In another life this time of year I would be out shoveling snow. With the major snowstorm that passed through parts of North America in the past few days, does anybody have a crazy FRC-related snowstorm story? To our friends outside of NA, how is the weather where you are?
Hope everyone is safe out there. If you have to drive, be sure to pack some food and water in the car. Never know if you’re going to be stuck in the snow or for how long 
(FRC) Michigan State Championship, 2018. On Saturday, the last day of competition, the weather started getting bad, and I remember the event organizers discussing whether to wrap up the event early (somehow) or continue on as normal, but they decided to continue. Unload from the venue was in freezing rain.
For us, we live like 8 hours from Saginaw in good weather. Part of our team headed north Saturday evening, some stayed the night and went north Sunday. That weather was a mix of freezing rain, snow, and high winds. My vehicle gets to the Mackinac Bridge and while the bridge is open, they’re not letting high profile vehicles across (i.e. trailers, busses, pickups with stuff in open beds). Thankfully we are driving a minivan with the robot and pit contents and let us cross. There’s a really strong crosswind coming from the west punctuated only by the lull when it’s blocked by the bridge towers. At the north end of the bridge there’s a spit of land near lake level and Lake Huron is splashing onto the road in at least one lane. At this point the sun is setting and we decide to the stay the night, and we find the group that traveled north Saturday evening has been in St. Ignace all day Sunday.
Then on Monday we finally get to head the rest of the way home across the UP in heavy snow.
Similar story for us. As we were in the finals we were one of the last pits to pack up. Bridge was closed, weather was bad. Stayed in bay city for a couple extra days. School even told us not try. In a weird way is was a great bonding experience for the team.
Michigan Champs always seems to have wether issues. On the way down in 2019 the bridge was closed for a period of time causing the team to be delayed.
Indianapolis District Event, 2015. There was a big snowfall during the event; two teams who had competed in qualifications did not come on playoff day. We were seeded 15th, but since those two teams were ranked above us, we ended up 8th alliance captains. We went on to the semifinals and made an evergreen change to the rule book along the way (H302).
One of may favorite memories from robotics was sitting in the shop with our entire team watching the office after our first event got canceled. The snow storm caused the hosting school to lose power. Teams that were already there had to pack up their pits in the dark. Power Up? More like Power… nvm
It’s always snowing here in the UP lol
My best story is probably the bus drive from Clarkston to Utica, NY for Central New York regional in 2018. We had been crunching on the buddy climb subsystem so we were all starting out pretty tired. Plan was for the bus to get to the hotel in Utica at around midnight, sleep for 6 hours, have breakfast and get to the event.
https://www.weather.gov/bgm/pastwintermarch022018
We skipped going to the hotel and instead went straight to the event, got there at around 8:30am if I remember right. Most of the mentors had not slept because the bus ride was so sketchy. (no fault of the driver) Semi Trucks had stopped in the middle of the interstate, the bus got stuck at a rest stop and we had to jiggle it out. It was definitely nerve-racking. Made a great start to the season /s … but I’d say that season turned out okay.
A couple years ago we had one day where it started snowing towards the end of our school day. They cancelled all after school activities. As you could imagine, mid build season that doesn’t really work.
Right after the last classes, 5-6 students went to our lab, grabbed our chassis, a bunch of totes full of tools and supplies, and just walked 5 blocks away to one of our houses so we could work on getting the electronics done. As far as I can remember, I was the only one who slipped on the way.
Two come to the top of my head:
In 2003, there was a major snow storm that came through on the day before were to crate the robot. That day was also President’s Day which is when WPI traditionally has a big tour for all potential students. They ended up cancelling the event and someone on our team happened to be passing the area where there was going to be a reception and they offered them a sheet cake for the road. When I say sheet cake, I mean one of those big cakes and it was on a metal sheet.
The team enjoyed that cake for a couple of days and then that sheet turned into a sled. Every year since we have cake to celebrate the anniversary of the cake.
2 quick stories:
Week 0 event in Northern Minnesota a few years ago (2015 maybe?)
A team showed up with a robot they brought to the event in the back of a pickup: the robot was packed full of snow.
