WI school dist. cancels classes due to potential severe wx outbreak

[Scott Weberpal]

Announced on Wednesday, this is taken directly from the Stevens Point school district website...

There will be NO SCHOOL on Thursday, June 7, 2007. Due to potentially severe weather, the district has been advised by the Portage County Emergency Management Committee to cancel all classes at all schools on Thursday.

District website http://www.wisp.k12.wi.us/education/district/district.php?sectionid=1

Interesting...

EDIT: I probably should have put this in B&G, mods feel free to move to proper forum

[rdale]

Per the IEMChat logs, the EM claims that two discrete supercells will move into their area at 1pm tomorrow.

Wow.

[Terry Tyler]

i would think schools would be safer structures...they do the same thing here in MS...i think that schools, churches, govt. buildings should be places people should go to...not be sent from...

i am low income...i grew up in trailer parks or projects...and i would rather be in a school or a church then in a trailor or the 2nd story of an apartment building...

[Terry Tyler]

Per the IEMChat logs, the EM claims that two discrete supercells will move into their area at 1pm tomorrow.

Wow.

how can they tell that?

is this some kind of new advanced mesoscale model?

[Todd Sprinkmann]

Scott,

This is unbelivable to me. I know you presented the story without hype or prejudice, but this is still unbelivable. to me.

I wish I had such a progressive District Administrator when I was 15, 16, 17 years old and 4-8" of snow was forecast a day ahead of the actual event!! It would have been wonderful to know that simply the *threat* of bad weather was enough to have school called off.

Now watch... there will be truly significant severe wx in the heart of Central Wisconsin. Still... what a gross overreaction.

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

This is now a cultural difference, but as mobile homes are rather unknown here in Estonia, my opinion could be different. I say, be happy you have this, because Estonian schools won't close even if a strongest storm in history is hitting it. Same happens here during deep cold waves, high schools remain open even if it is -25°F outside. If it is 85 degrees outside, it is open(I know how it feels. Fortunately I just went for 1 class that day to do a test. Otherwise I would have certainly fainted because of dehydration). I am surprised that there have been no weather fatalities among school students.

Back to topic: if my house was a building, what could get relocated to another county by EF0 tornado, I would go to school though. If school was safer, I would go to school. However, my house is not a mobile home etc, and I feel actually safer at home(here I have perfect overview on current sky, in Tartu, where is the school, sky is obscured by city buildings).

[Todd Sprinkmann]

Tarmo,

Like Scott, I live in the same state as Stevens Point. That would be Wisconsin, which is the state north of Illinois (Chicago). We are pretty far from Tornado Alley. We do experience severe weather and we are definitely under a moderate risk tomorrow. No doubt about that. However, I can assure you that I have gone to school (and stood outside for a bus) in everything from -20F to +90F. As have millions of school children in many parts of the USA. It's just something you prepare for and deal with. You should hear from some folks who grew up in Minnesota, or the Dakotas or Montana. They have mornings where it's minus 30-40F and life goes on. And their summers can easily surpass 100F. Fortunately, almost all Americans are off from school from June thru August.

At the same time, we do enjoy the occasional day where heavy snow makes the roads unsafe and we get to stay home. I'm 43 years old now, but I still enjoy a blizzard that keeps us all at home. It's just the way I am. :) Many folks here only enjoy thunderstorms and severe weather. I love blizzards and everything winter has to offer.

But Wisconsin is very far from Tornado Alley. And even in Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, I have *NEVER* heard of any school district cancelling classes because of the possibility of severe weather. It's just unheard of. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

BTW, Tarmo.... I don't hang around Stormtrack 12 months of the year but I have read thru some of your threads. I'm not picking on you because you replied to this thread. I wish you the very best in your life. Take good care.

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

Hmm... I am starting to wonder if one's sensitivity to weather varies by latitude...

However, I am having that advantage that here, school ends in first week of June and begins on 1 September. I have an issue with the cold since school I go to is over 20 miles away(only school for children with special needs nearby and - there is no school district system in Estonia)

[Brandon Goforth]

I've lived in Oklahoma my entire life and never have heard of any closings due to *potential severe weather* outbreaks...heck, if that was the case our spring break would've lasted from mid-March all the way to June. :)

[Jeff Snyder]

I really hope folks realize that tornadoes are extremely low-probability events for any given locations, even during the most widespread of tornado outbreaks. Such events are NOT like winter storms, which can affect a very large area and can last for hours to days. Most tornadoes are short-lived and small, and the area in the "risk area" is often orders of magnitude larger than the area actually hit by the tornado(es). Oy!

[Tarmo Tanilsoo]

I really hope folks realize that tornadoes are extremely low-probability events for any given locations, even during the most widespread of tornado outbreaks. Such events are NOT like winter storms, which can affect a very large area and can last for hours to days. Most tornadoes are short-lived and small, and the area in the "risk area" is often orders of magnitude larger than the area actually hit by the tornado(es). Oy!

I have to agree. As long as I remember, my home village has not had tornadoes. Maybe some gustnadoes out of my sight, but it is all. But winter storms are sometimes even a weekly nuisance, distracting traffic.

