Bitter Cold Michigan

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Get out your winter coats and gloves- winter is not over just yet.  With dangerous record breaking temperatures that felt like 30 degrees below with the wind, this has been one of the worst winters Michigan has seen in decades.  January has been one of the snowiest months that broke records in parts of the state. According to The National Weather Service, the Detroit area saw 39.1 inches of snow in January, which tops the record for the snowiest month previously set in February of 1908.

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Car spun out of control into a ditch.
Credit: Amy Weed

Hundreds of schools have closed down and are running out of snow days due to the bitter weather.
“The decision to close school is always a difficult one. Several factors are taken into consideration,” Superintendent Dr. Richards said.
Those several factors include temperature, wind chill, snow accumulation, timing of the snowfall, road conditions for buses and drivers, and potential time students will spend in the elements while waiting for a bus or walking to and from school. From there, several communications are made.

“In addition, several communications are made between superintendents of neighboring districts, our transportation directors, and the consultation of various weather forecasting systems,” Dr. Richards said.
Under law, schools districts can cancel up to six days before it is required to make up the time. It’s necessary to have 170 days of teaching and 1,098 hours of class in order to receive a funding from the state. Fraser Public Schools have used all of their snow days; the school board is now debating on whether or not to add more days till the end of the year or make the school day longer.
The Michigan Legislature may modify attendance laws to give districts more options in making up lost class time.  Representative Phil Potvin will introduce a bill that grants districts more power over deciding what to do to make up lost time in order to meet all state requirements. The only problem is that it could possibly affect teacher’s contracts.
“We are at the point where we would need to look at a variety of options for making up the instructional time per the requirements of the State of Michigan,” Dr. Richards said.

Fraser along with many other districts across the Midwest have set a record this year with the most amounts of snow days in a school year.
“I believe this has been a record setting year for many school districts across the Midwest. I have been in Fraser since 2005 and I can’t recall more than 3 days of school being closed in a school year due to inclement weather,” Dr. Richards said

Governor Rick Snyder signed the One-Time Change into state law in May 2013, which allows schools to extend their day rather than adding extras days to the end of the year. That year, 17 districts made their days longer, while 30 furthered their school year.
As Michiganders hope for a warmer February, it looks like forecasting signs are predicting another colder-than-normal month. In order to get out of this abnormal cold pattern, Michigan would have to see a radical upper-air pattern change.
Accidents are very common throughout the winter, this year multiple accidents have been caused by the tremendous amount of snow. Once there is one accident, it becomes a domino effect, accident after accident occurs. According to Lt. Mike Shaw of the Michigan State Police, people believe once there is no snow on the road, they can drive normally, but that is not the case. Black ice, a thin coat of glazed ice on a surface, is more than likely to be on the road. Michigan has seen a total of 891 crashes this winter. The number only seems to be going up from here, and drivers need to realize that it is better to be safe than sorry.
As the cold winter days pass, Michigan along with the rest of the north hopes to see warmer days.