[Closed] Schools closed due to wind.....

Yes

Have you ever tried standing up in 100 mph winds? Its near on impossible and very scary.

Just take a look at the charts, the average (not gust) speed is predicted to be 85mph or higher in some areas around Glasgow.

Completely sensible precaution IMO.

Where I was last week the schools were closed because it was raining - it a light rain - although it hadn't rained for 8months previously.

If you take only your child out of school then only your child will fall behind.
If all the kids are off school, they all miss the same things and none of them will be (comparatively to the rest of the group) worse off.

Would you sue the school when your child gets hit by a falling tree in the playground?
Closing schools for safety and keeping your kids off school for your convenience are two completely different things.

Good call by the authorities.

Would you sue the school when your child gets hit by a falling tree in the playground?

A radical idea I know, but how about keeping them inside the school?

Are we turning into a namby pamby nation

Turning? It's already happened.

Close schools but every other business/service is ok to stay open?
Excellent logic.

Well done for helping bring up a generation of big sissy drips who daren't go out if it's too wet/windy/hot/cold/snowy/dry/cloudy 🙄

I expect a lot of the children will be out and about with their parents in exactly the same wind that the Govt is so convinced is going to kill them all to death.

And how often are the MET office right about anything anyway 😉

Surely they just need to cut down on the beans at dinnertime..?

Or am I missing something..?

My school stayed open in 1989 when we had those rather windy days.

Until one of the top floor windows blew in showering the room in glass. Lucky no one was in it at the time as it was lunch break.

Walking home I got blown over.

Hindsight says that they should have shut the school earlier.

Snowdon wasn't closed by the National Park owners when I went up one January in gale force winds, snow, sleet and limited visibility.

I got blown over more than once. My ears got a bit cold too at one point. And I had trouble unscrewing the lid on my flask.

Why wasn't there somebody there to nanny me?
Who do I complain to?

joao3v16 - you had god to protect you, a 6 year old in a 75mph wind, hasn't....

Why wasn't there somebody there to nanny me?
Who do I complain to?

Presumably though, if you'd had kids with you and half up it was too dangerous you would have made the decision to go home? I guess everyone has to make a judgement call, particularly when you're responsible for other peoples children. Not sure whether this is a good call or not, just saying.

It's easy to make a call for yourself, not so easy when you have to make that call for hundreds of children.

Its not just schools that are being effected though. Some roads are being closed and trains are only running at reduced speed.

Let's go fly a kid, up to the highest heights...

They should still send the fat kids in to school tho, and make them walk. They won't get blown away.

trains are only running at reduced speed

At least the train operators will be glad for a 'real' excuse for all their trains being late

They should still send the fat kids in to school tho, and make them walk. They won't get blown away.

Or get all the children to hold hands so that they act as ballast for each other.

I thought most parents [s]were so lazy they[/s] drove their apparently wind-intolerant children to school anyway?

Apparently all this wind is coming from Brussels..

And ironically, I live furtherest from my work out of everyone, and so far I am the only person in...

When I was a kid we didn't let a stiff breeze stop us getting to school

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Quite a lot of buses cancelled at the moment. And given the number of kids that use buses there may be no chance to get them home.

Met office have flagged us as RED.

Sensible precaution, although i will be here after the school shuts at lunch to run cover for those that can't make alternative arrangements.

Are we turning into a namby pamby nation
Turning? It's already happened.

Well done for helping bring up a generation of big sissy drips who daren't go out if it's too wet/windy/hot/cold/snowy/dry/cloudy

Too windy FFS 🙄

I am looking forward to seeing the reporters on BBC Scotland trying to stand up during their live broadcasts later 😀

Well, one way of looking at it is that nobody takes responsibility for themselves and prepares adequately, so if there are problems the emergency services will have to deal with it. Keep people in their homes its cheaper in the long run...

I may never go outside again. (apart from going home from work tonite)

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So how much is this costing the economy? Big deal when the teachers were on strike and private sector workers had to stay home to look after their kids so why isn't it a big deal that those same people are having to stay home today?

looking forward to seeing the kite flying accidents on the news tonight 😀

Im taking the opportunity to hold my jacket above my head and make it into a sail

I work in an office on the top floor, no protection whatsoever and surrounded by floor to ceiling glass......should be interesting (packs crash helmet)

To be fair, its a bit breezy even by Scottish standards.

The issue isn't just the strength of the wind it the fact its going to be blowing through the most populated area of Scotland at the time when most people are trying to travel.

