Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Greetings Teams,

We have had some very severe winter weather since kickoff--totally affecting our time to work on the robot. Many Oklahoma teams are without electricity. Our state has been declared a disaster by the President.

I was wondering how all other teams were being affected in Oklahoma or other states. Please share your stories.

Good luck, and stay warm and safe! Get those robots built!:rolleyes:

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Other than freezing (literally--it was at 26 degrees Farenheit on Saturday night/Sunday morning), no real problems yet. The rainy season is more wind than rain this year. Of course, this is Southern California I'm talking about...

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Up here in Michigan, we get the kind of weather the southern states get all the time. Needless to say we're used to it. :rolleyes:

You guys think 20s is cold? Pff, thats nothing, try -15! THATS cold! :yikes:

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I live in Washington and my team missed 3 days in the past week due to snow and ice. I think it's starting to clear up though. Good luck working around your weather troubles.

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I am sorry you are having problems... with such a short build time, it can defiantly affect your bot. Luckily here in VA it's been very warm except the past few days have gotten a little colder.

Good Luck!

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Ha It's been between 10 and 15 degrees in Chicago for the past couple of days. :ahh: Now thats cold.

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In Texas we don't know what to make of it, it's been so long since I've seen ice in my front lawn.

As far as FIRST goes, our team hasn't been able to meet at all this week, but we've tried to make the best of it. We've been reading over the rules, talking through AIM and email, and CADDing what we can. It's also provided us with a good opportunity to make a schedule for each sub team, so when we get back to the shop we should be working at full speed. I know we've also been encouraged by our coach to get ahead with school, but I somewhat doubt anybody has actually done that.

Sorry to hear about the severe conditions you guys are facing, the only thing I can think of that you could do is plan out everything. Make painfully detailed agendas so when you do get back into the shop everybody has something to do, and everybody realizes how much has to be done. It's also a good time to work on the Chairman's Award.

A lack of time isn't exactly unfamiliar to FIRST teams, but I wish the best of luck to all the teams suffering from these weather conditions.

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Being in New England, and being in the typical Nor'Easter target range, we typically get at least one blizzard each season that stops our build season for a single day and no more. I'm actually disappointed about our lack of snow this season, so I covered most of my front yard with about an inch of snow with my snowgun after school today. :p

Snow or no snow, the robot build season must go on!

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We had a very unusual kickoff for us here in New Hampshire. We had mid 60s. It was so warm we kept the classroom door open to the back of the school! Those days are gone now.

The other day we got the sleet everyone else got. Knocked out power for many here in town, including my street. I was out for about 30 hours and ran my house on a generator. Team was cancelled for one day only. One day makes a huge difference in this very tight build schedule. I hope those of you who were/are impacted more can recover enough to still have a pleasant experience from this! Good luck to you all.

>Per

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Yes it has affected us this week, ice covered road and the students have midterms.

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That's nothing, we had 23 degrees fahrenheit today....negative 23...my headphone wires actually froze.

A few years ago some freak blizzards made FIRST extend the deadline for all teams in the affected area, maybe they'll do it again?

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The weather is just great, the problem is no Brazilian team got their kits yet... :confused:

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Up here in Washington we have been having comparatively crappy weather. I say comparatively as it is really not that bad if you are a mid-west/New England team. But over here, just about any snow shuts down schools. We have lost more then half our build days so far because if the school is closed for snow they forbid access.

A know a lot of teams are hurting, but I really do not see FIRST doing anything about it.

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Pacific North West, specifically Tacoma.
4 days of school missed , finals pushed out, days we had scheduled as off (like the day before the last weekend) are now scheduled school days.

It is a drag, before I was reminded by administration that when school is cancelled no activities could occur we met for some of those days.
Where else will you get students calling teachers at 9AM to ask when they can go to school and work on the robot? FIRST has something going right :-)

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Yeah... but we are here in southern california. I can see the beach from my house and it has been up to 80 within the last few weeks.... There was ice at our shop over the weekend. ICE!!!!!! that is crazy..... it barely even rains....

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Well we are out here in the desert in Southern California and the past few days it has been warming up. Tonight it got up to about 30 Farenheit I think. Anyway over the weekend our record "lows" caused water pipes to burst around part of the school. I guess they got them fixed because it didn't affect class. The only thing is is that we had a pond outside of the classroom we use. One of our supporters got his car stuck in the mud but we got him out. Other than that we haven't been too badly affected. Good luck to those in the really bad conditions.

