Rowan County Weather Partnering with Rowan Salisbury Schools

Last week we of course had a real taste of winter with some areas of the county seeing over 6 inches or more of snow. Leading into the impending storm I was able to enter into a partnership with Rowan Salisbury Schools to discuss what the potential impacts could be from the storm as well as timelines. I was very impressed with the Administrators I met with and what their concerns were with the information they received. I know that some of you questioned the process and I wanted to take a moment to explain what I have observed and why I was so impressed with the decisions made by School Administrators.

The first thing on everyone's minds was of course the impacts and the safety concerns for students' staff, faculty etc. That is the main concern for System Administrators on several levels. If school is in session and the weather starts to take a wrong turn. The amount of time it takes to get all students and staff home safely is very critical. This also becomes a concern when addressing potential delays as the concern is what time is it safe enough to get students and staff on the road safely form their homes. 

Of course much like many forecasters and Meteorologist in the area. Myself and the National Weather Service as of 2pm last Tuesday had similar forecast of anywhere from a trace to 2 inches for the county when you put both forecast together. The potential was there that we could see very little snow as the system was likely to be a fast mover dropping very little accumulation. The decision was made to have a 2 hour delay for Wednesday. I stand by that decision Administrators made because it gave us all time to evaluate changes during the overnight hours. I spoke with School Administrators at 4am Wednesday morning and much like many of my colleagues and the National Weather Service we had observed the system literally slow to a crawl and spin off a new Low Pressure over Northeast Georgia. This drastically changed forecast as the system was beginning to pump in moisture. School Administrators to the information and sprang into action to cancel school completely. This of course resulted in cancellations for Thursday and Friday of last week as well as the higher snow totals led to longer periods of time for melting to occur with cooler temperatures hanging around for daytime hours and freezing temps at night. 

I am proud that the School System Administrators have allowed me to become a part of the conversations in potential weather impacts on schools being in session. I look forward to this partnership growing and want you all to know that these Administrators have nothing but concern for students and staff at all times. The next time weather has potential impacts on school hours and after school activities we will of course meet again and discuss potential impacts. As always thank you for following Rowan County Weather!