Why Didn’t Cedar Rapids Delay Classes on Thursday?

UPDATE: Cedar Rapids Schools have CANCELLED classes for Friday.

As I sit in my office and type these words to you this morning, it is currently -10 for an actual temperature outside in downtown Cedar Rapids. Fortunately for us, the winds are light this morning, keeping wind chills around the same as the air temperature. But on Thursday morning, wind chills were in the -20 to -25 range throughout much of Eastern Iowa. Many school districts delayed the start of class by 2 hours. So why didn't Cedar Rapids or any of the other metro area districts?

It was a question that we got asked here at the radio station and the Cedar Rapids School District got peppered with questions about it too. CBS2 reports that Cedar Rapids Schools superintendent Noreen Bush responded by issuing a statement that points out the parameters the district uses for delaying school due to the cold. Bush wrote;

-30 windchill is the leading indicator for cancellation or delays on really cold days like Thursday. However, we also take wind gusts, temperature, humidity, sleet, snow, ice, and road conditions into consideration.

Superintendent Bush then went on to talk about Thursday morning's weather and how it didn't meet the criteria for delaying class.

Thursday, NOAA's forecast was -21 WC and -5 temperature at 6:00am and continued at that same windchill and temperature until 9:00 a.m. The wind gusts were very low this morning and there was no precipitation. The conditions were under an advisory, not a warning. Those were the factors considered which led to the decision.

CBS2 points out that despite the forecast the wind chill did in fact reach -30 at around 9 a.m. yesterday morning. But that reading happened after Cedar Rapids decided to go ahead with classes running on time. Given that wind chills, this morning are nowhere near -30, expect classes to start on time.