How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Well the snow just started to come down in northern Virginia(again) and the fairfax county has locked us out of the school! im just wondering how other teams are dealing or have dealt with the increased amount of winter weather this year

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

*Doesn't see 0 as an option*

Up here in Minnesota, and particularly in Woodbury, where my team is located its pretty hard to get a snow day.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

none.
Snow does not deter us.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Our shop is not on school property. Until last year, the team made good use of snow days, with some dedicated students spending the extra time working on the robot. Our facilities sponsor now considers that to be inappropriate -- if the weather is bad enough to close the school, they don't want anyone showing up at the shop either.

We do finesse the issue on occasion, keeping a scheduled afternoon or evening work session if the weather has improved since the morning decision to close the school. We also try not to cancel weekend sessions, though we won't count it against the students' attendance if they don't show up due to weather.

So far, we haven't lost any time to snow this year, but we're closely watching the situation for tomorrow.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

this is a normal occurance in the northeast, some extra cramming near ship is inevitable, so far we havnt seen a snow day this season (i probably just jinxed it) but we work through it by pulling kids out of class during school

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I'm not entirely sure if we've missed any days of build this season due to weather, I don't believe we have, but we were told by one of the custodians "If it's snowing on Saturday (Tomorrow) we will have a path plowed to our door so we come in an work".

Sometimes, having someone on the maintenance staff as a friend comes in handy.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

i agree one of the parents on our team is the facilities administrator for the school

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We usually brave the snow, but the library got flooded with a loose water pipe that froze and broke... ^^; so robotics got canceled that day.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We haven't missed any either, but the week before kickoff was really bad around here.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Not only do we brave the snow days, and go in to work on our robot anyway (I guess our school board is not the norm, in allowing us to do so.), and not only do we rarely get them (its Canada, we get snow alot, every winter, we're used to it, so we need like 12" in one night before they'll close our schools), but this year, we havent even got more than about 5" of snow for the WHOLE SEASON so far. It's been REALLY mild, -1C outside today (thats about 28-30F). I'm half expecting to get slammed with 2-3 feet in March.

EDIT: A couple weeks ago we got RAIN, and the ski hills in the area had to close because it decimated their base.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

None so far. The only times in which we close down shop are if there is no power (in 2007 we missed 2 days) and if the roads are really bad (several inches +ice). But whenever it snows or is icy it is left up to the students if they want to drive out in the weather if not, no big deal.

Good luck! Lets just hope that there is no snow during ship week!;)

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I've met for 6 hours with my team since last Friday. Snowing now and more snow next week. I don't know when I will have a normal meeting in the near future. I feel we are being put behind the eight ball because my team is small and is working out of a school. getting frustrated here.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

see if administration will allow you to get out of classes to work

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Well we haven't lost any day of work yet... Horray!! I just feel bad for all the people who did loose days which means they have to work harder to get the robot done.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I teach. We work in my classroom. Wish that would work, but it won't :(

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

None here only had snow days before build season started.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

i guess we're just lucky to be at a voc tech school. are you the only teacher on the team?

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

if we could get into the school we would, but the alarm system turns on and we cant get into the school where the shop is. we also cant pull students out of class. the school system would not stand for that. we had a hard enough time convincing them to let us go to the DC regional during a so called "field trip blackout week" because of SOLs (virginia's standardized test). Also there would be no way to get mentors to help students build during the school day. So it looks like we are just going to go into crunch mode a little early and meet at every possible date.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

very unfortunate our school and district are our 2 biggest sponsors i think if the school knew about the benefits FIRST can have on a student, and you had more faculty involved, you would get more support from the school

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

The alarm system goes on at our school too, but our teachers have gotten the alarm codes from the principal/school board to get us in. Dunno if you might be able to do the same.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Furlough Fridays! We get fined by the DOE if we enter campus .

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We obviously haven't lost anything to snow since 1984, but the heat... This has been one of the hottest weeks in the records. Heat index was consistently above 110 F for most of the week. Wednesday at 1 AM the temperature was 97 F, humid and no sign of breeze whatsoever - who knows about heat index at that time.

Other than damaging the air conditioner and making life miserable, the only drawback was we had to leave early yesterday because of a minor blackout in our area. Wednesday was so hot a local sports commentator passed out live on TV... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd7WBUj8PAs You can see the temperature in the studios was 37 C (98.6 F) but in the stadium, buried in concrete, it was said to be nearly 120 F.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

None other than scheduled school events.

