2/14 - 2/15 Valentine's Day Clipper

[Crockett]

My road leaving the house this morning.

[servocrow]

Picture Postcard, Crockett!!   

[Brick Tamland]

Internet was down at my house last night and I know it's a little late to post in this thread but here on the mountain it's been amazing. We had snow showers all day yesterday (Tues.) and total snow added up to right at 4" up here. Valley locations didn't receive anything at all. It's been a long time since I've seen constant snow showers over a 2 or 3 day period like this with nothing sticking below us. The side roads are not in good shape at all.

Here's hoping for 1 more big blast at the end of the month 1st of March time frame and then we can break out the golf clubs and de-Winterize the **** boat!

[Extremewxlover]

How come school counties in the cumberland plateau closes all the times it snow? they get more snow than washington dc and new york in a whole season, who barely close schools.

and it snows frequently in the cumberland plateau, shouldn't they be used to it, just like northerners?

putnam country and them been out for like 20 days this winter

[Tom23]

How come school counties in the cumberland plateau closes all the times it snow? they get more snow than washington dc and new york in a whole season, who barely close schools.

and it snows frequently in the cumberland plateau, shouldn't they be used to it, just like northerners?

putnam country and them been out for like 20 days this winter

Answered your question on other post.

[StormNine]

How come school counties in the cumberland plateau closes all the times it snow? they get more snow than washington dc and new york in a whole season, who barely close schools.

and it snows frequently in the cumberland plateau, shouldn't they be used to it, just like northerners?

putnam country and them been out for like 20 days this winter

Although the higher peaks of the Plateau average about 19-20 inches of snow a winter like Monterey.  The somewhat lower portions like Cookeville average about 12 inches I believe check me if that is wrong.  So they average about as much as DC who averages 17 inches, but the problem I think is two things.

1) Tennessee as a whole state probably doesn't spend as much on Winter Weather because a good deal of the state averages 8 inches or less of snow.  Compared to most of New York, Pennsylvania, and even into the Mid-Atlantic where most people average at least 15 inches of snow a year with some areas averaging a lot more.  So it would make sense for those Mid-Atlantic and NE areas to spend more on winterized gear for buses, salt operations, winter weather awareness, and so forth compared to TN ,or even you can use Kentucky' or any other Southern State for that matter.

2)  The Plateau area is pretty rural.  Cookeville and Crossville are really the only main cities on the plateau, and even than they aren't 50,000+ population cities.  Meanwhile the metro area of the Northeast and Mid Atlantic is mostly urban, has a lot of people, so again more reason to spend money on winter.  Also this would mean that the Plateau would have important secondary roads that the salt trucks can't get to meaning more hazardous travel. 
While the more urban areas the main roads would be easy to access via the salt trucks, and school buses

[SnowSeek]

Also the hilly terrain makes it more dangerous, i'd much rather drive around in flat ground then attempt a 90 degree hair bender from the top of a mtn

[Crockett]

How come school counties in the cumberland plateau closes all the times it snow? they get more snow than washington dc and new york in a whole season, who barely close schools.

and it snows frequently in the cumberland plateau, shouldn't they be used to it, just like northerners?

putnam country and them been out for like 20 days this winter

StormNine pretty well covered it.

Take Scott County as an example--and Morgan, Fentress and other counties on the northern plateau are very similar: It's a rural county. The Town of Oneida (pop. 3,500) has three 3/4-ton flatbed trucks with a blade mounted to the front and a salt box on the bed. They do a pretty good job keeping the city streets snow-free. The county is a very different story. The road department simply doesn't have the financial resources to salt the roads. And even if they did, there are so many miles of rural roadways that you simply can't cover them all. The best they can do is put down gravel chips on the well-traveled secondary roads.

There are hundreds of miles of back roads in this county that are still very slick. And you also have to factor in the terrain differences on the Plateau. Sans the mountains of East TN, most of the state doesn't have the hills and curvy roads that we have here. Drive up here tomorrow and I bet you'll agree pretty quickly that school shouldn't be in session. I still have to use 4wd to get in to my house from the main highway. You simply cannot send school buses out on those roads in those conditions. All it takes is one accident. Granted, Scott County (and Fentress County) does miss a day here and there that they probably shouldn't. After the end of January winter storm, for example, Scott County missed four days the next week. I felt like they could've gone back for at least one, maybe two of those days. But there were a few of those rural roads that still had some snow on them.

