The Fora: A Higher Education Community

We're having our January thaw, so it's foggy and drizzly and 40 degrees. We've had enough snow that even with the rain and warm temps, you can't see the ground yet, but it's nice to not be below freezing for a little while. Long term forecast is back to regular winter by next week.

Temperatures well into the 60s, with heavy rains overnight and more coming today.  I guess we've had our week of winter for this year.  Now it's the spring rain and (possible) flood season.

To summarize:

Just over two weeks ago, it was warm enough for me to ride my motorcycle.  Then came a week of snow and ice and near-record lows.  Then dramatic warming, and days of monsoon-like rains.  This morning I heard frogs croaking in January.  It has been a weird two weeks.

Highs in the 70s forecast for today.  Here I had thought that we might have a January with no 70-degree weather for a change!  I can still remember a decade or so ago being shocked when we had 70-degree days in February.  Now they're more common in the winter months than frosts are.  Things are changing that fast.

We're bracing for a Nor'easter. Good weather--warm and mostly sunny-- last week though.

Lots of rain lately.  I was in Little Rock on Friday evening, and heard civil defense sirens going off.  Our state's first tornado of the year had been sighted some miles to the south.  Then we had rain most of Saturday.  I drove through it for hours on the way home.  Then yesterday we could hear heavy rain and thunder all through the Sunday morning service, in a building where the sanctuary has no outside windows.

Today it's chilly and drizzly.  I spent a couple of hours helping stir a dozen big pots of chilly for a local service club's annual chili fundraiser.  Looks like we picked a great day for it!

Snow coming!  A lot!  Cancel schools!

Oh, wait, it looks to be much less bad.

Oops.

Quote from: FishProf on February 12, 2024, 02:21:39 PMSnow coming!  A lot!  Cancel schools!

Oh, wait, it looks to be much less bad.

Oops.

Same here. Every school closed, and some snow flurries.

Quote from: sinenomine on February 13, 2024, 04:48:59 AM

Quote from: FishProf on February 12, 2024, 02:21:39 PMSnow coming!  A lot!  Cancel schools!
Oh, wait, it looks to be much less bad.
Oops.

Same here. Every school closed, and some snow flurries.

It looks like they got the timing badly off, and the totals, while not trival, aren't happening at the worst time as the original models predicted.

Oh well.  More grading and less shoveling works for me.

The "snow coming, a lot" reminds me of a conversation I had when I moved to Philly years ago. When I asked about winters, I was told to watch out for dire forecasts of snow several days prior to the expected snow, and then announcements that snow was falling (just a dusting) and then the following day, that snow had fallen. This was exactly what happened during the first snow-dusting!

Here, we did get several inches of snow, with ice underneath it, so I'm glad I don't have to dig out or worry about slippery roads and sidewalks.

The very idea of snow has come to excite fear and loathing in most people I know.  We only get it about once every three years anymore, but whenever there is even a hint of a possibility of arctic air coming this far south many people fear the worst.  I think the fear of snow has risen as the actuality of it has become less and less common.

It's not that people have no reason to fear it.  We tend to get light snows that quickly turn into sheets of ice on the roads.  Very disruptive to transportation and everyday activities.  Distances in our rural areas are great, and local government resources for dealing with snow are limited.  And there is always a possibility that accumulations of ice on power lines can create widespread disruptions of service.  Still, the fears and borderline freakouts I hear expressed whenever there is talk of snow seem excessive at times.

Around here, there seems to be a collective case of PTSD from the BLIZZARD OF '78.

The sun's out, after about 6-8" of snow. Schools went remote for some strange reason, instead of just closing. There was no remote instruction, however, because nobody could log on. According to the NYT,

QuoteStudents dawdled in their first period classes with cameras off, waiting for teachers who had not been able to log in. Some were only able to get on after repeatedly refreshing their sites. Others were kicked out of online meetings. As parents and educators took on the role of makeshift tech support, several schools fully called off meetings and classes until at least 10 a.m., unable even to take attendance.

What a silly decision. Especially with so little snow this year, would it have killed them to give everyone a day off?

Quote from: cathwen on February 13, 2024, 12:28:57 PMWhat a silly decision. Especially with so little snow this year, would it have killed them to give everyone a day off?

The sad part is that we have a large contingent of students who are homeless, so it would have been extremely difficult for them to find a working computer and internet services to be able to go online. Accprding a NYT article going back to 2018 or 2019, one out of ten students in the city were in homeless shelters; this number must be much higher now with the influx of migrants. The mayor and the school chancellor are buddies, so City Hall would endorse all decisions by the chancellor regardless of the ensuing chaos. From yesterday's NYT article:

QuoteMayor Eric Adams said that the disarray would serve as a "teaching moment" for the city.

"Remote learning's going to be with us for a while," Mr. Adams said. "The goal is to get perfection, and there's a journey to get perfection."