Our robotics team is completely independent from the school financially. We only use the facilities.

Praise Hamilton Sundstrand :cool:

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We've lost 3 days in Alabama. Not all of them due to snow, but one due to snow, and two due to freezing rain.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Living in Michigan, we haven't lost any to snow, and aren't expecting to either. One of our sponsors/mentors (He owns a machine shop), also does plowing in his spare time, so it's normally possible to get to the shop.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

So far in SE PA we have not lost any time to snow. We went in Friday night at 5PM before start of the "Snowpocalypse" and stayed until our regular 9PM time.

Today may be a different story. There is 7" on the ground and it's still coming down. We are at the mercy of the local township plows to see if we will be able to reach the school. We do have a great relationship with the building management so some of the Mentors have access keys, if we can get there, we can work.

Our team has soldiered on through two teachers strikes that closed our prior build site and a few snow days, we just worked a little harder to make up lost time. The good part about a snow day is that it forces much needed rest on the roboteers. It also allows our CAD and Media teams to catch up since they can work from home.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Team 316 is working throught it... me and another student are snowed in at our mentor's house working on the robot because they closed our college workshop. We've been stuck here since last night and it doesn't look like we're going home soon... when they said let's not miss any build days due to weather...they were VERY serious! :cool:

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We have been relatively lucky so far. In New York, there are usually more than a couple snow days, but it all has missed us, so we are carrying on normally. Good luck to all of the other teams.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

good luck guys we'll be seeing you in boston and connecticut this year

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Yea, we lost atleast 3-4 days because of the school closed. We were locked out of the school and not allowed to go in. South East Virginia hasn't seen this much snow in a while. We are expecting more snow this weekend (technically now). It's actually snowing while I'm posting this. Hopefully the roads don't freeze over.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Here is a picture of the aftermath of that storm (I think all Northern VA schools have been closed since the Thursday afternoon this thread got started). :mad: We just aren't equipped to deal with this much of the white stuff.

It's now Monday, and the forecast for tomorrow is 7-16 inches more. :ahh:
7"-16" more
I suspect some area teams are being forced to switch to their Plan B designs; and I suspect some are learning to plan for snow disruptions when planning how to use their build season.

Blake

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Historic snowfalls= historically shoddy robots

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We didn't have school all last week. With the storm coming in, this week may be busted as well. Plan "B" has already been thrown out the window. I just hope we have something to drive when ship date comes around.

I broken down today and drove the 20 miles to school to work on the robot. The roads were a mess (Thank goodness for Jeeps!). I didn't feel very inspirational doing it though.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

There are a lot of us out there that feel the same way. We, too, are locked out, and with the next storm starting tomorrow and Wednesday, I don't expect that we will meet until maybe next Monday (The Superintendent is adamant that we are 'closed' and NO ONE can get into the school!). We have already missed something like 8 or 9 days, and will probably miss 7 more. We usually get 5 inches of snow a year, this year it will be closer to 5 feet.

But having said that - here is a slim glimmer of hope that I have seen. Emails are going around, kids are trying to do something, even if it is just looking at the code, fine tuning CAD drawings, drawing a new team logo, etc... at least they, to some degree, "own" this. The way things are going, we are going to also have a tough time to ship something that actually runs the way we imagined - but I think we will ship something, and we will have something there to compete with. I know it can seem a bit cliche, but it really is the journey, not the destination that matters. If, at the end, we have a robot that drives in a straight line, and occationally scores, then for this season, it will be a victory.

For the teachers like you, who year after year, work with these kids and try to inspire them to do their best, you are making a difference. Sometimes it is hard to see when you are in the midst of a mess like this, but one day you will see how your efforts to reach them, reached them. They may not show it right away, but the seed at least has been planted, and one day, through things that you all and all the teachers out there have taught them, it will bear fruit, and they will finally "get it!"

Hang in there!

Best regards,

Steve

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Between the weather closings (3 so far including tonight, and probably will lose tomorrow also) and the 4 days we can't work because the students have finals for a week, we've lost about a weeks worth of time. :(

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

we counted them up today and were up to 10 days so far

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Where's the "zero" option, as we're from New England, where normal Winter weather doesn't cause the entire universe to come to a halt. :p :p

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

although new england might come to a halt for a day or two with the storm that comes in tomarrow:ahh:

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

What's more interesting to me than the eastern seaboard's weather issue (and our lack thereof) is FIRST's complete lack of any sort of mention of it. Usually, when a large area encompassing literally hundreds of FRC teams is affected by abnormal weather like this, they at least make a statement, either "we WILL extend build", or "we WONT". This time, they've said nothing. It's bizarre.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I'm with Vikesrock here. Up here in Minnesota, we're so well equipped with snow emergency equipment that it's really hard to get a snow day here.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I've heard that they are having a conference call about the situation tomorrow, but I'm not quite sure how accurate that data is. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an extension.

