in a freak situation.

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Any-Investment5692@reddit

I live in Cleveland Ohio.. Schools shut down when its -15F wind chill. The reason is that a lot of kids walk to and from school.. some walk for almost 2 miles.. even elementary kids to high school kids. The other reason schools shut down is if a snow storm hits when kids are traveling to school in the morning. When the roads are virtually gridlocked or and or undriveable. However many times schools may let out early if a snow storm hits when kids are traveling home in the afternoon. Basically nobody wants a kid hit by a car, snow plow and shoved into a snow bank only to be found in the spring when everything melts.

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bulbaquil@reddit

Because it **doesn't** happen every year. I have a friend in Alaska who thinks 60 degrees outside is too warm. To me, 60 degrees feels *chilly* and I start donning a jacket. 50 degrees is outright cold. We don't own arctic gear down here. We don't own snow chains or snow tires. We'll hardly ever use them. We don't know how to drive on snow and ice, because we don't have the opportunity to *practice* on snow and ice, because it doesn't *happen* that often and when it does it usually melts the next day.

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Consistent_Damage885@reddit

It still has to do with infrastructure and preparedness. Some parts of the country people don't even own winter coats even though they might want to have one a handful of days each year. In Wyoming, you better have one and are assumed to have one.

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TheKiddIncident@reddit

If you live in Seattle and it snows once or twice a year, there is no point in buying snow tires or a 4WD vehicle. You just wait it out. Same with the city. The city of Seattle doesn't have a massive force of snow plows because they would sit idle 99.99% of the time. Yes, it snows once or twice a year, but no, it's not often enough to be worth the cost. So, if it snows even a little in Seattle, the city shuts down. On the other hand, if you did that in Buffalo, you would basically shut down the city for most of the winter. They get snow dozens of times a year and the snow stays on the ground. You must have plows and you must be prepared to drive in it. So, it's about frequency. If it happens every day, you have to be prepared to carry on. If it happens once a year, you just take the day off.

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BlueRFR3100@reddit

Many of the others states may be used to extreme winter weather conditions every year, but duration also plays a part. It's a lot cheaper for Alabama to shut down for 3 days that it is to make the preparations to keep everything open for three days of extreme winter weather.

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Jackso08@reddit

What a useless question

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earmares@reddit (OP)

🤣 Super helpful answer, too.

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KlutzyBlueDuck@reddit

I'm ok with driving in most everything. Dust storms and ice I would prefer to stay home. I think a lot of the problem we have are the spending habits of local and state and federal governments with infrastructure. In Florida you have roads where you can still see the lane dividers when it is raining (at least when I lived there) and water ran off the road more than where I have lived elsewhere, in places with regular snow you have a plowing and road treatment system in place and people have cars with AWD.

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Help1Ted@reddit

Do your schools have AC? Would they stay open in constant 90 degree weather or would they close because they aren’t designed for the constant heat.

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earmares@reddit (OP)

Yes, we have 90 degree weather and have AC. But your analogy is helpful, thanks.

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TheOnlyJimEver@reddit

I think it's a variety of factors. In New England, six inches of snow isn't such a big deal. A couple hours after it stops snowing, the roads are usually perfectly fine. I lived in Iowa for a number of years, though, and the wind out there can turn a couple inches of snow into a whiteout. Twenty minutes after the snowplow comes through, the wind blows snow back across the road, and it freezes. Every area has its own peculiarities.

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admiralholdo@reddit

Yeah, one thing I've learned is that winter in the Midwest is very different from winter in the Northeast. The drifting is a very real thing and it can be scary as hell. Out here in the Midwest everything is flat, there's nothing to hold the snow in place or slow down the wind.

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Jazzlike-Check9040@reddit

Because Wyoming

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MeTieDoughtyWalker@reddit

I live(soon to be lived) in Southern Louisiana and we definitely wouldn’t get off school for 40°F. That temperature is common. It would have to be below freezing for schools to close and the risk of a storm.