Shutting the schools early and therefore geting one lot of travel out of the way before the worst of the weather hits isn't a bad idea

The forecast is for windspeeds high enough to damage buildings and blow adults over.

Not sure where I stand on this really, I had a building blow down when I was in it, winds of c.95/100mph. It hurt. I wouldn't want that to happen to a school.....but I suspect the chance of slates falling off roofs & landing on their head as the walk to a mates house or a branch falling off a tree are higher.

Off to stand in the corner feeling confused now

ive been out in pretty constant 60knots on a heli deck/roof in the middle of the north sea .... wouldnt fancy being half my weight in that wind !

The forecast is for windspeeds high enough to damage buildings and blow adults over

I'd like to see a minimum recommended 'being outside in the wind' weight stated, and/or a drag coefficient so that more sreamlined people may feel safer going out.

Anybody with a BMI of under 18.5 should stay home 🙂

It now looks like the east of the central belt may not be hit by the worst of the winds, although the west will take a battering.

This could change if the track of the low pressure alters from its currently predicted path.

Me and my bike got interviewed by Sky News in the school playground this morning - so the closures are pretty cool in my book.

I'm glad I'm not the one who has to make these decisions - you're going to get flack whatever you do.

The wind has a nice deep rumble to it that I've not heard in a long time.... 😉

Currently blue skies and glorious sunshine in Glasgow city centre 😕

Yeh I didn't know what all the fuss was about earlier this morning or why the schools were closing. The storm in glasgow 20 minutes ago changed my mind - that was proper scary weather and it's not even reached its peak yet.

Don't most kids get a double decker bus to school, can't imagine one of those being out in 85mph winds!

All the staff have to go to school though...

Surely they just need to cut down on the beans at dinnertime..?

Or am I missing something..?

Damn- you beat me to it 🙄

I was at school in the Michael Fish hurricane, or rather i should have been! My mum decided to make me stay at home having been kept awake all night with the wind removing roof slates one by one.
Found out later that school was shut anyway.

I dont remember it myself, i woke up when it was all over. There were more trees laying around on pavements to be honest.....

Surrounded By Zulus - Member
The wind has a nice deep rumble to it that I've not heard in a long time....

Yes, it is starting to get quite noisy out there.

I must admit that as long as everyone is safe I find a good blow quite exhilarating!

I was at school in the Michael Fish hurricane

We had a big old Eucalyptus tree at the front of our house which blew down and smashed through our neighbours roof and ended up in their living room..

It's a good job that their kids were at school or they may have been hurt.. 😉

Erskine and Forth bridges closed to all traffic.

That's going to cause major traffic problems.

[i]All the staff have to go to school though... [/i]

Yeh my wife had to go in, on way home now though.

When I first heard they were considering closing schools this afternoon I though 'bloody elf & safety gone mad' etc... the school isn't going to blow down....

However now that I've had a chance to think about it the forecast for 3-4pm this afternoon (when kids are leaving school) is for:

"Widespread damage to vegetation. Many roofing surfaces are damaged; asphalt tiles that have curled up and/or fractured due to age may break away completely."

with gusts which will:

"Very widespread damage to vegetation. Some windows may break; mobile homes and poorly constructed sheds and barns are damaged. Debris may be hurled about."

I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the younger primary children blown off their feet, and many parents would have to drag a younger sibbling with them to escort them home.

I'm not worried about schools blowing down, but it would only take one child to get hit by a chimney pot, slate or large branch - all of which are potentially fatal to have public outcry that children were allowed to go home at the peak of the exceptional weather.

As far as I recall the "Michael Fish Hurricane" was in the mideterm October holiday, Scotland was not as badly affected as the south, and the worst of the weather came during the night not at precisely te moment pupils were walking home so I am not sure the comparison is real.

I have seen a whole chimney blown off a roof and I'll certainly be giving the scaffolding on the building opposite a wide berth on n my way home tonight. Considering the weather that closed schools last winter (when it was just some snow to walk through) I don't have a problem with closing early today.

As far as I recall the "Michael Fish Hurricane" was in the mideterm October holiday, Scotland was not as badly affected as the south, and the worst of the weather came during the night not at precisely te moment pupils were walking home so I am not sure the comparison is real.

I think the comparisons were being drawn [i]in favour[/i] of school closures.. stating an example where the weather wasn't taken seriously..

Down here in Devon we saw death and widespread destruction and weeks of disruption as a result of the high winds..