This year, Team 1727 REX has had the worst snow problems possible. We've lost 6 days to snow as of right now and there is supposed to be more snow coming this afternoon. There is also the lesser problem of having lost a day to asbestos abatement. Several of us have met outside of school to plan and revise designs, but what we really need to complete is physical work on the robot.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

So, I know that I said that I can't wait until we get snow, I just spent 2 hours trying to reroute my parents flight because all the airlines are cancelling flights due to snow! :rolleyes:

Thank you southwest!

My cousin in Philadelphia said that after tomorrow he will have 4 feet of snow on the ground! It must be really bad down there.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

FIRST is contemplating action on this: I've heard from contacts in multiple teams that (official) polls have been going around about number of days missed and discussion are happening among regional staff.

619 has missed 6 days due to snow. And we aren't even school-based. The mentors cannot get to the lab. But we've been able to make up most of the hours by extending meetings on days that we can get to the lab but school is still closed. I feel bad for teams that are school-based: the schools here have been closed for two weeks now.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Today was the first actual "snow day" for us. However, what keeps happening is that they go all day, dismiss on time, but cancel "all sports games and practices, and all other afterschool activities", meaning we are not allowed to be in the building after the dismissal bell. :(

On a sligltly related note: I would not consider the Geo Tracker with the plow blade that I saw tonight to be "snow emergency equipment"..... :eek:

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Supposedly FIRST has set up a conference call for tomorrow about the weather situation. We could know more about this tomorrow.

We met today for the 3rd time in 11 days, things are getting hectic, a few of our subgroups are still prototyping. Thankfully, drivetrain isn't one of them. :cool:

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

For what it's worth (and won't help any teams in Brazil though being that hot for at least a while is pretty appealing at the moment), if you're wondering about possible forecasts and accuracy, check out easternuswx.com. It's sort of like CD for weather people. The ratio of fluff to knowledge is definitely higher there but if you skip the nonsense and read the posts by the mets, you can definitely learn something. These are the people who will discuss individual buoy readings and how the impact the models...

As for our team, we are Plan B. (That's really our name.) I hope that if we're able to help out any of the teams who have been delayed due to weather, we can do so. I know I've been extremely grateful when other teams have helped us out.

Trying to Help

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We got off school early last Friday because of the snow and don't have school all this week as we're not used to this sort of snowfall. (yes, we're scaredy mid-atlantic people, we know, we know...)

(2-3 feet over the weekend with about a foot coming tonight/tomorrow)

We do work at the school and can't at all this week. Luckily we moved everything (well, the essentials...) to two other locations and are continuing work there. They set up communications between the two sites and were able to walk to the hardware store. (with sleds to carry stuff)

They started Friday night and people left on Monday or today. Yes, they slept over and had about a 4 day robotics meeting.

Shoveled the driveway to test the kicker, apparently. I wasn't there, as there was no way for me to get there and it was crowded anyway...

Probably have another one of those meetings soon (tomorrow... the next day...) as everything is still at the two houses.

So I'd say we've lost a few days but luckily we've actually had lots of time to work on stuff. No school to worry about...

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I think keehun meant that Eden Prairie has an insane amount of snow emergency equipment. Apparently the city declared a snow emergency this morning... probably cause they didn't get to plowing the side streets of many neighborhoods (which led to lots of RWD cars struggling in 6" of snow)

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Fairfax County Public Schools(FCPS) shut down the schools for the rest of the week so no more meetings for us. Our lead mentor(hes my father) was contacted by FIRST the other day and they asked him about how many days weve missed and told him that they are have a conference call today. So that myth is true. and considering that almost a quarter of the build season has been wiped out by snowmaggedon we might be in for an extension?

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Just north of you in Baltimore we're having the same problem. No school till Tuesday at the earliest. We're hoping to "rescue" the robot tomorrow and try to get back on track.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Would anyone be interested in sharing what it takes to keep things running in communities that are hobbled or that come to a complete standstill and don't have what they need when hit by massive snowstorms? What helps and what doesn't? I really have no idea.

