Ever hear that story from your parents or grandparents about how they had towalk to school in knee-deep snow and how thankful they were to do it. Sometimesthey had to go without shoes! Of course, it was uphill both ways. I heard thisheartbreaking tale many times when I was a kid. Of course, I never dared toquestion it. Any kid that did was at risk of not seeing the light of the nextday.I do know that schools close because of the weather at the drop of a hat thesedays. When I was a kid, there was never an instance in which school wascancelled before snow was falling. I remember having early dismissals, but bythen we were already in the middle of a blinding blizzard. Some of the stormswere so bad, I was surprised we made it home. However, all the buses had chainsback then. I never see that anymore, at least around here.
My mom wasn't very happy when the weather closed school. That meant she had toput up with us monsters the whole day. She would often make the comment, "It'snot that bad out; why do they have to close school?" Maybe it was because itwas snowing 2 inches per hour, mom!Then, of course, she would send us out to play in the blizzard saying that thefresh air would do us good. Yeah, right, mom. It served her right if we gotsick and had to spend a whole week at home.
There aren't any school-closing snowstorms on the weather map right now. Thereis a mini-blizzard going on in Montana, but the folks up there expect that sortof thing. Although the storm is making travel difficult for those passingthrough, I don't think it's much of a bother for the locals.
Not to worry though, kids. You'll get your snow days.
Story by AccuWeather.com Senior Meteorologist John Kocet.
