Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Yea, that is the only thing weather-wise that has affected us up until now

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Team 932 in Tulsa, Oklahoma will miss at least 10 work days, possibly more after another storm moves in Saturday. Team members are doing what they can from home and we'll make up the time as best we can when we can finally return back to school. Tulsa has not had a storm like this that I can remember in 44 years. Of course, our city does not have enough equipment to handle ice storms (3-5 inches thick, more in places) because we usually get just a couple inches of snow once or twice a year. Now we're expecting up to 10 inches of wet snow this weekend with 80,000+ people in eastern Oklahoma already without electricity and some places out of water and gas. It's just a wildly unusual situation that Oklahoma teams are facing. We've learned the hard way that snow plows don't work well on packed ice. The slight thaw/freeze cycle we've had the last three days has just made things worse. Our EMSA service had its highest call rate ever yesterday due to car accidents and falls on the ice. Even the ducks can't walk across the yard without falling down. :) [Quite fun to watch actually!]
As team coaches, we have to place a priority on student safety. I hope that FIRST can make adjustments to the schedule for the affected teams, but if not, we'll just build a box on wheels and do the best we can.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Well, maybe complaining does no good, but 26 degrees F and below IS a disaster here because:
--People aren't used to freezing temperatures here, and aren't prepared to deal with the problem.
--Citrus and other farmers in California are losing their crops, which means losing their money. Plus, thousands of farm workers are suddenly out of work because there are no crops to harvest. Moreover, scarcity and higher prices will affect consumers. For one or two freezing nights, the farmers have coping strategies. But they simply cannot protect the trees from night after night of hard freezes. The state and certain county governments have declared a disaster on account of the freeze damage.
--Most Southern Californians don't know how to drive in the snow. Can they stay home and stay safe? Not if the snow hits while they're out driving on the highway. Even local police officials were not expecting snow.
--While the news media were making a big deal about the plight of the citrus farmers, they didn't spend much time telling the rest of us how to prevent our pipes from bursting. Southern California homes, schools, and businesses are not built for freezing weather. Few people here know how to prevent burst pipes, even if they are aware that such an event can happen. I read one report that said hundreds of buildings had their pipes burst because of the weather. Great for the plumbers, but not for anybody else.
--I forgot about our landscape watering system, which was still operating because of the dry weather. Consequently, on Tuesday we had ice on our driveway, and on the sidewalk in front of our house. I'm certainly not the only one who left the sprinklers on. I've heard news reports that local emergency rooms are overflowing with people who broke bones from slipping on ice. Many people here would have had no way of knowing that they would step out their front door and have their feet shoot right out from under them. This is not just because many people here have never walked on ice outside of a skating rink. The National Weather Service has been as much as ten degrees too high in predicting lows for our area--which in the past week has meant the difference between ice and no ice. I won't ask the people with broken bones not to complain.
--Many southern California buildings do not have adequate heating. Normally, if the heating doesn't work, people don't care--they just put on sweaters. But in a freeze this severe, our usual lackadaisical attitude towards heating systems could lead to real problems.

The clincher: It snowed in Malibu yesterday--MALIBU!!--all the way down to the ocean. It simply doesn't snow near the beaches in southern California. But there was a brush fire in Malibu just last week. We're not supposed to have brush fires in January, followed by snow! Of course people are complaining about the weather!!

How does this cold affect Team 330? We are accustomed to working in unheated areas--a top reason why most of us ordered team hoodies last year--but it would be really nice if we could figure out how to turn the heat on in our quarters this year. The people most affected are our team leader and his family, who live in the mountains. When snow closes the Grapevine section of the I-5, as it did today, they may be unable either to leave or to return home, depending on where they are when the snow comes. These are minor inconveniences for our team, but I can readily understand how people in other parts of the country are seriously affected by what's happening.

My point is that it's not about how freakishly cold it gets at your place or mine, but whether our infrastructure is able to stand up under the current weather treatment.

I expect that FIRST will practice its own G.P. and make some allowances for the hardest-hit teams.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

10 DAYS BEHIND! Being a member of Team 932 I am beginning to be worried about finishing my animation for the "Thinking Green" contest. and I am sure I am not the only one worried, all of the other teams in OK are behind as well! :ahh: If we had a way of getting together believe me we would, but when safety of the members comes into the picture, there is no possible way to meet! dont get me wrong we all love slipping and falling on our faces! but when in a car it is a different story. I hope that F.I.R.S.T. will keep all of the hardest hit teams on their minds

