MCPS was trending locally on Twitter on Thursday morning, thanks to a slew of tweets mostly from students not happy that they had to show up for a full day of school despite the bitter cold.
Someone is going to freeze to death on the way to school today @MCPS I hope you know that- John Heckler (@HeckbabyJohn) January 8, 2015
@MCPS is like pic.twitter.com/AOWWlPqODS– Keelin Ferris (@ooooh_KEElem) January 8, 2015
@MCPSPIO Bad call. Freezing for no reason. Mcps leadership is making a mistake. #mcps– CoSynergy (@cosynergy) January 8, 2015
The school system posted its decision to have a full day of school on its website at 4:54 a.m. Nearby Howard County put its schools on a two-hour delay.
The public school system in Fairfax County, which apologized after a more controversial school opening during the snow on Tuesday, eventually announced it would close schools for the entire day on Thursday.
Montgomery County and much of the area were under a Wind Chill Advisory until 8 a.m., with wind chills dipping below zero degrees.
According to those on Twitter, that’s apparently enough to merit at least a two-hour delay. With high schools starting at 7:25 a.m., many students are out waiting for buses before sunrise in the 6 a.m. hour.
Still, veteran MCPS weather watchers seemed pretty confident on Wednesday night that cold wouldn’t be enough to mean any delays on Thursday.
We went through 3 straight days of temps colder than they’ll be tomorrow without closing last year. Everyone made it w/o a scratch…- MoCoSnow (@MCPSsnow) January 8, 2015