Driving back from Detroit Worlds 2019 to SW Michigan (3ish hours) after finals on Ford Field: exhausted, It was late, and of course there was sloppy spring snow for the last 2 hours of driving. that was “fun”
That reminds me that in 2014?, the day FedEx was supposed to pick up our crate to ship to St Louis CMP it was snowy, school had a snow day, and FedEx didn’t want to send out a driver. That was nerve wracking getting it rescheduled with FedEx and FIRST. And we were like the only location in the continental US with a winter weather advisory that day (can’t remember if it was an actual blizzard or what).
2014 was also the year like Jon experienced of missing the first several days of the season to extreme cold.
2008, flying back from Atlanta CMP and it was snowing at altitude near home.
So while not “crazy” to us, might be to others, we used to love snow storms specially when it would close the school down. The night before we would all pack up our over night (or multi night) bags, clothes, food, sleeping bags etc, and lock our selves in the school for some extended build time without having to worry about cleaning up when we would normally have to leave for the night. We’d get a lot of work done and it was also some good team bonding. Our school district often does overnight stuff (just not during a snow storm) at our schools so we have policies in place to make this kind of stuff as safe as possible like you had to be dropped off/picked up by a parent because we didn’t want kids driving in the snow. Unfortunately I’m too old now to want to sleep in a sleeping bag on top of a desk anymore so we don’t really do this still, plus with no more bag these kinds of nights aren’t needed as much.
It seems like almost every time we drove out to Novi for Kickoff, there was ice on the roads. The kids were laughing about it, but when we started going around a curve a bit sidewise, it got quiet in the car.
One year many years ago NH was going to be hit with a snow event on Week Zero day. NH closed down all public buildings at 1 pm, like everyone out of the buildings closed, so we had half a Week Zero event. I don’t know how they got the Field taken out before then.
Another time a snow storm was going to hit mid morning on a school day, so school was scheduled closed that day. The team went in after school the day before and worked all night, leaving before the 7 am closed curfew (it was still nice weather prior to the storm arrival).
Then there was the Frisbee snowstorms at 2013’s Week Zero, the reason why Human Players can only toss their alliance color Frisbees only…
That’s a good anniversary to have!
I remember that. My team was trying to decide if we should leave early when our school decided we had to stay put. So we had to try and book another 10 rooms in a hotel and there were several kids freaking out because they didn’t have an extra change of clothes. (Now specifically recommended during our meetings for overnight trips)
We also had a mentor that was leaving the country the next day for work and just couldn’t stay. Which left us short on vehicles. (We don’t have bussing) And a couple of students that didn’t have medication they needed. (Also now recommended) So we had to call a few parents and ask if their child could go home with that mentor, and please don’t tell the school.
Another story…
School Policy was we were not allowed to meet if the school wasn’t open.
One year there was a big storm that closed the school for 3-4 days. We were back for 1 day and they closed the school for another 3 days the next week. (Because of temperatures under -20, I think. I don’t remember exactly) The following week it was 2 days. Then it’s was a holiday with a closing resulting in 2 more lost days. It was starting to get ridiculous.
After we had lost at least a quarter of our season, we had to get a bunch of parents to complain so we could get the policy changed. (Now we can get special permission to meet if it’s 2 days in a row)
Cake^2 day!
Ooh, storytime because we’re in Ontario. I might be getting these mixed up since it’s been a few years so feel free to correct me if you happened to be there, lol.
On the way up to what I believe was our Week 1 event there was a pretty bad snowstorm forecast for the next morning. On the Friday before the competition our head mentor got a call from the principal our team runs under saying that as per board regulations staff weren’t allowed to drive students to the event because of the storm. About half our mentors were staff at the school which seriously threatened our ability to even attend the competition. The entire team ended up finding a ride up from parents and drive ended up having to leave at I think 2 in the morning, but we ended up making it safely.
Six weeks later we’re at FOPC and we start hearing news that there was going to be a nasty ice storm the night the event ended. It was right after the finale had ended (we were knocked out in quarters by the event winners 1325/2056/6875 
) and in that awkward break between the last match and awards/the worlds invitations/whatever else. We knew we were far out of contention for a Detroit slot so we decided to all head home early save for a few of the mentors and drive team. Kinda sucky end to my first year of FRC, but we did end up winning Team Spirit on our division (with a handful of mentors there to accept the award haha).
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