to wonder why they closed the schools?

[moogster1a]

I don 't understand why high winds would shut a school. Apparently, lots of schools shut at lunchtime in sunny Scotland. As the forecast suggests the storm will be abating as the day wears on, why make the kids leave school. Why is that any safer than keeping them in till their normal kicking out time?
fail to see how leaving school at 12 o'clock means it's less likely for a tree to fall on you than leavin at half 3.

It has been absolutely dreadful. I am glad we're all home and out of it. I've lost tiles from my roof, the furniture in the garden rearranged itself and the roads were all flooded.

Home is the safest place for everyone.

I take it you don't live in Scotland OP...?

Are you in Scotland OP?

A roof collapsed in a local nursery today. Can you imagine what the result would have been if the children had been in? That is why they were shut.

I think the schools/council/shops etc were wise, the other week this poor woman's car was blown off the road into a loch and she drowned.

www.hebrides-news.com/stornoway-woman-funeral-301111.html

It was sever weather then too but not as bad as this.

Exciting...? I would guess it depends on your definition...

Worrying that your DH will make it home without: getting stuck; hit by a tree or have an accident.

L

As for the wind dying away around lunchtime, it's still here!!! The roads in the centre of my town are closed off due to structural dangers. I think our local council made the right decision.

Sorry posted too soon.

To continue:

Looking out the window as your slates fly and hoping they don't hit anyone/or damage property.
Worrying about jow much itwill cost you to repair slates/fences/roof etc etc a few weeks before Christmas.
Trying to prepare dinner for your family without power? (not me but about half my town)

Yes, very exciting.

It was the right call here.

The weather was forecast to worsen over the course of the day (and it did).
The police have been advising against going out.

I can't see that it was a bad judgement tbh.

I had already decided to keep my dds of school today before they were officialy closed after listening to the warnings.
I got to my school at 20 to nine and even then the wind was strong enough to make me grab the railings to keep my feet. As we were closed to pupils the HT encouraged us to take work home if we could, so i have spent the day marking 120 exam papers at home, listening to the wind.
I left work about quater to ten and by that time the wind was even stronger. Got to the train station and trains were already being cancled. Saw one girl about 6 being blown over as she came out a shop with a parent(?) even though her hand was being held. And this was before it got realy bad.
The poor post man asked if I minded if he sheltered in my doorway for 5 mins for a rest from the wind and the horizontal hail. (wouldn't come in even though I invited him) He was already at least an hour and a half behind schedule and looked exhausted. Said he had a few near misses with slates etc. And this was still not the worst point of the storms.
Will need to make a carefull check of the outside of the house tomorrow but so far so good, windows hit only once and no obvious damage.

Are you in Scotland OP? I wouldn't call it exciting when trees are blowing down, cars overturned and there is serious damage to property.

The storm was at its worst this afternoon and police advised NO travel at all in Central Scotland so the schools were quite right to close early, or not open at all today.

Please don't trivialise the weather we have been experiencing.

it wasnt just schools as libraries and leisure centres ended up shutting too and pantomimes, etc were cancelled. It is still blowing a gale out there now. I have given up picking up the bins, the barbeque and the slide as they just go straight back over again. It has not been fun today stuck inside with the 2 kids.

It's still blawin' a hoolie round here.

OP the police were advising no travel especially from 3-6, just the time schools would come out. So how would kids get home if they had to travel any distance?
The winds were over 60mph in Edinburgh enough to blow adults off their feet let alone kids. I wont even let the cat out today.
We also had power cuts around Stirling, Clacks.
The Forth Bridge was closed creating travel chaos, the M9 was almost at a standstill
Hurricane Bawbag also damaged the roof at one college this morning, caused buses to be cancelled travelling to and from Riccarton where Heriot Watt Uni is located. There may be students stranded there I dont know.

It's not just been a wee bit windy some parts of Scotland have had gusts of over 160mph

So closing schools, unis, leisure centres, colleges has stopped some misery and has probably saved lives

Well I was delighted DS's school took the decision to close at 12. Not that busy at work so twas fabulous to leave after a couple of hours and got most of the presents wrapped this afternoon. Downside was that the cleaner didn't come because too windy for her, but I have squirted some bleach round the toilets to give the vague impression of cleanliness.

OP, I had a HORRIBLE journey home from school today (Central Scotland) and was very thankful to be able to leave at 12. I should probably have left at 11.30am actually as that was when police first warned us not to travel. It took me 2.5 hours to do a journey that should have taken 40 mins. I was very thankful my own 3 were safely with friends, their school was planning to close at 12.30 but during the morning they were encouraging parents to come and get wee ones and take them home.

Still really wild here, it was a HUGE relief when we were all safely back. I felt scared, vulnerable and emotional to be out in it. VERY GOOD DECISION to close schools early.

We decided at 7am that we wouldn't be sending the boys to school, even though, at that point, their school was staying open until 1pm. We didn't want them out in that wind and rain. By the time I rang the school at 8.25, the council was advising parents to keep their children at home, and the school was saying it was up to parents whether we sent them or not.

Moogster - in this sort of weather, the transport authorities advise people to stay at home if their journey is not essential, because the more people there are out there, the more risk there is of accidents, and every accident causes knock-on effects on traffic and on the demands on the emergency services. So keeping the children at home, or sending them home before the worst of the weather hit was the sensible thing to do. Scotland was hardly 'sunny' round here at any point today, and at the points where it did clear up a bit, it was still horribly windy, and very changeable.

I had a 1/2 day today, after I had driven the 30 miles on motorway home I pulled up at the local morrisons and phoned work to tell one of the staff who had a distance to travel to leave for home as soon as they could as I had been terrified driving home trucks being buffered into other lanes, branches flying across the road, fighting my stearing wheel to stay in lane.
I don't work in a School and I live in Kent where the weather was no way as bad, not even a fraction of what my family are suffering in Scotland, so I think it was extremely sensible to close the schools.

Teachers didn't get a day off - we were told to go in.

It's still blowing a hoolie here too.
It is absolutely wild outside still tonight (Aberdeen).
In the city centre one of the massive sets of lights got blown down landing on the road and pavement of the main shopping street through town it looked pretty scary and sooo lucky nobody got hurt.

Its still wild here just niw further north. Strangely the schools were open...i was working until 6pm as usual but the drive home was scary. Winds on the Cairngorms reached 165mph. My poor husband is working nightshift on the A9 tonight :(

Are you having a giraffe OP? I am in Peterhead and am seriously sitting here wondering if I will have a roof left by morning!

The wind is horrendous and ARI are having intermittent power cuts. Exciting? No. Bloody scary? Yes!

Moog - the strength of gusts as we experienced here today in Midlothian are dangerous. We lost two 10ft X 10ft fence panels from the garden at about 3.30 today - one of them blew out onto the main road. I would hate to think that it had hit anyone.
The buses were stopped for three hours. The Forth Road bridge was closed so my husband was trapped in traffic in Fife for four hours, after doing a job there.
Apparently he wrote a list of all the Munroes and their heights to keep him occupied in the car.

Basically - would you want your child smacked in the head by a passing fence panel while walking home from school? Or your car windscreen?

Don't be daft. Think about it!

"Apparently he wrote a list of all the Munroes and their heights to keep him occupied in the car."

Oh that is so boy!!! I love it!

Blimely I leave in the leafy (not so many leaves left now ) of Surrey and realise why Scottish authorities decided to shut the schools early - one look at the school bus on its side was enough to convince me !