Baby It's Cold Outside!

Check this out....Only in the South!

Near zero temp closes schools
Cold blast hits Middle Tennessee
By Christina E. Sanchez and Colby Sledge • THE TENNESSEAN • and The Associated Press • January 16, 2009

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090116/NEWS0401/901160375

Most schools in Middle Tennessee will close today because of concerns about students walking to school or waiting for the bus on a morning when the temperature will be near zero.
At 6:40 a.m. today, the National Weather Service reported temperatures of 7 degrees in Nashville and Knoxville, 5 degrees in the Tri-Cities, 13 in Memphis and 10 in Chattanooga. Coldest among reporting stations at that hour was Dickson with a reading of zero.


Metro Water Services reported two broken water mains overnight from the frigid temperatures. A 6-inch line on 11th Avenue had already been repaired by 8:30 a.m. today, and crews were working to repair a 2 1/4-inch line at Murfreesboro Road and Fesslers Lane. Public information officer Sonia Harvat didn't have an estimate of how many customers' water service was affected.Nashville Electric Service reported on its web site this morning that two dozen customers were without power in various parts of the city. Temperatures were forecast to reach a high of only about 23 degrees by 3 p.m.The school closings will result in a four-day weekend; schools are closed Monday in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Metro was the first school system to announce, around noon Thursday, that it would be closed today. Later in the afternoon other districts followed suit — Williamson, Lebanon, Wilson, Sumner, Rutherford and Murfreesboro. City systems closed included Franklin Special School District, Murfreesboro city schools and Lebanon special school district.

Metro has about 40,000 students who ride the bus and between 7,000 and 8,000 walkers. There are also students who ride Metropolitan Transit Authority buses to school. Officials worried about students' exposure to the cold.

"Our buses hit the road around 5:30 a.m., so we'll have students waiting for the bus around 6 a.m.," said Olivia Brown, spokeswoman for Metro schools. "We haven't had any real trouble with buses or buildings, it's just the fact that it will be so cold in the early hours."

Penny Hulan has a daughter at Overton High School and a son in a special-needs class at Croft Middle School. She was surprised to hear about the closing. "Wow — that's crazy," Hulan said. "My daughter watches my son for me, but still, I think that's a little ridiculous." Hulan later said the closing was "maybe … not such a bad thing" after considering her daughter waits for the bus at 5:30 in the morning.

The district has closed in the past for extreme temperatures, including heat in 2007.
Randall Hutto, assistant director of Lebanon Special School District, said school officials in a joint decision with emergency management decided it was not healthy for students to wait outside for buses.

Record low set in 1982
"We may be used to 15 to 20 degrees, but when it drops to near zero, that's just too cold," Hutto said. "Also, if a bus broke down, we could probably could get another one there in 15 minutes, but you would have kids sitting on a cold bus. We just didn't want to take that chance."
Bobby Boyd, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said temperatures would begin to rise Saturday, when the high is expected to reach 41 degrees.
The record low for Nashville was set in 1982 when it was six degrees below zero. Temperatures around this time of year typically average about 27 degrees.