Snow in Binghamton

When I moved here I figured that I was moving to New York and that it snows every year several times during the winter season.  It has snowed several times, but more often than it has snowed there have been "winter storm" warnings issued on the local radio stations.  The result has been somewhat baffling to me.  

In Salt Lake, life would continue as normal without much interruption to anyone's schedule... the biggest difference is that people might leave for work 15 minutes early, but not much else.  Last year, there was a snow storm that dropped about a foot of snow between 5 AM and Noon.  I walked to work at the University of Utah, where I was bombarded with telephone calls from students and faculty who could not make it up the hill. The University didn't announce a closure until it had stopped snowing, the roads were clear and was actually sunny outside.  They closed, not directly because of the snow, but because there was a problem with the heating system and 1/3 of campus was going to be out of heat.  

In Binghamton, as soon as anyone says the word "snow" all of the schools announce that they are going to have a delay, close early or just not happen at all. 

 

The first time I really noticed this phenomenon was a day when there was a "winter storm" warning for that night from about 8 PM until midnight.  My co-workers all got phone calls letting them know that their children would be out of school at 1:30 PM because of the storm.  It wasn't raining.  It wasn't snowing.  People just said the word "storm".  That night it started to rain at about 7 PM.  I have to admit, walking outside was a little slippery, but the roads were fine.  I know this because I went out with Anthony to run some errands.  At one of our stops, a friendly cashier asked how the ice storm was going.  I almost laughed at her.  Ice storms are one of the things I have feared about New York Winters... I had no idea that the cold, but gentle rain was a dreaded ice storm.  I had imagined that in an ice storm ice cicles would come down from the sky as if being thrown by Zeus - if he threw ice cicles instead of lightning.  I knew it would not be that dramatic, but also really expected the rain to turn into ice more immediately upon hitting the ground, it just became a nice thick slush.  The next day, my ever so helpful co-workers were able to confirm my suspicions that it was not a very bad ice storm the previous night.  The funny thing is: school was delayed by two hours that morning.   The weather was fine the rest of the week, but someone somewhere had said the word "snow" or "winter storm" so apparently the schools had to be postponed for at least one hour every day the rest of that week.

Since I first noticed the school closure phenomenon, it has continued and every time it happens I have told another person about how baffling it is to me.  I finally said something to someone from this area who was able to clear it all up for me... it is the school's way of not having to pay for crazy insurance for their busses and a way to avoid law suits that would inevitably happen if a bus was in accident as a result of the snow and ice.  I was glad someone was able to clear that up for me.  

It just started raining and it is supposed to turn to snow.  I wonder how long school will be delayed tomorrow... wouldn't it be nice if work was delayed too?