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ya, up here in washington we missed 4 days of school and had basically a 7 day weekend. When we get a little snow like the other guys said it turns to ice and then we cant have school or go to robotics. Out of those 7 days i think we worked 3. Now we are really grinding it out and trying to catch up. Good luck to all teams.

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We finally got a dose in South Carolina today. The University of South Carolina isn't opening until 10:00 AM, which means I get out of two classes today! Wooooooooooooo!

I wonder if that applies to food, too.....

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Surprisingly enough, the weather has been just fine up here in Maine.
We didn't see any winter weather until last weekend (just a little ice and sleet, canceled a leadership meeting, that's all) And now we just have a deep freeze without any precipitation.
(For those of you in southern climates, don't feel obliged to complain about the cold weather that you're having...It's not really cold 'till it drops below zero, plus a wind chill...)

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I have never seen sleet and ice like we had here. Starting last Friday, it started coming down hard--sleet! Most of the kids at our high school (1400 students 9-12) were checked out by their parents by 2pm. I live out of town, so another teacher kept my 2 kids (that was all that showed up for last hour class) and I put my car in 4x4, and went home. It sleeted/rained for 2 days. Now we have this incredible thick layer of ice, unlike anything I have ever seen. You can drive over it, on the soft parts of your yard, and cant see tire marks. Our school was out Monday for holiday, and then Tues because the parking lots had to be cleared. South and eastern Oklahoma are devistated. They haven't had electricity since Friday night.

The scary news---the temp hasn't been above 30 degrees, and we are supposed to get up to 10-12 inches of snow this weekend again.

Our street and state road crews aren't set up to handle this----we just don't normally get this type of weather.

I think this next blast is supposed to come on up to the east after this weekend---so watch out.

I'm not sure how we are going to get a robot built if we lose another week--and we have been doing this for 8 years-the rookie teams in our state are getting really frustrated-as you can understand.

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Down here is sunny south Florida we don't experience this things you call "Blizzards":D ...lol...But we do have unseasonably hot weather. I myself am from England and to me 80° during January just seems unnatural to me. Lol

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We always wanted a Snow Day, because we could generally manage to get through by 10:00 or so, and have a full build-day rather than just after school.

Was it two or 3 years ago that many areas were closed down on Ship Day because of weather? Quite a few anxiety attacks!

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In Ma, the weather has been behaving strangly. Last weeknd, it was about 50. This weekend, there is snow that is predicted. Plus we have midterms so that reduses our hours as well.

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the part of the country that is supposed to be having bad winters and such (the northeast, more specifically boston) is just plain old cold. We have been praying for snow and NOTHING yet!!

I do recall an event probably like 3-4 years ago at my old team (11) where we had to shovel through 8 feet of snow to get into our lab !! I think it was like a day or 2 before ship so we HAD to be there.

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So far this week, we've had freezing rain and snow. Plus, I've had to crawl into my car through the trunk for three days now, because all the other locks are frozen.

But no, it hasn't slowed down our build at all.

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Montreal is the pitts, but not because of bad weather so much as eerily good weather. The streets were generally dry until last week, and the temperature was above 0C (32F)!!! This is weird because normally we have snow here as of the beginning of December. I`m sure it`s just a strange weather phenomenon, but a lot of people are concerned about it. The temperature has been a full 7C (13F) above the average for Montreal!!!

Some people consider this nice, but it basically means it`s been raining on us every day instead of beautiful fluffy snow.

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Well, all of the precipitation that fell as ice in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois just fell as rain in Ohio. It is now getting colder which is nicely meshing with all of the flooding. It's killing all of the wheat crops here in central Ohio. Flooded fields are now freezing over. Fortunately we haven't missed any build days yet. I don't think there are any FIRST teams in the areas affected by flood (down near the Ohio river). It affecting my basement, however.

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I just arrived at work after being out since last Friday.
I've parked on the top level of the 5 level parking garage, which is still a solid sheet of ice. Slipping and sliding across the lot to the elevator was quite an adventure and will be again at 5. Reminded me of my ice skating days in Kirkland Lake, Ontario, woohoo.