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WKU-Alum@reddit

It's the same as the equipment for snow and ice. Most people in the south don't have sub-zero rated parkas, snowsuits, or even insulated boots. I work an indoor/outdoor job. I know if it's incredibly cold, we won't be outdoors, so there's no need to buy insulated boots. I've got good mucks and can double camp sock if I need a bit of insulation for being outdoors for a bit. I don't even have long underwear or bibs since I don't go hunting anymore. People aren't equipped for it. Buildings aren't as well insulated, the utility grid isn't designed to handle full capacity at these temps, etc. etc.

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TinyRandomLady@reddit

It’s almost like we’re an extremely large country with very different climates. I live in Oklahoma City and while we get ice storms every other year, they don’t last too long because we have yo-yo weather. it’s not gonna be a consistent long-term thing for a whole season. So they don’t invest a lot in infrastructure for snow and ice. However, they’ve greatly invested in tornado awareness. Why don’t the rest of you people have tornado awareness like Oklahoma? Every single Saturday in Oklahoma City and I’m sure the rest of the state the tornado sirens go off to test them to make sure they work most places have tornado shelter plans, and lots of homes have tornado shelters. Wyoming probably doesn’t have this because you probably don’t get tornadoes. Different parts of the country have to have earthquake standards for buildings, others have homes built on stilts because of storm surges on the coast, while others are built for harsh cold winter weather and others are built to deal with the extreme heat in the southwest.So different places prepare for different weather situations and weather situations that are atypical are going to be big news.

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EastTXJosh@reddit

As a Texan, I am puzzled when people in other parts of the country and world talk about “dangerous heat” when the temp is in the high 80’s or low 90’s. That’s a “cool” July or August afternoon here.

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MrDBS@reddit

There are regions in the US where it doesn’t make sense to heat schools. When that school is 40 degrees, it’s too cold. I once subbed in a New England school where the thermostat was broken and the room was 50F all day. Even in the north, that is cold for indoors.

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MTHiker59937@reddit

Well- a city like Houston or Atlanta is going to get extreme snow/ice weather maybe once or twice every few years. To invest in plows, train folks to use them, salt etc. would be a poor allocation of funds when these events happen so irregularly. I'm in Montana and pretty much if you don't have a snowplow, ice spikes, snow shovels, you can't get through winter. In the deep south, this is not the case. Also, the deregulation of electrical companies in Texas causes the power grid to be a mess to keeping it going when severe weather events.

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IOI-65536@reddit

I don't know of anyone who shuts down schools at 40F. The only reason I could think of for that is if they had no heat at all, which would actually be odd. School bus (diesel) engines don't like starting below about 20F. Places that get that cold regularly have block heaters for them but in the south frequently the bus yards don't have electricity at all so even if the busses had block heaters there wouldn't be a way to plug them in. So yeah, it's the same thing as snow plows. Some Atlanta county could run and maintain underground electrical cable through their busyard so they could plug in the block heater on every school bus. Or they could build 1-2 flex days per year into their school calendar and just shut down when it's too cold for busses to start. The second option is way cheaper.

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SimonArgent@reddit

We don't get enough severe winter weather to justify having a fleet of snow plows and salt trucks on hand.

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Delicious_Oil9902@reddit

I was in Houston a bunch last year and one day the weather got into the high 20s. I’m from NY so it was normal weather but the city shut down. My hotel, a Marriott, was freezing. The lobby couldn’t get above the 40s. My room was in the high 50s at best. The problem in these areas is that the buildings aren’t built to insulate from the cold

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bobshallprevail@reddit

Oh I'm sorry would y'all hold up to 110F with humidity? We can.

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rco8786@reddit

Why don't you have a closet full of flip flops and swim shorts like those in Florida?

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earmares@reddit (OP)

We do...

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Delli-paper@reddit

>I'm trying to learn why other states shut down at 40+ degrees and my kids went to school when it was 2°F this morning and it was truly business as usual. Tonight the wind chill will be -25°F and they will head to pep band (indoors). Same as the other. Texans don't really own proper cold-weather clothes or build facilities to accomodate indoor activities like you do in Wyoming.

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rmric0@reddit

Infrastructure is more than snowplows and salt trucks - it also has to do with the built environment. Most buildings are going to be engineered to operate efficiently with a little wiggle room under normal conditions for the area - so a school up in Alaska might be insulated to kingdom come with a strong heating system, the equivalent place is texas is more concerned about getting the building cool when it's 150 degrees in the shade.

