Weather Cancellations

[pargolf44067]

We are supposed to be camping this weekend at a Boy Scout camp about 2 hours away from home. They have issued a winter storm watch for the area from where we are to where we are going with a potential for 6-10 inches of snow from tomorrow afternoon to Saturday afternoon. In addition there will be ice and wind.

 

I am not concerned about actually camping in the weather as much as I am driving 24 boys about two hours (which would more likely be 3-4 hours) in a driving snowstorm. Being the SM, that is a lot of stress on me as well as the other leaders driving. I looked in the G2SS and there was no true guidelines for this situation in there.

 

Has anyone ever cancelled a campout because of weather and how soon before the campout have you cancelled the trip?

 

Just curious to see what other groups have done.

 

Thanks,

Bill

 

[scoutingagain]

I see this is a judgement call on the part of the adults. They have to drive and deal with the road conditions. Ultimately each individual driver can make that decision but I think it is better for the group to come to a consensus.

 

We have an outing planned for the same weekend and will be facing the same weather system, and decision making issue. We will probably make the decision in the parking lot Sat. a.m. based on the absolute latest weather forcast.

 

SA

 

 

[AK-Eagle]

When we see forecasts like the one you mentioned i task the SPL/PLC with coming up with 'Plan B' perhaps some time at a commercial climbing gym, or an afternoon at the indoor pool, can you do a lock-in at your meeting place?

 

If all else fails we have canceled campouts as well.

 

-Phil

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

The only time an event was cancelled in the troop I serve was a hike, it was spring and it was threatening to rain and loud thunder was heard everywhere, the scoutmaster ,after about the 10th thunder boom in 5 minutes, said lets go home, no one questioned him.

 

It may be better to sit home and wish you went, than to go and wish you stayed home. Disretion is sometimes the better part of Valor

[Bob White]

We sometimes have to consider not only what the safety factor is with our scouts (always the first consideration) but what the weather conditions could do to our equipment. Having an exiciting and suvivable day on the water where we snap a $2000 mast in half is not a good day for sailing. The same as true of an exiciting campout where tents get destroyed.

 

So anytime you have an activity planned you should know what criteria requires a Plan-B and have that plan ready in advance.

 

 

[scoutldr]

Safety first. If you have to ask the question, you probably already know the correct answer.

[ASM162]

Pargolf44067,

Our Troop ran into this situation about 2 weeks ago. Our SM cancelled the outing, due to adverse driving conditions. Our destination was about 2 hours away.

He did wait until the morning of the outing,to make the cancellation, as we were planning to leave in the late afternoon.

Things to consider:

1). Are you sure that each vehicle is capable of winter travel? (i.e snow tires, good tread vs. bald, etc.)

 

2). How do the other adults feel about driving in the said winter storm conditions?

 

3.) If you do decide to travel, and the designated route ends up being shutdown, are you, or someone in the group, familiar enough with the area to know how to get around the blocked route? This may add significant time to travelling.

 

It wasn't a total disater that we didn't go. At the next Troop Meeting, the PLC decided to add this outing to the March schedule.

[Gunny2862]

I haven't yet canceled an outing. But, I have canceled a Troop meeting.

 

Under conditions such as you mention, your CC and ASM's are valuable resources assuming they go with you on most outings. I'd look for a consensus opinion from them reserving the final Go/noGo for myself.

 

And I agree, the Campout itself may be quite a fun little adventure(I'd have a hard time canceling due to this) - in my opinion - it would be the travel out and back that would be my concern.

 

If you decide to cancel, you can assure yourself with this, no one ever really blamed the leader for his choice when the child came home safe.

It's one thing to take a risk for yourself, it's another to put the boys at risk.

[Lisabob]

Ah, Lake Erie in the winter. Even those of us who live in the snow belt and are used to driving in it, need to know when to say enough is enough and stick close to home. But, if you expect to get that much snow and you aren't comfortable driving a long distance, how about suggesting to your SPL that the troop do something local where you can still make fun/safe use of all that white stuff? How about doing a one-night camp at a local park (or even your CO's grounds) where the guys build quinzees? I haven't met a boy yet who didn't think that was about the coolest thing ever and 10-1 your younger scouts have never done it before.

