Chilly Concerns

I was recently given an article involving how certain school districts close more often for certain amounts of snow and just how diversified across the nation this was for all school districts. The results told in the article were surprising to me, since it turns out that school districts in heavily-snowed areas actually close LESS OFTEN than schools in either moderate or lightly-snowed areas of the United States. Although, to a degree, this is understandable. If people live in a climate that has a particular set of weather patterns they will more than likely be better prepared to deal with those patterns than an area with less of that climate’s weather patterns. For instance, the nordic scandinavians have been dealing with an intensely snowy and blizzard-like climate since practically the beginning of time. Since those who could not survive the harsh winters died, the majority of scandinavians in the past were usually hearty and used to the cold to the point where it hardly bothered them anymore. Just like in early scandinavia, certain states are better equipped to deal with heavy snowstorms. Some have altered snowplows to make them more efficient or quicker, have developed new methods of controlling ice on the roads, and have alternate ways of getting from place to place that isn’t hampered by snow (underground metro trains, etc.). In other words, they have adapted to deal with freak snowstorms more often since that’s the climate they live in while states that live in a warmer climate will be easily hampered by snow since they aren’t use to having to constantly deal with it. This would explain why school districts in heavily-snowed areas close for the snow less often than school districts in lightly or moderately snowed areas; those in lightly snowed areas simply aren’t used to that kind of climate.