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

It has not been fun in Tulsa these past few days. With all the bad weather around I have been stuck at my house for a week now. Everything was going quite nicely for Team 932 since kickoff. We had many different designs of our robot being created and we were preparing to travel to some middle schools to show off our group. But I guess all of that will be delayed now thanks to the ice storm of the century hitting almost all of oklahoma and putting the state into a state of emergancy. Team 932 has not been able to get back together for 8 days now just because of the sheer bad road conditions. I would have to say tho i have been one of the lucky ones not losing my power. I just hope that when we finally get back together (which could be up to another week because of another storm coming our way) we can work hard to get our robot ready for shipment in February.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

hey people are saying that global warming is a bunch of bs. But see what it's doing now

here in jersey we had a temperature of around 74* F in Janurary

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Here in Wilsonville, Oregon, we were greeted by 5" of snow Tuesday morning, canceling school and bringing the town to a virtual halt. It was mostly just slush, and not deep slush at that, but NW Oregonians aren't used to sub-freezing temps (it got to 22F one night). This is our first night that we've gotten into the building to work on Robotics (it's Thursday). It's gotten back up to 40 degrees and now everything is nice and wet, just the way we like it, so life is coming back up to normal.

Sparks

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

well we had one snow day this monday and other than that we have been fine, I am not sure why it was a snow day anyways. We are use to 3 inches of ice on the roads up here, its about time winter came, I was getting worried that it wouldn't come until like april when nats are, we would have to fly if we made it. But I'm glad its here now.. shouldn't be too bad anymore now that people are prepared for the weather

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

We are in Tulsa, OK and have lost a full week also. All of the area schools were out all week so all of the robotics teams in this area of OK have lost a lot of time.
The streets are ice packed and the temp has been below freezing so no thawing. Today the temp is supposed to get above freezing so hopefully we will see some clearing but another 4-8 inches of snow predicted for tonight and tomorrow.
This is our rookie year and we are really starting to worry about being able to complete the robot on time!!!

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

This is Roy dayan on team 932, we have been severly effected here in tulsa, Ok. The streets are covered with 3+ inches of Ice, I know becauese I just shoveled it of the sidewalk at my work. As much as our team would like to meet we just areb't willing to jeprodize our safty. I hope FIRST will show GP by allowing he effected teams to have a later ship date.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

26 degrees?? Usually that is a heat wave for us in Connecticut this time of year. But this year has been really warm until this week. It has got down into single digits and we got our first measurable snow fall of the winter today. Good luck all. I am not sure but I think one year when the northeast got basted by snowstorms it seemd like every Wednesday and Friday one winter they extended the ship date, but I could be wrong.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

I have to agree, even tho 26 degrees isn't that cold, it is a big problem for southern climates, especially to citrus farmers and southern housing. I personally don't even own a pair of shoes ( other than my work shoes ) so when it gets that cold I'm scrambling to keep my feet warm and my house warm. Also many houses especially here in florida don't really have a heater. Its there but for the most part it hasn't been turned on in a few years so when you do turn it on the dust and small animals burns up and fires start which is always fun.

However, coming originally from massachussetts I feel bad for your winter pains, and that it happens during build season. From a team that typically builds out doors/in an uninsulated garage that would totally suck if it got to the 20's. This winter has been Uncharacteristically warm, I wish I could share it with you guys, occasionaly cold whether is a nice break. But for now I'll just have to take the 70 degree weather with the slight breeze, heh.

HEY just all the more reason to come to Florida's Super Regional next year!

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Wow, only week 2 and already so many weather woes.
I remember 2003 when the schools were closed (and therefore the workspace) for 11 days of the build season. And then there was another blast of snow right before ship day. FIRST ended up extending the ship day for everyone by a couple of days, which helped a lot of teams, but there were still so many who still could not get to the robots.
Teams learned a lot of creative management of time.
Every year, there are teams severely affected by the weather. It's hard when it is happening to YOU. And given there are about 4 weeks left, I think this thread will really grow.
Good luck to all!

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

The weather has been so bad in Tulsa, the ice storm brought everything to a standstill. I feel sorry for the street crews because they have been working around the clock for about a week and the main streets still are not completely clear and everything that melts just freezes at night. Garbage trucks finally came today, everyone on my street had just left their garbage out since Tuesday because the garbage trucks could not get down the residential streets which are still bad. I think they realized if they did not come now it would be a while longer before they could come again with the snow storm coming. The mail has not even come this week the streets are so bad. All the street crews have done on the road our school is on is put down sand, i drove down it the other day and it was one huge sheet of ice. I would not be surprised if all the pipes in the school burst. We are already so far behind, I do not see how we are going to build a working robot in time for competition and if this snow storm hits we will be even farther behind.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Fourtunately here in Ponca we have only been down about 3 days. Far less than in 02 when we were without power for 9 days (personally 14 at home).
We've had single digits the first part of the week and saw some good thawing yesterday. I would encourage everyone to view this as a challenge to be tackled and met - don't let mother nature win. While I would love to have a couple of extra days (even though my body would hate it:) ) we will approach this as just another challenge to this year's competition. Please keep the people in Eastern OK and I believe parts of Ark and MO in your thoughts and prayers as a lot of them are still without power. Hard to handle cold without power.
Stay safe and maybe - just maybe the powers that be will show us some grace.

Ken