I would favor having school and telling bus drivers to use their discretion on whether to travel roads that aren't snow-free. But in those circumstances, absentee rates are always high. And the problem you have now is NCLB mandates a certain attendance rate for the year (92% I think), and schools struggle to meet those rates when the weather is clear. A couple of days of 30%-40% absentee rates can really bite into that number.

I think a lot of folks don't realize just how rural much of the Plateau is. If you've never been off I-40, US 27 or US 127, you haven't really seen the northern Plateau. I took a transmission to a shade tree mechanic to rebuild in a rural part of our county a few years ago. He was the last house on the road with electricity. And we had to ford a creek to get to his house. He said when the creek is up, they have to cross the creek on a nearby railroad trestle. Also, in Fentress County there's a state highway that goes from the Clarkrange community to near Livingston in Overton County, through the Wilder community--which is aptly named. The last time I was down that highway, seven or eight years ago, there was a section of it where it drops off the Plateau that wasn't even paved; it was just gravel. Obviously those are two extreme examples, but it illustrates how rural things are in these parts.

In any event, I doubt Putnam County has missed 20 days. Scott County will be out for its 15th day tomorrow. But in the end, kids here will go to school the equivalent of 180 days, the same as kids in the rest of the state. The 13 snow days are built in by going 30 minutes extra each day, and they'll have to make up anything after that. Scott County missed three days during the flu pandemic back in September, so unless the state waives those days, they're currently sitting at 5 days that have to be made up. McCreary County, in southeastern Kentucky, is worse. They miss more days than the Tennessee plateau counties. I heard the other day that they will be going well into June even if they don't miss any more.

The bottom line is that the stigma that the schools up here look for any reason to close really isn't well deserved, even if they do occasionally err on the side of caution (much to my chagrin, believe me). I just came from a high school basketball game at Oneida earlier tonight. The student parking lot was snow-covered and slick. One car did a 180 in the parking lot. If you're going to have fender-benders in the school parking lot, of all places, it probably isn't a good idea to have school.

[Crockett]

Well, the mid-February sun took its toll on our snow pack the last two days even with heavy cloud cover and sub-freezing temperatures. Everything was still covered this morning, but a full day of sunny skies and temperatures that pushed to 40 degrees has left us with more green (and brown) than white.

Here was the view out my front window this morning, though (picture's too wide to put on here): http://www.tnhunting.com/images/wordpress/snowscene.jpg

And for anyone who thought Plateau schools should've been in session today, I stopped to snap a picture of the road after leaving home:

[Charles L.]

That road looks fine Crockett, what are you talking about.

Some of our roads still had some snow on them as well so that is why we went 2 hours late. I like waking up and having school at 10 am...better then having the 8 am start.

[ajatwister]

That road looks fine Crockett, what are you talking about.

Some of our roads still had some snow on them as well so that is why we went 2 hours late. I like waking up and having school at 10 am...better then having the 8 am start.

you start a 8 am?? wow lucky you. School starts a 7:25 on the dot in williamson county. if youre 30 seconds late, detention. I will take any delay i can get 

[Charles L.]

you start a 8 am?? wow lucky you. School starts a 7:25 on the dot in williamson county. if youre 30 seconds late, detention. I will take any delay i can get 

Geez...7:25. What time do you get out though? We get out at 2:55.

[ajatwister]

2:32. Id rather get to school at 8 and get out a 2:55. getting up at 6 kills, and it just makes you tired ALL day. consider yourself lucky 

[Charles L.]

2:32. Id rather get to school at 8 and get out a 2:55. getting up at 6 kills, and it just makes you tired ALL day. consider yourself lucky 

I get up at 6 each morning. I am a morning person by far, but starting at 10 am was nice today. haha

[ajatwister]

you can probably tell that im not a morning person... hahaha