Jane

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We surprisingly lost a day today. Woke up at 6 to a total white out, and high school students already on their way or at school got stuck as everything shut down and canceled. It was bad, roads everywhere came to a stand still as accidents racked up.

Now there's a better and better chance for something Saturday and Monday. Can we have spring now? Pleeeeeeeease?

And to answer your question Jane, the problem is man power. VDOT does not have the man power, or the budget, to support road clearing on it's own. They have been hiring out to outside contractors, and same with some counties now. But budgets are extremely tight, which is hindering efforts. If we got snow like this once a year, they might be more prepared, but we don't get snow like this very often, so they are normally not prepared. The best thing people can possibly do to help speed up the process of clearing the roads is to stay off them. But of course, that doesn't happen.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Northern Virginia was into the snowiest winter since records have been kept before this current storm hit, which is bringing another 10 inches or so. Snow crews have been running just about 24-7 for a week now, and that is taking its toll on crew and equipment. DC has about 25% of their plows down needing maintenance. For an area that doesn't get this much snow, with 34 inches last week and another 10 this week, roofs are becoming a concern. A Smithsonian warehouse collapsed in Maryland. My parents street had been plowed once until last night, when farm equipment came through. Fortunately, there is an empty house on the street, which now has 10 feet of snow for most of the driveway and it isn't in the street anymore.

There is a lot of snow out there, stay safe.

Wetzel

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

LOL-Jane, I interpreted your question as it relates to FIRST. What it takes to keep things running is a whole other conversation!

Jane, I don't have many answers. What I have is a historical perspective. In 2003 I was mentoring a team that lost 11 days of school because of blizzards. FIRST did extend the build period by a couple of days, but didn't help anyone in this area because we still couldn't access the school. It was the year where the offensive robot became a defensive robot, as partially built manipulators were placed in the crate with high hopes for a miracle and a lot of work to be done on Thursday at the event. It didn't happen. It was the year of the 2x4 robot. The team optimistically painted the wood black, hoping to mask what was really surrounding the base.The team was demoralized, to add to a litany of woes over the previous weeks. No awards were won, until the robot got to the off-season where they were in the winning alliance at the Maryland State Fair which was a blast and still is in my top 10 memories of great times in FRC.
The team also was invited to a special recognition ceremony at the school board. The seniors graduated and went on to do great things, and some are still involved in FIRST.

It became just "one of those years."

The Mid-Atlantic is experiencing storms that have set all records. Baltimore is pretty much paralyzed with streets still not passable from the storm, the one with 30 ", 5 days ago. There is a blizzard going on now as I write this. The state has asked no one to travel, except for emergency vehicles. It is extremely dangerous. All schools have been canceled until at least the beginning of next week.

I have no answers on how to make this fair for all. What would be a reasonable extension to the build? 1 day? 1 week? What would happen with shipping? Certainly, the local folks planning the local regionals (DC/Chesapeake/Virginia) understand what we are all going through. We are all in this together.

It's not fair, but FIRST on so many levels is not fair.

I have seen some local websites where teams are communicating remotely. Students will have to be coping with school work, exams, applications and catching up as well with school whenever they get back to school. The really important stuff.

My only advice is to keep a sense of humor, put this in perspective and take comfort in that although this is a competition, we are all in it together.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

As students, we love snow days and holidays. As competitors, they're our worst nightmares! Even when school isn't closed, our admin cancel all after school activities, and that means no shop! We have lost some serious time this year, and are quite behind! But this is what pits were made for =]

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Hi Ed, Good to here from you. I met you at The"Battle O Baltimore"2008. You were listed to come last year. What happened? I like to follow your Team 191, from a distance. I'm very proud of their community involvement.

Will give some snow!
Mentor Mac
Thomas McCubbin
Mccubbin99@live.com

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

None

Snow does not fall everywhere in the world where they have FIRST Teams. To allow the weather to impede our progress would certainly put us at a disadvantage. We have our meetings despite the weather.

However, safety is important, and therefore it is inappropriate to have a student show up to a meeting if conditions for them is too hazardous.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Sounds like you folks back east are getting the kind of snow we had here last Christmas. It's beautiful... but....

