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
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 
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.
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.
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. 
1023’s unvieling was suposed to be last night but had to be cancled due to bad weather.
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.
well here in hawaii the weather is always nice and perfect 
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? 
We are not allowed to stay overnight either.
Carolyn Hinckley - Teacher
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.***
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.
What’s the email addy, Tonya? I’d like to send an email also.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. )
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.