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

[Trying to Help]

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

[Capitt]

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...

[Trent B]

Originally Posted by Jeff Pahl

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".....

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)

[qwertyuiop[]\]

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?

[Pausert]

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.

[JaneYoung]

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

[JoshD]

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.

[Wetzel]

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

[RoboMom]

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

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

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.

[AnibaS]

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 =]

[mac]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

none.
Snow does not deter us.

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

[Phreadumb]

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.

[dtengineering]

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

[gblake]

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

[timpanda]

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.