The team is meeting and is keeping an eye out for the 2nd blast that may come through.
Stay warm,
Jane

EDIT: my husband's business is a feed and ranch business for the cattle ranchers in the surrounding areas. When it is cold like this the ranchers stock up on hay and feed for their cattle. The supply is low and we'll have to get more hay out of the other barn tomorrow.

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Its 16 degrees fahrenheit here in alaska man you guys are wimps

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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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!!!

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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

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No, people in general do agree that the earth is heating up (albeit by a half degree or less per year) - the majority of the debate is whether it's caused by man or not.

But, without changing the subject too greatly, Austin Texas is finally recovering from our week-long battle with ice, snow, and the elements. Yeah, yeah, you people in northern states are saying temps in the upper and mid 20's is nothing - and I agree for the most part - but at least those in northern states are set up to handle the situation. KarenH put it dead-on when she said it's the infrastructure that heavily determines how much of a disaster something is, here in Austin all of our roads were shut down thanks to several inches of ice that we could not deal with. I mean, heck, there is a large native population in Austin who have never seen snow, but we saw it earlier this week! We are so short on equipment, guys were shoveling sand off of a flatbed pickup truck to sand the roads!

Whatever you do, be safe!
-Danny

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Man the weather has been so bad here in Oklahoma! SOLID ICE ON ALL THE ROADS!!! AGHHHHHHHH!!! (ice storms=no robotics -_-) A whole week of no school and NO ROBOTICS???!?!?! IM GOING CRAZY!!!! But hopefully the weather will clear up soon (hopefully -_-) so we can get going on the robot ( we are ssooooo far behind im going to cry) C'mon 932 we have a big disadvantage...but WE WILL PULL THROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (^_^)v

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The bad weather has been devastating thus far with our team missing so many work days, but we were fortunate this past weekend (January 20, 21) by not receiving the snow that we had anticipated. It has been hard for our team to meet with constant unsafe road conditions, but I think it was a good decision by our teachers to consider the safety of the students. I think our team needs to do our best to meet the upcoming deadlines and hope that FIRST will make proper adjustments to accomodate the teams affected by bad weather.

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The seven year El Neno cycle brought good fortune to Florida this year, we had no hurricanes during the season even though it was projected for us to have some. We know what its like to go a week without power, my prayers are with the families in these areas. When we lost water and power in my neighborhood a couple years ago, it was still warm and sunny.

I would like to take this opportunity to give some praise to team 476 in Ponca City Oklahoma. They made a trip to Bartlesville Oklahoma on Wednesday to help rookie team 2165 by attending a meeting with ConcoPhillips representatives for sponsorship. The amazing part of this story is that it was -3 degrees that day with ice on the roads. Also in attendance were the Tri County Tech team teachers and administration, my parents, and Senator John Ford. Thanks 476 for an outstanding effort in helping a rookie team!

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Barry,

You are a wonderful example of Gracious Professionalism. We appreciate your thanks and continued support (from sunny California) and we hope that you will come and see us at the Lone Star Regional this year!

Barry, you know that you are an adopted member of team 476.

GO OKLAHOMA ROBOTICS TEAMS (12 and growing)

The snow this weekend was only 4-8 inches, and the temp has been above freezing, so not to bad now. Just wish we had the last 2 weeks back now.

Good luck to everyone building 'bots.

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Hey I just got a call from or Brazilian sister Team, the weather is just fine but, they still havn't gotten their kits yet. We all should be happy with what we have, at least we have somthing to work with. Let it snow


Team #75 Mentor

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sigh....while you guys get held up by bad weather, we get hold up with parts being shipped to us! lol ...we've got pretty cold weather but being in Canada, we're use to it!

Good Luck to everyone!

Melissa W [Team 912]

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The weather in Oklahoma has been pretty bad, we have not been able to work or anything because of it, hopefully we wont be penalized to bad for it.

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We lost days in Washington from ice as many other teams around the country.

My hopes are that if FIRST decides to extend the build season they LET US KNOW SOON!
Getting 3 extra days 2 days before shipping are not that useful. OK it allows some more driver practice but if you were already planning on the 20th of Feb then the robot is done and you most likely rushed something to get it ready.

Being told in week three that you get 3 more days..well that makes sense then. you can add three days to design and build and get the same scheduled driver practice

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We had an ice storm, but we were still determined to work on our robot. Despite the conditions.

