The temperature swings in Texas are crazy. We have had several spells of weather in January and February with temperatures up in the 20's (°C) and without the thermometer stuck to the outside of my kitchen window, I would never know what to wear.
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| Spot the difference: Bundled up school run on 2nd Feb, 3°C (left), school run in T-shirts & sandals on 9th Feb, 25°C (right). |
We were considering popping out and buying a barbeque a couple of weeks ago it was so warm and balmy, yet at the beginning of this week we had an ice storm. By mid-week the ice had melted and I sat outside in jumper and jeans with a neighbour watching the kids play, then on Friday we got 3 inches of snow and it's barely peeked above freezing.
The ice storm was something else. It rained heavily, which turned into 'freezing rain' (resembling very small hail) and we woke up to an inch thick sheet of ice on everything. The roads are made mainly out of concrete so they were treacherous, I wasn't even prepared to get my car out of the garage and navigate the drive. The schools were closed for two days (although these days will be made up by going to school on the scheduled 'bad weather days' in April and May, which would otherwise have been holiday) and they went in two hours late on Wednesday to give time for the roads to thaw.
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| Southlake has frozen over, cue lots of skidding around. |
Snow was forecast for Friday, and it started falling around 9:30am. The kids were sent home from school just before lunchtime, this time they had some proper snow to play in.
All this snow and ice meant the kids had variable hours at school this week, the school district, Carroll ISD, responded with quick and appropriate decisions. The late entry and early dismissal days have been well organised and all the information has been broadcast though every mode of communication available; they called both home and cell phones, sent emails, had announcements on district and school websites, as well as regular updates on Facebook and Twitter under #SAFEdragon. They even called before the weather came in to tell us to be prepared that school closures may be coming, what criteria they would use to make these decisions and to check regularly for updates. Finally, on Friday evening we received a long email from the district Superintendent thanking everyone for their efforts and patience. As they say around here, "Awesome job!" Carroll ISD.
