NerdAlert Weather for Pequea Valley

The wind chill will not be as bad as last time, but the NWS has issued a wind chill advisory effective until 10am saying stuff like “ POTENTIAL FOR HYPOTHERMIA AND FROST BITE TO    UNPROTECTED SKIN IN JUST A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME”.   They won’t cancel school, but they might delay.   I’m giving 50/50 chances, since the weather is similar to the day after the wind chill cancellation, where we didn’t cancel, but there also wasn’t a wind chill advisory (that I remember or have the time to verify).   Hence, I will reluctantly predict a TWO-HOUR DELAY tomorrow.

While it is somewhat traditional to have 2 hour delays after closings, I think with the sun being out today and plenty of time to clean up, there will be NO DELAY TOMORROW.

Given the large amount of light, fluffy, blowable-onto-roads snow, blowing winds, and –15 wind chill, I'm calling no school for Pequea. And if you think this is a late call, you'd be right, but I also called it a while ago...

It's been a pretty good year so far, but this storm might wreck the record. Alrighty…If schools are playing it totally safe, they’ll cancel both Tuesday and Wednesday.   The closer they are to the southern border of PA, the more likely it is.   However, I think that might be too safe.   I’m thinking they’ll get the students into school on Tuesday morning and then dismiss early.   I would predict a TUESDAY EARLY DISMISSAL, but Pequea doesn’t have school in session, just in-service for the teachers.   I will still predict that we teachers will be required to come in, at least for an appearance until the roads get bad and they dismiss us home around noon. (80-20) Now for Wednesday, I’m thinking there will be enough time to plow the roads, but the wind will make them hard to pass through, given drifting and blowing snow.   Either way, a WEDNESDAY TWO-HOUR delay is most likely, unless we’re one of the few districts that get 8-12 inches (65-35). ...

So there are some possibilities of snow and rain this week.  I'm going to risk calling a blanket statement of "no delays or closings for the entirety of this week"

Not very likely.  Possible, but not likely.  I'm going to predict NO DELAY OR EARLY DISMISSAL TOMORROW.  80-20 odds.

Ok, so as much as I want to say, “Suck it up and deal! Wear a coat, gloves, and a hat!”, there are also 1 st graders to think about.   It doesn’t look like the wind chill is going to go up by 10am, when they will be out and at the bus stops.   Also, given that they’re calling for record lows, there is a lot of hype, and we’re not used to this, I think they’ll play it safe.   Also, Wednesday will also be VERY cold, but with a higher wind chill, so I think they’ll play it safe Tuesday, and send everybody in on Wednesday.

Perhaps I'm being a little optimistic (or pessimistic, depending on your point of view), but I don't think this will be as bad as people think.  Hence... 1 st Prediction: We are NOT getting out early today .   Some may want to, given the Winter Weather Advisory, but I don’t really see us needing to get out early.   There will likely be some flurries and a little accumulation by 3:30 when the elementary busses leave, but we’ve done that before.   Although…we have also gotten out early when there hasn’t been any snow falling either…we’ll just have to see, although I don’t find it unreasonable to stay for the full day of school. 65-35 odds 2 nd Prediction: I’m going to waver on this one.   I want to say that we’ll have a two-hour delay.   However, given the temperature will dip to single digits and that there will be a lot of wind (drifting snow), there may be a few transportation problems which might close schools.   All...