Ironically, this winter has been one of our warmest ever. We got great snow up in the mountains in the fall, but its been melting ever since. They are now using dump trucks and helicopters to load snow up Cypress Mountain for the Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard events for the Winter Olympics. (Whistler, two hours north of here and home to the Alpine and Cross country events is at a higher elevation and doing just fine.) If any of you would like to donate your excess snow to the Winter Olympics, they would much appreciate it, I think.

Global warming in action, perhaps? The slight warming trend IS predicted to bring not just warmer temperatures on average, but also unusual weather patterns to many parts of the world.

And as for the build extension... I hope affected teams can get a couple days... and I also hope that if unusual weather or other circumstances beyond a team's control were to affect a single team that FIRST would grant a similar extension to that one team. But if that doesn't happen, then careful use of the witholding allowance can help to extend the time that we have to work on software and sensors.

Jason

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I wonder how many teams that aren't facing the worst snow that has occurred since records have been kept; might be able to volunteer to do something as simple (but still time consuming) as putting together bumpers or other simple robot elements for the teams that are literally snowed under?

I know that acting on this suggestion is more complicated that it appears on the surface, but who knows what some clever FIRST folks might accomplish if they put their minds to it.

Who out there has a little extra capacity and wants to adopt a team that is hurting? - "No robot [or team] left behind"

Blake

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We only lost one day from the snow yesterday and we got like 16 inches. It would have been cool if we got like 2 feet though.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

at the moment, we've not lost any build days, but only one school day to snow (or ice really) but looking at the forecasts, we're supposedly in for snow by tomorrow night :(

i guess it's a good thing we have a master key to the school :rolleyes:

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

So far we've lost a friday, full saturday, wednesday, thursday, possibly friday, full monday. and more snow is predicted next week.

Im curious about what happens if school is closed on the ship date

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

If your school/shop/robot is at a location closed due to snow, or FedEx tells you they won't be able to pick it up, call FIRST HQ as soon as you know this will happen.

Wetzel

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

The week before kickoff we decided that due to the December 19th storm we'd better account for some sort of snow. Sure, we had no idea it'd be like this; officially our area has had 37" in the last few days, and that's more than there has ever been on record. Yet we did plan to have at least Iteration One done by the end of week 4. That single constraint led to many design decisions of COTS vs custom, 'specialist' strategies, etc. It's also led to many fringe benefits such as being able to focus on the small custom machined parts on a small, critical subassembly. This part was done by a shop who bought a waterjet just to keep the lights on during the winter that we wouldn't have had the time to find had we not had snow. We also wouldn't have focused on improving the part if we were also designing for every possible strategy.

We've lost ~45 previously scheduled build hours (times ~10 solid 'laborers' that is still a huge chunk of time...). Our robot is not at the school; we got most everything out last Thursday night. If we can't meet, it's literally because the roads are dangerous. Since the high school was also a local warming shelter for those without power, our fearless leader braved the weather to go in and get some raw materials from the school while she could. We've been meeting in very small subgroups since then with a flurry of emails to keep it all together. With any luck, this Saturday we will be able to integrate the sub assemblies together. We will only kick, not hang. Thursday we might add a bar to the bot for others to pull us up, but until we know what types of bots are in DC, I don't think that will be a focus.

This is the year that I'm thankful for KISS.
(And JVN/Karthik's presentations that explain the golden rules of competitive robots)

We will bring some extra tools/material to DC to assist on Thursday. As for the scrimmage, at this point I'm not sure that we're attending.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Lack of commitment from the students for going to the event so we canceled.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We've lost about 10 hours due to the recent snow, but we will make it up on Friday. School is closed, but our build space is open, so we are working 8AM - 8PM and should catch up.

We spent the last few days building multi page punch lists so we know what to do, the order it need to get done in and the priority, so we should be able to rock through quite a bit on Friday. Friday, Sat, Sun and Monday are our four push days working 12 hour days. At the end of Monday we will either be 99% done or 99% dead.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Greetings folks,

Looks like those who have lost multiple weeks of build time due to weather will not be getting relief from FIRST. I've just had my first full meeting with my kids in 13 days today. We are going to work as many hours as we can through Sunday before the next storm comes in Monday.

