How Much Snow Does It Take To Close Schools Across The Country?
We may joke in Wyoming that southern states don't know how to handle a real snow storm. I remember waking up as a kid in Wyoming and having to help shovel the car out of the driveway so my parents could take me to school, because it took an act of God for schools to be closed to to snowfall. In states like Texas or Florida, however, it seems like the whole state goes into a panic with one inch of snow on the ground, right?
Well, according to this map, taken from points of data from Reddit as well as the NOAA's average annual snowfall for the U.S, we can see in hard numbers just how much snow it takes to close schools in Wyoming. The average is about 24 inches before closures begin.
Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota all seem to have similar standards for their school closures, and most of the northern and Rocky Mountain states follow suit. Once you get into the southern and west coast states, however, it becomes apparent that any snow at all will close schools. Maybe they're just not equipped with the right infrastructure to handle it?
I know when I was a kid, on days with snow the snowplows would be up before the sun to clear the bus lanes and make sure school still happened. I can honestly only remember about 5 total snow days? Most of them were during huge blizzards that completely buried my tiny little town. But my mom still insisted on going out in her Ford truck to help "pull those poor Chevy's out of the drifts."