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

[alicen]

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

[Team2191]

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

[Wetzel]

Originally Posted by Team2191

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

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

[JesseK]

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.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by mac

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

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

[Foster]

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.

[wilsonmw04]

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.

[rsegrest]

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!?

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...

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!

[hipsterjr]

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.

[oddboy]

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

[Pjdaley13]

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

[MarcD79]

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.

[Foster]

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.

[sami9145]

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?

[tckma]

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.