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BurritoDespot@reddit

It was business as usual because it was what is usual. People in Texas simply aren’t prepared for it to be that cold.

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earmares@reddit (OP)

They aren't prepared for 40s?

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AffectionateTaro3209@reddit

I'm confused bc I feel like you literally answered your own question in the question.

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Meowmeowmeow31@reddit

In places where heavy winter coats are almost never needed, parents aren’t gonna be buying them every year. You don’t want kids walking to school or waiting for bus in temperatures they don’t have the clothes for.

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Muroid@reddit

> Some people have said it's all what you are used to, but this happens every year, so why aren't other states used to it? People are prepared for the conditions they experience regularly. If you get hit with a particular set of extreme conditions that you only experience a few days a year at most and may not even experience every year, it may be easier and cheaper to deal with those conditions by just shutting down for a day or two when they crop up and waiting for things to revert to more normal conditions, than to invest in the infrastructure and wardrobe needed to go about your normal business in those conditions. If you experience the conditions regularly enough or for long enough stretches that shutting down would be a major impediment to daily life, then investing in ways to deal with/work around the conditions instead of waiting them out makes more sense. And even beyond investing resources into it, there’s also an element of “I can wait a day or two to go out when the weather is better” vs “This is what it’s going to be like every other day for the next month and I’m going to have to go out and deal with it at some point” as well.

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admiralholdo@reddit

So that people who live in colder states can use it as some sort of weird dick-measuring contest.

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EatShootBall@reddit

Who shuts down at 40+ degrees? I'm in Phoenix and went to school when it was colder than that.

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WritPositWrit@reddit

Have you never noticed that 40 F feels warm in February, but chilly in September? thats because **you got used to it** in February. One or two cold days does not acclimate you. It takes weeks of cold before you adjust. Added to that, people living an area with only a few cold days a year will not have the heavy duty winter clothing that you have. Seriously, i cant believe this has to be spelled out

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Glum_Source_7411@reddit

I moved from Mississippi to Nebraska. Right before I moved I went to Bass Pro and bought a coat. I didnt own a coat. I said this is the warmest coat I have ever owned and will never need anything warmer than this. In December I had to buy another coat. I rarely saw 20° in Mississippi. In Omaha I saw -20° i didn't know what to do.

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Zealousideal_Crow737@reddit

I grew up learning how to drive in ice and snow at 16. This is not a skill you have to learn in southern climates due to what weather was considered normal for years.

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PedanticPolymath@reddit

If places rarely/never experience sub-freezing temperatures, then the arrivial of sub-freezing temperatures can be a MAJOR fucking deal. Sure 30\* might not be all that cold compared to 2\*, and sure your kids go to school in that. But 30\* is cold enough to cause roads and sidewalks to ice over. And if the towns/counties there have no icing sprays to keep the roads and sidewalks from freezing, a bunch of people who have never driven or walked on icy surfaces will be having accidents and getting injured. Powerlines that weren't spec'd to withstand a full load of frozen water will fall. Trees that have never once been frozen will collapse or split. So even relatively "mild" winter temps can be disastrous, if they cause snow/ice in places that almost never experience them.

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NPHighview@reddit

We lived in southwest Michigan, where, after Lake Michigan would freeze over in January, temperatures would plunge. One late Jan / Feb saw -20°F temperatures for six weeks straight, and the kids still waited at the bus stop to get to school each morning. Once the temps rose back up to freezing, the neighbors emerged in tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops to appreciate the 50+° rise in temperatures. We now live in southern California, where it's currently 60°F with brilliant, clear blue skies.

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MilkstacheMustache@reddit

No one closes at 40, but for the rest of your question one big factor is freezing rain. A lot of the colder parts of the country have snow and sleet but don't understand what I'm talking about. You can't plow it. It's a sheet of ice covering the roads, pulling down trees, and taking out the power infrastructure.

