Too Cold for School, Just Right for Water Parks

As I write this, the wind chill here is around -20. The actual temperature is -6.

That's really cold, and recent winters have been more mild; but it's not like this doesn't happen in Wisconsin.

Really dangerous wind chills can mean school closings.

The thing is the decision to close is so inconsistent. It's been this cold before and schools didn't shut down.

Today will be the second day in a row that schools have been cancelled because of the Great Wind Chill of '07.

The temps plus the wind is adding up to an extra long, long weekend for many kids in the country.

From the Associated Press:

A bone-chilling cold wave with temperatures as low as 42 below zero shut down schools for thousands of youngsters Monday, sent homeless people into shelters and put car batteries on the disabled list from the northern Plains across the Great Lakes. At least six deaths were linked to the cold weather.

...With a temperature of 12 below zero and wind chill of 31 below, Wisconsin's largest school district, Milwaukee Public Schools, also shut down, idling some 90,000 children. In upstate New York, 34,000 kids got the day off in Rochester because of temperatures near zero. Schools also closed in parts of Michigan and Illinois. A few schools closed even in Minnesota, where February cold is the norm and people are accustomed to coping.

...Hayward, Wis., fell to 27 below, and wind chills around the state dipped to nearly 40 below. The weather service said that Tuesday morning temperatures across Wisconsin would range from 15 below to 25 below.

Are we getting a little wimpy here?

When it's cold, you dress appropriately and limit the time you're outside.

It's a rare thing for MPS to shut down for two days straight.

From The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Milwaukee Public Schools will be closed again today. The decision was made by MPS Superintendent William Andrekopoulos on Monday afternoon based on safety concerns in the face of severely cold temperatures forecast for a second day.

..."The temperature was 12 below and wind chill 31 below, and we didn't want to expose the children to such severe conditions," said Phil Harris, an MPS spokesman. The National Weather Service reported a low temperature Monday of minus 11 degrees at Mitchell International Airport.

In the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District, the decision to close schools Monday came down to student safety, said Scot Ecker, director of business services for the district.

"The most important priority is the safety of the children," Ecker said, referring to students who must walk to school or wait on bus stops. "We had a real concern for their safety, particularly in light of the weather warnings."

...But not everyone minded the cold Monday, including indoor water park owners swamped with calls from parents whose children were home from school.

"Our phone has been pretty much ringing off the hook," said Julie Beck, marketing manager at Country Springs water park in Waukesha.

WHAT???

Kids can't get to school because of the frigid, dangerous conditions. Looking for the safety of the children is a good thing.

So what do the kids do with the free day? Stay huddled inside and hope the furnace doesn't conk out?

Noooooo.

THEIR PARENTS TAKE THEM TO SPEND THE DAY AT INDOOR WATER PARKS!!!

The kids are home because it would be too risky to send them to school, forcing them to venture out into the deep freeze.

If it's too cold to go to school, the kids shouldn't be going out to water parks or malls or movies.

I'm not blaming the kids for making the most of their days off.

The point is closing schools because the temperatures make it too dangerous to go outside is pointless if kids are leaving their homes to go swimming.

It's too cold to get to school but not too cold to get to a water park.

Right.