[Kiel Ortega]

Kevin Scharfenberg and Don Burgess did some back of the envelope calculations and found for an average high risk area (probably like today's), the probability of a severe weather observation WITHIN 25 MILES is still ~10^-3!! Of course that increases greatly given a storm, but still...

[Tony Perkins]

Didn't schools in Tennessee cancel classes the day after the big outbreak in early Spring of 2006? I seem to remember another high risk day followed it.

[Zack Borst]

They don't cancel schools because they don't want people to be in the schools, usually its because if something does happen they don't want to have parents and family rushing to the schools or having to organize some mass retreat of the school should something happen. I think that with this scenario it seems a little unprecedented but they can now guarantee that there will be several structures that people can use as shelters in the event of an emergency.

[rdale]

They cancel schools because they don't want the liability of having people in schools... Dying in their homes is preferred to death by school collapse. There's no reason to believe they want the schools as shelters from the storm.

[Brian Emfinger]

Well looking at todays storm reports looks like there were 2 tornadoes within 20 miles of Steven's Point, WI.

"the EM claims that two discrete supercells will move into their area at 1pm tomorrow."

That guy is some forecaster! <SARCASM!

[rdale]

I'm sure all the parents who had to scramble for babysitters so their kids could stay home and play all day are glad to hear that a tornado hit 20 miles away ;>

They already pushed the school year back until late next week because of excessive snow days, looks like they just tacked on another.

[Justin E. Reed]

They didn't close the schools, but they started letting them out by 11am. It basically followed the storm motions, from west to east, so as the storms approached like a couple of counties over, they let them out. Davidson County was getting ready to dismiss when the N. Nashville-Hendersonville-Gallatin tornado touched down, delaying that promptly. But all schools from Murfreesboro and all counties north and west were out by 1pm.

[Kevin Bowman]

They didn't close the schools, but they started letting them out by 11am. It basically followed the storm motions, from west to east, so as the storms approached like a couple of counties over, they let them out. Davidson County was getting ready to dismiss when the N. Nashville-Hendersonville-Gallatin tornado touched down, delaying that promptly. But all schools from Murfreesboro and all counties north and west were out by 1pm.

because letting a school filled with kids out is the smartest thing to do with storms that close and the movement that fast. id pay for private school next year if i were the parents

[Justin E. Reed]

Of course, all we have to look at is Coffee Co. Alabama's Enterprise H.S.
My cousin was there and got scrapes and bruises and his truck was carried 1/4 mile away. They attempted to let them out at 1030, but SVR STORM WARNING was issued, so, they said 1230, no luck with a tornado warnins issued. Then, they decided on 100, and all was well and a few students tried to leave early, but came running back inside and then hell came over the ridge and lord, we saw what happened next! Students literally were screaming as they ran from the lot back inside" ITS COMING, OMG THE TORNADO IS COMING! It's an unfortunate case that reveals even schools can only take so much before failure happens at some point in the structure. In conclusion, there is no safe place in a tornado, all buildings are vulnerable, but keeping students at school is a hard decision on the school district administrators, it all comes down to how to keep the kids safe, its all about the kids.

[rdale]

It's not a hard decision at all. It's safer for kids to be in schools, supervised, during a tornado - than sent to a home that may be locked, and is likely without parents, when a tornado is coming. But it makes it easier on their PR department because "2 kids killed in their home" sounds better than "2 kids killed in school."

[Justin E. Reed]

That's incorrect in my mind. At school, parents think its the safest place in the world from the elements. NOT SO MUCH, as Enterprise prooved. No place is safe, Killed at home or at school, either way its a bad thing, but at school sounds worse due to the fact, its a freckin school. Better than on the way home though.

[Bill Doms]

When I came through Marshfield WI yesterday, I noticed all the buses were being held at the highschool and were just leaving as the torn threat had passed (about the same time Wisconsin Rapids got hit) off to the east.

Here is a screen capture as the second of the sups passed over STE yesterday.
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w80/mnskies/KSTE2140z.jpg

Almost a self-fulfilling prophecy if this would have dropped a torn. the other thing to consider is how rural a lot of this area is and as we all know, the visibility leaves a little to be desired. So they hold school, dismiss and the rural bus routes are just finishing up. I wonder if the EM is going to run for mayor next?

[Terry Tyler]

If they were in the process of sending them into the storm, as Enterprise was doing, then yes I would bring it up. I would rather my kids be at school, supervised, in a shelter during a tornado than sitting on a front porch somewhere by themselves. You can't always be home every time school closes.

i strongly agree...i would feel safer in a concrete-renforced steel school than in my house...i also agree that it is more of a liabitily issue, but think about it...it doesnt matter where you are...at school, or walmart or even at the house...if a tornado is going to strike the area...there is simply nothing you can do about it...and you cant really hold any one person responsible for a tornado taking lives...

are school closures a good thing during severe weather? i dont think so...some people feel more secure in the comfort of their own homes...i think this is one of those issues that school administrators an EM personel deal with and nothing we say will effect it...

[mike scantlin]

im not saying that homes are more sturdy than schools. im not an idiot. im saying that if you try to make a bunch of high schoolers take shelter in an orderly fashion, you would get close to nowhere. it would be total chaos. i would rather have my kids stay home, and make sure they know how dangerous it could be that day, and to listen to the radio. and i would call them if they were in danger. i'm talking about high schoolers here.