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Well, from team 1742 in Norman and Moore Oklahoma many of us were worried about losing the week and half that we were out of school. Many of us couldn't even get out of our houses to make a meeting. it was like an ice rink on the roads. Lucky for us though we were already ahead and and arent to far behind. i have faith in our team and teacher to know that we will compete to the best of our ability down in houston.

GO OKLAHOMA TEAMS!!! :-)

Laura

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I love the positive attitudes that I am reading from all of you!

It will take a lot of hard work and positive attitude to make up our time losses here.

Keep working hard, and keep your chin up.

I'm sure that FIRST will understand that many of us are in a similar situation with other states that have had a natural disasters.:D

GO TEAMS!

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The impossible just happened here: Bedford closed their schools. Anyone who knows someone from here can tell you that it has to be pretty drastic for us to close the schools. Apparently we had a blizzard, there's ice under the streets everywhere, snow-plows aren't very effective, and it's currently 18 degrees outside.

But at least we had agreed to add Friday meetings last week, so I guess it was good timing.

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My team is from Michigan and cool temperatures are nothing out of the ordinary.The other day on the way home from robotics it was 4 degrees outside!!But needless to say us we have gotten used to it. Hope you work out your weather issues and good luck on building your robot!!:o

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It just snowed today, but its basically just been cold. We havent had to many problems with the weather though. hope all other teams can work threw all bad weather their having. Good Luck :D

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Well, it's no prob for us too, but judging from what I've seen on the news this morning was pretty dangerous. Generally the roads were the main problem. Believe me, all hell breaks lose before BCSD closes their schools.

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I'd like to have some snow right about now. Not enough to cause any serious damage, or put us behind, but I would like to get some school off. We haven't missed any school because of snow this year, we did have one two-hour delay, but that's it.

Then again, I probably shouldn't be asking for snow until build season is over.

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I was just thinking along the same lines. Somehow, when it comes to weather, we just don't seem to get what we ask for. "When it rains, it pours." Unless you move to Camelot...

I am happy that we finally got some more rain here, and the forecast is that we'll get a little more soon. Things have been way too dry for us this winter. But February often makes up for January's lack, so I'm not praying for rain just yet. :)

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1023's unvieling was suposed to be last night but had to be cancled due to bad weather.

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What a mess here. 4-5 inches of snow, now topped by an inch of ice and it is heavy. And now the wind is kicking up on the backside of the front. My 17 year old is entering his 3rd hour of shoveling.

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well here in hawaii the weather is always nice and perfect ;)

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

Here in Southwest Michigan we are really hurting.:( We have lost eight days due to school closing so far and they are predicting more for tomorrow.
Last night we got some work in but the snow was blowing sideways and the roads horrible. This is unbelievable. It seems so unfair to the students. They are working so hard. I am not sure we can finish before Tuesday pickup. In all my four years I have never seen weather like this during build season. I know one year they delayed ship by two days. Michigan and New York are getting hit hard. Michigan has more teams than any state (over 100) but California and with the Govenors grants this year we had even more. I wish there was a way to let FIRST know the difficulties we are having just getting to school. We do not have a nice large sponsor (outside of school) where we can go to work on snow days. We rely on our school. Any helpful ideas on how we can finish? :confused: We are not allowed to stay overnight either.:(

Carolyn Hinckley - Teacher

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

I have been sending letters from various Oklahoma Teams to FIRST regarding details to missing worktime at the beginning of build season.

I would hope that they would express sympathy to teams that invest so much time and $$$$ to participate in this program. I also feel that the "real" world does evolve around weather---just try to order robot parts during snow storms---it will not be delivered on time. That is very real.

Here is the reply I rec'd from FIRST after sending numerous letters from schools that missed a lot of time building robots.

Hi Tonya:

I have discussed your request for a robot ship extension with Bill
Miller, Director of Robotics.

First let me state Bill is sympathetic to your team's (and the other
teams whose letters you forwarded) situation. He understands your
concern, and appreciates the extra lengths your team and the others
must now go through to complete robot build. Bill does feel,
however, that this winter-storm situation is a "real life" example of
a challenge under which one must regroup and carry on, and hopes this
will provide a valuable learning experience for the team(s).

We have seen great accomplishments from our teams time and time again
under the most trying of circumstances - be it mid-stream change of
leadership, mentors dropping out, loss of funds etc...and,
historically, time lost due to winter storms during the build
period. We recognize the severe weather has created a set-back for
your team and the others, but do not feel it has created
insurmountable conditions (conditions such as those created when
Hurricane Katrina struck with homes, jobs and sadly lives lost.)