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Arki83@reddit

It is -20 with a -40 windchill here today and business as usual, because this weather isn't unusual here. Extreme changes in weather mess with everyone everywhere. If it was +40 here yesterday and -20 today, everybody would have a tough time dealing with it. Then you add in the fact that people in hot climates generally don't have things like proper winter coats, thermals and nice hats/gloves, and it becomes even harder to deal with the cold.

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azuth89@reddit

Individual people don't have things like winter clothes any more than cities have snowplows.

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TheMarshmallowFairy@reddit

If you don’t live where it gets to freezing temperatures, you don’t have the clothing to wear when it reaches freezing temperatures. It’s not safe to send kids to school if most of the population doesn’t have the clothing to keep them warm. I grew up where “it’s gonna be cold today” was 50 degrees. I never owned anything resembling a winter jacket as a child, because we simply never needed one. My jacket was an either windbreaker or a raincoat. If it had randomly hit 35°, my mom probably would have kept me home (if school hadn’t been canceled outright). 40 might seem reasonable to you, but in places where it doesn’t generally get that low, they aren’t going to be prepared. And they will probably need more layers than you would wear, because again, they aren’t used to that.

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invisibleman13000@reddit

I live in Georgia, and the only time school shut down for cold weather was if it was expected to rain and the roads would freeze over. Even then, it would sometimes just be a delayed start to let things thaw.

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a_b_b_2@reddit

I guess Texas has decided they'd rather just slow everything down for a day or two in the winter instead of invest in a bunch of snowplows and salt trucks that they might not use. Seems rational enough for me. They need to fix their power grid though, that's just stupid.

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Recent_Weather2228@reddit

I haven't ever heard of schools shutting down for weather when it's over 40 degrees. Where I live, we get snow maybe once every 2 years. We don't have plows or equipment to salt the roads, because it's so rare. No one has snow tires or chains, because we almost never need them. No one knows how to drive in the snow. It's way easier to just shut things down for a day or two once every year or two than to have the state and all the residents buy all of that equipment that will rarely be used and drive in conditions they don't know how to handle that will be unsafe. We don't shut down just for cold, only for road conditions people don't know how to handle safely.

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JBNothingWrong@reddit

Because America is big and has drastically different weather in different areas….

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warlocktx@reddit

I live in Texas. We get a freeze 2-3 days a year. It's not worth it to invest in infrastructure for handling that for such a short period of time. Plus, drivers here have NO idea how to drive safely on ice and the probability of having an accident is a lot worse.

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Itchy-Tourist8585@reddit

God Bless Wyoming

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FunkBeaver@reddit

I’ve not heard of states closing school for 40 degree weather personally. In my experience places like Alabama close schools if there’s a threat of ice or snow because drivers have almost 0 experience in these conditions, not to mention we don’t have salt trucks or snowplows. And this happens *maybe* once or twice a year, if not less. It’s a very rare occurrence to get snow or ice this far south, so when it happens people largely just stay home and ride it out.

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Live_Ad8778@reddit

We do have plows, we learned our lesson last time. Really it comes down to safety for the busses and we just aren't use to it. When I moved to Minnesota six years ago my new coworkers took bit of pleasure in my panicking of the first snow storm I experienced

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Gold_Telephone_7192@reddit

Because we have every climate in the world within our country's borders (literally). Places that don't often see frozen temps aren't prepared for them because why would they be? Same for places that don't often see hurricanes or heat waves or any other weather event. This doesn't happen every year. And it almost never happened in the decades and decades before recently. Places don't usually have systems in place for things that happen a couple times a lifetime.

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Meattyloaf@reddit

Different preparation and what's considered normal. Places that close schools for below freezing weather its due to the buses. Diesel without additives can start to freeze up below 32°F.

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OhThrowed@reddit

Is it worth it for Texas to invest in the infrastructure just for one day of weather?

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MattG_1789@reddit

Heat and insulatiom in buildings may mot be there for safe use when too cold, like a heatwave in Alasks likely no AC.

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eastcounty98@reddit

I live in San Diego. If we got 1 flake of snow the city would shut down. It all depends on what “standard” weather is like in your city/state

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Admirable-Media-9339@reddit

You seem to answer your own question with the Texas and no snowplows comparison. So what are you wondering? Different states handle different things differently.

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