Severe Weather...To Close Or Not To Close

A good thing happened in north Alabama today...the severe weather forecast busted. There's no question the forecast 24 hours ago appeared to have severe thunderstorms in the forecast. Thankfully things did not pan out. The severe weather stayed south of our area...& no tornadoes were reported in Alabama today. While busting forecasts is no fun...not having severe weather is always good.

Something however did happen today that quite frankly left me puzzled & made no sense whatsoever. The decision by school systems to close schools early.

It started yesterday with Madison County Schools closing yesterday a day before the event started. More closed early this morning...& then, as it was apparent that severe weather was not going to be an issue in north Alabama, even more closed.

While I understand the safety of students are of upmost importance & the tragic events of April 27th is still fresh in everyone's minds...it is worth mentioning the threat from this weather system was nowhere close to dangerous. If you compare today's system with April 27th it's like comparing Hurricane Katrina to a weak tropical storm.

Today there were no worries.

Based on the reactions of both National Weather Service employees & the comments made by local meteorologists from the local media, many of the Superintendents did not check with any of those folks on making the closing decisions. It's safe to say many of the decisions were made to get students off early for the Thanksgiving holiday...& the threat of severe weather was the perfect excuse to make it happen.

Closing schools also caused anxiety among many people...who thought today might compare to April 27th.

The severe weather threat was a slight risk. It was slight during the entire event. The tornado risk was low. We simply cannot get into a situation where we close every single time there is a low risk of severe thunderstorms. Schools have tornado plans & conduct tornado drills. But if we're going to close schools every time this happens should the tornado drill plan be to have parents pick up students early?

I know closing schools or not it a tough decision to make. There are days where closing is the right thing to do. But this was not one of those days. Common sense went out the window today. This from a group of people who's number one job is to improve academic achievement. Instead a reg flag was raised in those districts on a day where the severe weather red flag was not.

We need to look at each threat, take stock of the actual threat & make the decisions based on each circumstance. To be honest no school should be closed unless the Storm Prediction Center puts out at least a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms with tornadoes as the main threat. A slight risk means just that. The chances of a tornado days was 5%, or 1 in 20, within 25 miles of any one point in north Alabama. That is tiny!

But hey...if we start closing schools for every slight risk issued through the fall & spring...well...how does the last day of school on the Fourth of July sound?

- J.P.