How many ways to say "snowbound"

They close schools in bad weather here, it's called a "snow day". Last August, at the beginning of the school year, they closed schools because temps reached 95 deg Fahrenheit (and it's still called a "snow day" because schools are only allowed so many snow days per year and if they go over the little ones have to make them up in the summer).

 

Yeah. Today there's only a little bit of snow on the ground, but what there is is being blown into the next county by 40 mph winds. Schools are cancelled, but not businesses. Otherwise, it's a beautiful, bright, sunny day.

As for the daughter of the OP, he/she could find a copy of Whittier's "Snowbound" and read it to her. There ya go, education accomplished.

 

To be honest, I usually just end up throwing on the 4 wheel drive and taking the back roads. If visibility is really bad I turn on the running lights and/or rotator beacon. This isn't something I'd recommend for everyone, though.

 

Thank God we have only good weather here.

In my life time schools have been closed because of weather zero times.

Our most important air port Helsinki-Vantaa was once closed. It was in 2003 and it took 30 minutes. Shameful.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-12042213

https://www.travelmarketreport.com/articles/Thousands-of-Flights-Canceled-as-Polar-Vortex-Descends-on-Midwest

ETA

I must correct myself.

In January 1999 it was very cold in Finnish Lapland. When it was under -50°C taxi drivers and parents agreed that they don't send kids to school.

So... In my lifetime it has happened that a school (only one) has been closed because of weather. My bad. My mistake. I did not know about sub -50°C temperatures in Lapland in 1999.

Link in Finnish language.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-10621333

 

This Texan is laughing. Don't ever come to Texas. It's 115 in August sometimes. No way they'd close schools for that. Don't you have air conditioning? (Not trying to be snarky, honestly curious.)

It's so crazy to see how different every place reacts to weather that would be normal elsewhere. It's interesting to hear @Alan Aspie 's take on this. Following!

 

Yeah, I second this post. It's like there's an even fiercer determination to fucking drive to work when the weather's bad. "Oh you worked from home? Wuss!" It's been unusually snowy in the south this winter, and while I don't really have any qualms when it comes to driving in snowy or icy weather, I do get impatient with the traffic. It becomes such a struggle cos suddenly everyone's driving super slow on the freeway and smaller roads are not plowed so they look like big ass ski tracks and oh no, I don't have a 4 wheel drive because why would I make things easy for myself, pffft?! Sure, I wouldn't mind a snowday but somehow I don't think it's gonna happen in my lifetime.

 

Not all schools have air conditioning and that is why they have to close.
If they would wait until after Labor Day they wouldn't have a problem. When I was a kid the first day of school was always after Labor Day.

The only reason they close because of the wind chill temps is because of the walkers. Well, they said it was too cold to stand out waiting at the bus stops, though.

Looks like the kid will be off tomorrow too, the schools are starting to call in the closings.

 

I don't ever remember schools being closed up here either. We'd have days where the buses would be cancelled because of unsafe driving conditions, but if you could make it to class it was technically expected of you. Walkers were supposed to bundle up or catch a ride if their parents didn't object to them going out.

 

How much snow do you guys get? If our roads aren't plowed, they'd be impassible... like, not a question of needed four wheel drive, because even 4WD isn't going to get you through drifts that are over the hood of your car...

 

If they haven't been plowed in a while, you just drive in the tracks. Unless they're deep, then the belly of the car gets stuck and that's not good. Depth of snow is officially 42 cm now where I live. Obviously it's not so bad on most roads cos there's traffic.

ETA: Oh and you get ridges in the middle of the road. Those aren't fun when you're passing, like this morning when I overtook a tractor. Even at fairly low speeds the wheels can go a little swivel-ly when they hit deeper snow.

 

Just for comparison, I looked at the two capitals - Helsinki and Ottawa, and it looks like the weather is overall less extreme in Helsinki... less snow, and also less cold (and less warmth, but that's not relevant to the current discussion!) - Data from https://www.worldweatheronline.com/lang/en-ca/helsinki-weather-averages/southern-finland/fi.aspx for Helsinki and https://www.worldweatheronline.com/ottawa-weather-averages/ontario/ca.aspx for Ottawa.

I know Helsinki is pretty far south, so I looked at Oulu, Oulu at https://www.worldweatheronline.com/oulu-weather-averages/oulu/fi.aspx - looks like one year with a hell of a lot of snow, but otherwise pretty similar to Helsinki. I wasn't sure what to compare it to, so I picked Inuvik since it's at about the same latitude... Its data is at https://www.worldweatheronline.com/inuvik-weather-averages/northwest-territories/ca.aspx. As you can see, consistently more snow and way the hell colder.

I think Finland may have a maritime climate? Does that sound right? The ocean has a moderating influence on your climate, like it does for us in Vancouver.

But a lot of North America has a continental climate, and it's a bit different. More prone to extremes. You don't get tornadoes like the Americans do, and it sounds like you may not get snow like we do.

The following photo was taken on a highway near me a few years ago. It's a drift, and it's been cut with the snowblower, but it's still a hell of a lot of snow. Most of it fell in the course of about three days. And, no... we weren't driving much during those days.



Similar picture from about half-an-hour away, with a person for scale.

 

To be honest, I don't get snow like you do, what with the lake effect and all that. It's only during mild winters that we get that much snowfall. But I doubt you get the cold like we have up here, either.

 

Huge damn country, huge variation in weather! I saw some pictures from Newfoundland earlier in the week and it looked like they've been getting loads of snow this year!

We haven't had that much this year until the last week or so, but we seem to be catching up for lost time, now.

Here, though, it's not so much the snowFALL as the blowing snow. Really squall-y... when you're in a streamer, you can't see a thing, but someone two kilometres away could be basking in sunshine.

 

There's never that much snow in Helsinki, noooo. This is a coastal city. This year with the current 42 cm is actually a lot! I mean, sure there are snow hills piled up everywhere right now and cars get buried under snow after a while, but nothing like in those pics. You don't usually need a 4WD down here though many people like it cos it's less hassle when the roads get bad or your parking lot gets buried while you're happily in the office.

Oulu is quite close to the sea so the depth of snow is about the same as in Helsinki, so it's not so much how far north you are I think, but how close you are to a big body of water, be it a sea or a big lake. There's a lot more snow in the east and in the center right now.

We don't get tornadoes, no, cos they're called trombis in Europe. Usually they aren't as vicious over here though, as they seem to be on that side of the pond.

 

I think this is the key thing to remember - different places are prepared for different kinds of weather. When Canadians and other northerners laugh b/c somewhere in the southern US gets a few inches of snow and falls apart, we're forgetting they don't have 4WD and snow tires and snow plows and salters and sanders and may not even have FURNACES. Conversely, lots of people don't have air conditioning at home where I live, and most schools don't have it either, because it's just not needed. Usually.

In general, I think there may be slight differences in regional cultures, but it's not like everyone in certain places is just stupid or crazy or something. If North Carolina shuts down their roads when they get three inches of snow, I'm not going to assume the people in North Carolina are idiots; I'm going to assume they made a judicious decision based on the resources available and the risk posed by the situation.