 

 

[kb6jra]

I've had to cancel outings for a few reasons, and weather considerations were one of them. I like to postpone if possible. I have a recent example.

 

Last month we were scheduled to have a desert outing (So Cal). The weekend we were supposed to go, the rain started on Tuesday and wasn't supposed to stop until the following Tuesday. We decided to postpone on week. We're glad we did, the desert came alive with blooms and bugs and critters and we had an awesome trip. We would have been miseralbe otherwise. I'm not out camping to prove to my boys that I can, I'm camping to give them a fun activity that we can use to suplement our overall program.

 

Other times we've had to cancel were due to conditions of our local mountians. Namely fire hazard closures or actual forest fires.

 

Our philosophy is this. We should be prepared to deal with less than perfect weather should we be caught off guard, etc. (has happened on plenty of occasions) but we don't necessarily have to prove we'll be willing to setup a campsite in a storm or put the lives of our boys and ourselves at risk to say we'll camp in any weather.

 

 

[pargolf44067]

Thanks for all the feedback. I actually work with a parent of one of my scouts, and she thought we should cancel.

 

Again, if we were going to our local scout camp 20 minutes away, I wouldn't care as much. We are actually staying in a cabin, so we wouldn't really have any equipment issues.

 

Yes Lisabob, I often ask myself why I still live in this part of the country. Amazingly, we had warmer temperatures and less snow for our Polar Bear in early February.

 

We got dumped on with snow the night before we left our Klondike campout (14") but that was a localized issue and we were in sunshine by the time we drove 10 miles south of the camp.

 

I will definitely talk to my CC, who is going, and other adult leaders who are driving to get their impressions (although one of my ASMs already e-mailed me asking if we had ever cancelled before, so I think I know his position).

 

My issue now is whether to cancel tonight before we buy the food or tomorrow when we have a better idea of what track the storm will take.

 

Thanks again for the feedback.

 

Bill

[bucabaker]

 

 

A couple weeks ago I postponed our Friday departure to the Klondike until Saturday morning because of snowy roads.

 

I happened to get on the interstate at location and time group would have been traveling on Friday and traffic was stopped for accident scene with about 5 ambulances and half dozen smacked up cars. That reinforced for me it was a good decision postponing.

[Ohio_Scouter]

Bill,

 

I'm supposed to travel to Cleveland to visit relatives this weekend, but given that the weatherfolk are predicting about 10" - 12" of snow betweeen Dayton and Cleveland beginning tomorrow morning at 6:00 A.M., I may have to reconsider.

 

My plan is to see what the weather forecast looks like on Friday and then decide. I suggest you guys do the same.

[oldsm]

Always safety first. As a previous poster stated, it's one thing to put yourself at risk, quite another to put other people's boys at risk. We seldom cancel, but if the actual weather demands it, we will. We've learned not to rely too much on forecasts because they're too non-specific.

 

Last weekend we did postpone 4 hours. We had a 4-8" snowstorm coming through Friday night into Saturday morning, so instead of leaving at 8:00 a.m., we left at noon -- time enough for people to dig out and the roads to be plowed.

 

We try to plan menus that can be "saved" until a later outing in case of weather cancellation. Many things can be frozen (even breads). Canned stuff keeps well - even eggs, deli meats, cheese, and OJ if refrigerated. If you plan well, food loss should not be a major concern.

[pargolf44067]

Well, after talking with the CC and a couple of other adults on Thursday night, we decided to cancel the outing -- and 21 inches of snow later, we were proved to have made the right call.

 

The boys are going to talk about doing another campout before our next scheduled campout to use the food that was bought and to give our first years some camping experience sooner rather than later.

 

I don't even think I would have been able to get home from work on time on Friday night, since I would have had to leave work about 2:30 to make it.

 

Ohio_Scouter, I hear you guys got it as bad if not worse than us up north. I hope you decided not to make the trip or if you did that you made it safe.

 

Thanks again for your input!

 

Bill