[FRC Blog] Weather, Weather

[Tungrus]

Its a blessing for Midwest and NE folks, this year we in midwest had record snowdays and in order to comply with State rules, we are adding few extra minutes to school days.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by loyal

No I think it was the wrong thing to do. Ask Canada about bad weather. In New England we get some extreme weather and we suck it up. Constraints and unforeseen problems are part of the learning exercise. So I repeat that this is bad form on behalf of FIRST.

Seriously? In light of the storms you had just this week? Let's really look at unusual weather, -35 in Minnesota, that's 20 degrees below average for Calgary. Toronto has an average of 31 in of snow in Jan and Feb. We topped 51" yesterday with a new storm coming over the weekend. Minneapolis had 19 days of below zero in January alone. Detroit has had more snow in January than it recieves all season. Did you see any of the video from Hotlanta last week? One motorist I saw interviewed was in his car for 16 hours. I bet you didn't hear the story that it was colder in central Minnesota on several days than McMurdoe Station or Wild Horse, Yukon Territory.
I repeat, Thank You Frank, Good Job, Keep up the Good Work, Thank You!

[Ben Martin]

This is much appreciated, Frank. It has been unusually snowy this year. Some of our students were talking about how they haven't had a full week of school since November.

Like some others, we do not work out of a school and thus don't have to conform to a school's extracurricular policies, but some students do have a 45 minute commute to our shop, and it is hard to justify traveling far through ice and snow to get to robotics. Our attendance is severely reduced on those days.

I see many meeting cancellation notices pop up on my Facebook feed for many local teams when these storms hit. The extra 15 lbs is nice for those teams that may need to have their build season hours spill a little bit into the competition season and doesn't provide a serious competitive advantage to those teams that work in climates that don't get this kind of weather at this time of the year.

Yes, you can use it if you need a dramatic redesign, but you have to be awfully on point to do that at competition anyway, and teams have done that with far less than 45 lbs before (1218 and 234 last year would be two such examples). 15 extra lbs makes this easier. I see this as a nice insurance policy by FIRST that teams have more flexibility to attempt changes if they don't complete their robots on time, since not every team has easy ways to schedule around weather problems.

[who716]

Im glad to hear frank attempting something about all the weather so good job, but do you think the option he chose was the better option compared to adding a few days to build season.

[Justin Montois]

Originally Posted by who716

Im glad to hear frank attempting something about all the weather so good job, but do you think the option he chose was the better option compared to adding a few days to build season.

I think adding a 'few' days to build season is a less efficient means just because not everyone meets on the same days. For example if you extended build for 3 days, and your team doesn't meet two of those days, then the extension really didn't do anything to help your situation.

With the withholding allowance change, all teams have a much better chance of being able to make up for lost time in a way that works for them.

This is, in my opinion, a great call.
It has been snowing more often than not snowing in the Midwest. I think a local news-channel reported that it's been snowing something like 68% of the time since our first snowfall in Northeast Wisconsin. We've lost at least a week of build season due to the weather. In addition, we have kids traveling from other schools that oftentimes can't make it to meetings. I can't even imagine what it's been like in the South/Southeast where they're not at all equipped to deal with snowfall and icy roads.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by kelseysea

I can't even imagine what it's been like in the South/Southeast where they're not at all equipped to deal with snowfall and icy roads.

Our team has had 4 days lost due to that one infamous snow storm and the resulting snowjam. The Atlanta public school district has cancelled 4 full days of classes and 1 teacher work day so far this season (luckily our team was able to meet on the teacher work day still, but others weren't as lucky). You know it's bad when Georgia Tech, notorious for having class despite weather, cancels classes for 3 days due to the snowstorm that passed through the Atlanta area. Although our team wasn't able to meet for those 4 days, we pulled extra hours and an additional day on the weekend to try and make up for the lost hours, but other teams in our area can't do that, and the 45 pounds is a life saver for those teams.

[Answer42]

I would suppourt 45 pounds as the new standard witholding allowance. A large withholding allowance encouages team to innovate, rather than feel stuck with thier design if they made poor assumptions during the build season. At the same time, it's not a huge buff to those who already have a good robot at the end of build, given how hard it is to install and tune a system entirely at a competition.

[Thad House]

We are just getting our first snow day in Portland, and most likely we will end up with tomorrow too. Hopefully it doesn't extend until Saturday.

[jman4747]

Originally Posted by Anupam Goli

Our team has had 4 days lost due to that one infamous snow storm and the resulting snowjam. The Atlanta public school district has cancelled 4 full days of classes and 1 teacher work day so far this season (luckily our team was able to meet on the teacher work day still, but others weren't as lucky). You know it's bad when Georgia Tech, notorious for having class despite weather, cancels classes for 3 days due to the snowstorm that passed through the Atlanta area. Although our team wasn't able to meet for those 4 days, we pulled extra hours and an additional day on the weekend to try and make up for the lost hours, but other teams in our area can't do that, and the 45 pounds is a life saver for those teams.

+1.

Not meeting in a school we did only miss three days but that's also three days of no deliveries and slower shipping to here from the north/northeast at many times during the season hasn't been fun

Another great thing about this allowence is if you have been wanting to make a practice bot it's that much cheaper, now you have that much more stuff you don't have to buy seconds of.