We know this isn't the answer for which you were hoping, and we are
sorry. We do have confidence your team will rise to the challenge
and successfully complete the six-week build period. We will also
contact each of the teams for whom you have forwarded a letter to
inform them of our decision.

Please feel free to contact us if you have additional concerns. We
wish your team the best of luck this season.

FRC team.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

well today in jersey we had snow, the school is closed, and the roads are too icy to go and work on the robot so we nothing to do but sit and wait.:cool:

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

What's the email addy, Tonya? I'd like to send an email also.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

I just sent the letters to frcteams@usfirst.org

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

I like a challenge, but we are teetering on a state of emergency in Cleveland. I wouldn’t be surprised if they started air lifting supplies in soon. Streets are closed, the snow is getting deeper and deeper, and we are falling farther behind every day the schools are closed. So far this build season the Cleveland schools have been shut down 5 days—it’s really hurting us to lose almost a week.

Correct me if I am wrong, but a few years ago FIRST did extend the ship deadline due to bad weather. It might be a good idea for them to do it again. Even NASA delays its missions due to weather conditions. Gracious professionalism must be willing to alter scheduled deadlines in order to level the playing field for those teams who have lost 5 after-school build sessions. We cannot require students, teachers, and mentors to take unnessary risk traveling in dangerous conditions to make sure we meet a deadline!

If enough teams band together, maybe FIRST will hear us and extend the ship date by a couple days -- at least for the cities suffering from too much winter wonderland.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

here in greece we got 13" of snow last night and so far another 4" today with 4-6" more possible this evening and 1-3" tonight, schools were closed today along with everything else and most things tonight have been cancelled or closed.....this is the second day off for most teams in the area, today and last tuesday due to bus problems, if it keeps snowing theres a chance we will have a 2nd snow day tomorrow...hoping not :(

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

I remember the deadline being extended for some teams a few years ago, but I seem to recall that it was because the bad weather meant FedEx was unable to pick up robot crates on the designated ship day.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

That is correct. The problem was not the weather or the problems it caused for teams during Build, it was that teams could not get the trucking companies to come get their robots. FedEx was not the only company not picking up shipments and when trucking companies start staying home you know it's really bad.

The deadline was extended for all teams because it would have been too difficult to sort out who could ship and who couldn't, and besides just because the shipper wouldn't come doesn't mean you couldn't work on your robot while you were waiting.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

One other problem that first would have to deal with is the closeness of the 1st regional. If they were to extend my guess is they would extend for everyone, and ship date being the 21st and the first regional starting on the 1st of march.

If they were to extend by this five day period then fedex would have like 2 days to get all these crates to this regional. it is doable but I doubt they would like to push it this close.

we lost 4 or 5 days also where is Washington state, and i know where you guys are coming from. But i agree with the reasoning FIRST gave.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

It would be pretty impressive if FIRST extended the ship date for all teams by the average time lost for all teams: [(estimated team-days lost)/(total (all >1000) teams)].

It would be a pretty fair way of doing it. The teams that lost a lot would have that chance to overcome serious lost time. However, the short length of that extension, and the fact that all teams get it, would maintain fairness for all teams.

Re: Bad Weather Affecting Teams
 

At least they sent you a reply, and showed they understood what you're asking for, and why. In fact, they did express sympathy. But they made their decision based on principles other than sympathy.
Actually, I don't think it would be fair. Here in southern California, the weather is still being TOO nice. Extending the ship date for us would be unfair to the teams with snow days. (Of course, we would be happy to use any extension FIRST gave us. :D )

I think possibly FIRST could assess the "team-days" lost on a statewide basis, based on the requests they get from teams in each state. Then they could average the snow days for those states. But they would still have to consider the timing of the regionals. The math wouldn't be too hard this way. But what will always be impossible is to convince everybody that whatever FIRST decides is "fair."

If, in fact, past extensions have been granted based on bad weather on ship date, then I think the snow-impacted teams are out of luck. Next Tuesday seems to have a low probability of snow around the country. In fact, the weather is supposed to be beautiful at FIRST headquarters. So work hard shoveling snow, and get your shipping crates ready. Showing up with a half-built robot will be better than showing up with none.