I am having a hard time believing that FIRST doesn't feel the urgent need for relief for smaller teams with little or know corporate support. Working out of a school is not something we want to do, it's something we have to do. We are having to choose between meeting a deadline and following district policy. I know the robot is just the vehicle, but it is hard to get excited about a "brave little toaster" when we could have done so much more given the same amount of build time as others had. I'm sorry for being negative. I'm just not feeling very inspired atm.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Believe it or not Team 2582 in Lufkin Texas (90 miles north of Houston)...has lost 1 day due to snow...2 - 3 weeks out for a hurricane is normal but SNOW!?:eek:

Actually it's been kinda fun for us because we only get snow once every 10 years or so and even then it doesn't last long...:D

Wilsonm,
I understand the disappointment but if you look at it another way it forces the team to come up with a better game strategy than they perhaps would have if they had not missed all this time. I'm in the same boat as you regarding corporate support and building at the school. I can't imagine doing this during hurricane season (we are an evacuation town for most of the Gulf Coast region) and losing 3 weeks because we have no power anywhere for 150 miles and another Rita or Katrina blew through. Don't knock the 'brave little toaster' he had a lot of positives in his own right...

Best of luck and hope the snow lets up soon!

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

Here in Charleston SC we haven't seen measurable in over 5 years. Tonight we lost an hour after 1 inch dropped and everyone rushed home. we are getting ~3-4 inches tonight so we may lose our first day on Saturday.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

we have lost about 12 days because of the snow it sucks having 38 inches on the ground then having the school closed for 10 days straight then another 2 during the week. I hate FCPS and northern va right now

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

We are in northern Delaware, we have not been in the shop, locked out by the school district for close to two weeks. We organized as much of the programming work outside of the school, built our crate, and did admin type stuff, but we are in a hole. We have had 4 feet of snow in less than 5 days when we didn't have four feet total in the last 4 years. It's looking tough in Delaware, we need a break.

Pat Daley
Mentor
Team 1370

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

It has been unusually mild for snow in northern CT. We lost one day last Wednesday for what the forecasters predicted as a major snowstorm. It fizzled to about 1.5 inches. The schools, on hearing the impending forecast canceled school & evening activities. This didn't bother us at all.

The forecast is looking good for the Suffield Shakedown next Saturday.

I feel sorry for all the mid-Atlantic teams that have suffered extensive time lost that can not be made up. All I can say is hang in there & you will persevere.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

At this point we are ahead of hours because of the snow. We missed a total of 12 work hours because of the snow. But we made back 3 on Thursday by working 3-9 vs 6-9 and on Friday 8AM-9PM we picked up 13. So we are ahead 4.

Downside is we worked 6 hrs Fri, 13 Sat, 13 Sun, 13 Monday (today). A 45 hour push to get things done is hard on everyone, but we made very good progress.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

My team has lost about... 4 or 5 days so far because of bad weather. Everyone lives in the middle of nowhere so we cant just come to the school whenever to build. Its sad but we try our hardest to do what we can. I guess this just isnt the year for smaller teams who live out in wonderful Oklahoma... Oh well maybe next year will be better?

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

I seem to recall that several years ago ('04 or '05, maybe), FIRST extended the build season by about 2 or 3 days due to excessive snow in New England. To be fair, ship date was extended for everyone. I lived in Massachusetts at the time, and the team I was working with had had 2 or 3 snow days, so that worked out for us.

I moved to the DC area about two years ago (first to northern Virginia, and now I'm in Maryland) due to job changes. The team I am working with this year has now lost an entire week due to snow days, including two whole Saturdays. We work out of the school, so when school's closed, we can't work. Yesterday was a holiday and the school grounds were closed, and today is also a snow day (even though the snow's only on the ground now instead of falling from the sky). For the first time the team was allowed to work a shortened day today. I have not been to a FIRST meeting since last Monday the 8th, which is now over a week.

I am very worried about our team making ship date with all these snow days.

All this for an amount of snow that, back in New England, wouldn't have affected things very much. I laughed at my co-workers panicking about the coming snow, then I was forced to eat my words when I found out that this area just doesn't have the equipment or the experience with snow to clean it all up properly or quickly.

I'm not sure at this point if FIRST is going to extend the build season. It is a rarity, but it has happened. If an extension is granted, teams that haven't been affected by the snow would then have an unfair advantage, but an extension isn't granted, many mid-Atlantic teams will be at a disadvantage. The vast majority of teams in Maryland, DC, and Virginia are all in the same boat with snow days. (Word from my friends in New England is that they haven't gotten as much snow as usual -- so the folks at FIRST HQ will just have to take our word for it, I suppose.)

I guess this all falls squarely under the "life just isn't fair" column.

Re: How many days have you lost to snow or other inclement weather?
 

They aren't going to extend the ship date. They are going to increase the Withholding Allowance for all teams.