Cold temperatures prompt closures in the region

On By Littum

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Single-digit temperatures and sub-zero temperatures have prompted some school closings in the Rochester region.

Rochester City School District closed all schools and offices for Tuesday, as well as all school-related activities, according to district officials. Previously scheduled Regents exams will be rescheduled. Some private schools — including Bishop Kearney High School in Irondequoit and Charles Finney School in Penfield — both canceled Tuesday because of the bitter-cold weather.

According to National Weather Service in BuffaloAlthough temperatures throughout the Rochester region Tuesday will range between the single digits and mid-teens, the wind chill will make it feel far colder — between -10 and -15 Tuesday morning. Weather Service Meteorologist Phillip Pandolfo said a slight warm-up is expected Tuesday afternoon, with wind chills expected to land between 0 and -10.

How cold is too cold for school? Determining school closures for extreme cold weather

Each Rochester-area school district decides whether to close for the day due to extreme weather, but Monroe County’s Department of Public Health offers a guideline to help educators determine how cold is too cold to ask students and staff to register for school. However, this does not mean that a distance learning day instead is off the table.

Both the city school district and suburban schools in the Rochester area generally follow the health department’s recommendations, which call on schools to consider closing when chills are at or near -25 degrees.

How cold does it get in Rochester NY?

The coldest stretch of weather is expected Tuesday through Wednesday, with air temperatures dropping near zero and feeling as cold as -15 to -20 in the region, with wind chill, Pandolfo said.

Wednesday, he said, will start off bitterly cold but will be a few degrees warmer — “but it will still be pretty cold,” Pandolfo said. “Cold is a relative term.”

ONE cold weather advice is running until 11 Wednesday for much of western and central New York, including Monroe and its surrounding counties. Counties south of Rochester are expected to see chills closer to -20, forecasters said.

Frostbite during extreme cold

In a letter sent to local school district superintendents in November, Dr. Marielena Vélez de Brown, the county commissioner of public health, the schools to consider the potential harm to students as a result of bone-chilling temperatures, where frostbite can occur on exposed people’s skin in a matter of minutes.

“Frostbite can occur on exposed skin in about 30 minutes at wind chills of minus 25 degrees. At wind chills of minus 40, frostbite can affect exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes,” Vélez de Brown wrote in the letter. “Chills this low can be dangerous depending on how children are dressed, whether students have to walk long distances to school, if children have long waits for the bus.”

She noted that while the health department is regularly contacted by concerned parents about the issue each winter, the decision on whether to close schools due to extreme cold is made by school officials in each district.